Business Profile: Spotlight Studios, Mahopac
DAVID PROPPER PHOTO
When Kristi Tumminia teaches dance, she puts everything she has into it. That’s not hard for her though, considering the passion she has for performing everyday and the desire to see her students excel.
“I’m all about working for it and living through your dancing,” Tumminia, the owner of Spotlight Studios in Mahopac, said.
Spotlight Studios offers a wide range of dance classes, from contemporary and hip-hop to ballet and jazz. Working with a staff that has experience and expertise in certain types of dance, Tumminia, only 23, has a large group of kids already signed up for fall classes. The studio also has two different dance areas, (including a spotlight for the bigger one), and a dressing room that students call the “glam room.”
Opening in June, the studio held summer camp over the past couple of months and the focus then, as it is now, is to see her students have fun and improve.
Tumminia started dancing when she was just three-years-old after her parents introduced her to the activity that “every little girl tries at some point.” As someone who was never shy in front of a large crowd, Tumminia took to peformning right away and blossomed.
“I loved being on stage, I was very outgoing,” she said. “I loved to sing, act, dance and I never really had any confusion over what I wanted to do. I always wanted to entertain people in some way.”
Originally from Brooklyn, Tumminia moved up to Somers in middle school with her family, where she still lives. But Tumminia didn’t find a dance studio she liked right away and for a couple of years, took some time off.
But eventually, she discovered Street Beatz Dance Studio in Cortlandt Manor, a studio where Tumminia was allowed to flourish as a choreographer. From there, she never looked back.
That experience has brought her to owning her place and making strides in the dance community.
In the near future, Tumminia will actually bring a group of girls to perform at a Brooklyn Nets basketball game this season, which Tumminia considers coming full circle since she started off her own dance career in Brooklyn.
“I always had a vision of having my girls perform at big arenas and on big stages so I just reached out to (the Nets), she said. “And that was it. It was pretty easy.”
Although she might not be old enough to rent a car, Tumminia always had the desire to own her own studio, though she didn’t necessarily expect it to happen so fast.
Choreographing locally and bouncing around a bit, Tumminia finally was determined to take the big jump.
“I was planning it for awhile,” she said. “I had to really decide when I was going to go forward with it. I always knew I was going to do it. It was pretty quick though when I decided this was the right year and the right time for me.”
Spotlight Studios of Dance and Performing Arts is located on 288 Route 6 in Mahopac and its phone number is 845-628-5700.
