Meet Brigitte LaBarrett Taylor of CSQUARED-The Classical & Contemporary Movement Project

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brigitte LaBarrett Taylor.

Thanks for sharing your story with us . So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Making an impact has always been a part of my life and a passion I strive to bring to Houston dancers.

I grew up with dance being my soul awakener, while being involved with other parts of the fine arts, including singing, cello, theatre, as well as participating in sports in my younger years. I grew up in Pennsylvania and moved to South Texas at age 8. Ballet was always what pulled me back to my center. I began training away from home in professional training programs at 12 starting in Austin, living in Wilmington and Philadelphia over the next few years going on to dance and perform in multiple training programs and finally landed in New York City at Joffrey Ballet School as a Trainee in their Performing Company. I met some of my greatest mentors there and had so much guidance as the type of dancer, performer and later on, teacher, I wanted to become. I never considered teaching until I had a serious Achilles injury and my mentor John Magnus guided me, that my passion for ballet would be much better used in teaching.

Moving to Houston in 2012 with my husband was a huge transition for me. I had the opportunity to teach at multiple studios in the Houston area and love the relationships I have made with so many dancers, parents and directors. Houston is a truly unique city, with all of the suburbs and the different demographics of each one, I have been so privileged to get to work in almost every one. I love to think of it as the meeting point of East and West Coast in so many ways. Since being in Houston I have had the opportunity to choreograph, direct and refine my teaching, all while learning about the dance community here. I have guest taught for many studios including The Met Dance Center, Leon Dance Arts, Kennedy Dance Theatre, as well as studios outside of Houston.

I decided to start CSQUARED in August of 2016; I had taken a step back from teaching and choreographing in a fulltime capacity with the arrival of my daughter and was wanting to continue training a small group of dancers, as well as bring a unique Master Class experience to Houston dancers. It was a scary time; starting so incredibly small, with a single room space, with a newborn. I never thought it would grow into what it is today, but from day one, we have always had our motto “Be Memorable, Never Mediocre”, meaning that no matter what the dancers did, they strive to be the absolute best they can and make an impact.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Our greatest obstacle was The Great Unknown. We started on this journey very suddenly; we were in no way prepared, no equipment, little knowledge of where to start, no financial resources.

Definitely one of the scariest parts was we had 25 days from signing our lease to opening to complete all of our construction. Painting, building our sprung floors, hanging mirrors, finding all our sound equipment, barres, furniture and décor. Even more, having a newborn and trying to figure out how to make a schedule work to have it completed in time, also while spending time at home.

My husband and I worked from morning to night that month, making an old warehouse space into a dance training center. We had some great help from our families (who thought we had lost our minds) dance families and even some of our NY friends flew down to help.

Our first class had 4 students in it, which my dancers still love to remind me. The fear of being so small was huge. We had no idea if we would have enough dancers to make it work, but either way, I knew I would be there to train whoever walked through the door. We started hosting our Master Class Series on select Fridays, calling it our dance version of “Friday Night Lights”; there were many times we had a great turnout, and many that we had just a handful of dancers.

Either way, it was all a learning curve, figuring out what worked and what didn’t, all the while never giving up on bringing a new outlook on the Houston dance community. Sticking to my original bullet points of what was important to me has been my saving grace, no matter what many other great studios in Houston may be doing. We are always looking to be different, unique; all while focusing on quality.

Please tell us about CSQUARED-The Classical & Contemporary Movement Project.
CSQUARED is a dance training center, with a pre professional focus. C2 stands for the Classical and Contemporary worlds of dance combined in one place, which for so long has been separated. We are geared towards the serious dancer, whether they want to dance in a company, a college program, a dance team or just pursue it seriously while still in school. We have multiple facets of our program, with great pride knowing that each of our dancers has a very individual path. I have multiple students that I have trained over the years that have gone on to dance at Joffrey Trainee Program, AMDA, Peridance NYC, Texas A&M and other college dance programs, so educating the dancers on all the opportunities within dance past high school is very important to us. From our youngest dancer to our graduating seniors, we want them to have the best guidance possible from our staff of pathways for them in dance and life.

We bring them some of the best teachers in Houston on a weekly basis that are recognized in their genre, including Ballet, Pointe, Tap, Jazz, Hip-hop, Strength & Conditioning, Pilates, Improve and Contemporary. We have a tremendous focus on ballet being our fundamental basis for dance, our average dancer takes around 6 hours a week not including pointe, as we offer multiple levels everyday Monday thru Friday. We host a guest teacher every Friday for Friday Night Lights, as well as teachers from LA & NYC on a regular basis for the dancers to gain training experience for their dance resumes. All of our classes are open to the public and we take time to assess what level each dancer who trains with us should be in, not just by age, but ability level. We do not do an annual recital, instead we keep the focus on their training throughout the year, with having a Winter Showcase of what they have learned as well as a Spring Showcase, new this year.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Even through the challenges, there is nothing I would change. From 7 dancers to over 60, from one small dance space to moving into our 2nd location of almost 4,000 sq. ft., every scary step was worth it. I truly believe the journey is the reward, and seeing how far we have come in each dancer, that is an incredible reward.

Pricing:

• Drop In Classes-$20 per Class Mon thru Thur
• Master Classes- $30-$40 Every Friday and Select Weekends

Contact Info:

• Address: 25003 Pitkin Rd Suite E500
  Spring, TX 77386
• Website: www.csquaredproject.com
• Phone:281-651-2456
• Email:[email protected]