It’s a silver celebration! Empire Studios is celebrating 25 years of heels, spice and empowerment. The Auckland-based dance studio is a welcoming and encouraging space, where people and their curves can feel comfortable in their own skin.
Studio director Claire Baxter-Cardy has always responded to music with dance. Since establishing Empire Studios, she’s grateful every day to channel this feeling into helping other women feel as enriched.
For Claire, music is at the core of dance and takes people on a journey. With its OneMusic license, Empire Studios can play any music from hip hop to RNB to light rock. And its “always keeping an ear out for fresh and really interesting tracks.”
Empire Studios choreographers continually think about what music will pull people in. Claire adds they “make the first 15-minute warm up really fun, silly and sexy with upbeat music and will read to the room to make sure people are enjoying themselves.”
This is all part of a bigger mission – to use music to help people express themselves and feel comfortable. And as a OneMusic-licensed premise allowing them access to this music, they can proudly make this happen.
Claire says she wants Empire Studios to be a community. “It’s about fostering a space which sees them leave feeling good about themselves.”
It’s about fostering a space which sees them leave feeling good about themselves.
Claire Baxter-Cardy
They do this by holding a special weekly event called Sunday Sweat Sessions, for $10 per session. All proceeds from these classes go towards women in the community working towards a performing arts programme.
“I think it’s always important to have an advocate for women, for fairness and equitable outcomes,” says Claire.
Claire makes sure to employ staff who are “people-centric, humanistic and empathetic, and make people feel seen.”
On the dance floor, the Empire Studios ethos is to leave all dancers feeling good in themselves, like they’ve had a good workout. Off the dance floor, they hope to leave people feeling like they have the confidence to march to the beat of their own drum.
Visit and attend dance classes at Empire Studios in Auckland: 2 Bond Street, Grey Lynn, Auckland 1021
Find out about the music licenses that are right for your business here.
