Today we’d like to introduce you to Heather Nicholas.
Heather, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Growing up in my family owned dance studio, directing our dance company for 18 years, and doing master classes and choreography for dancers all over has definitely kept dance a huge part of my life. I wanted to develop a competition that was something that I would want to attend as a teacher as well as something my students would love! When developing 8 National Talent, we thought about some things that would be different from the rest. We wanted to really focus on uniting the studios, teachers, and dancers since the dance bubble really is so small. We have absolutely loved seeing these dancers become so close during our events. It is a super positive atmosphere and all of the dancers on there for the same reason- doing what they love on the 8 stage! We have just completed our 3rd season and are excited to add a few more cities to season 4. We do want to keep our competition from growing too much as we love the personal relationships we have developed with the studios and always want to keep that. We are launching our sister convention this fall called Motiv8 and cannot wait. This will be focused purely on education and no competition. The dancers, teachers, and even parents will get several classes throughout the weekend to soak up as much knowledge as possible about the art! We are blessed to have the most incredible, fun, encouraging staff out there. We all truly love our jobs and love these kids!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It has absolutely been a smooth road. We love getting feedback from our events as we are always looking at way to improve. The feedback has been very positive and that is so great to hear. We have all worked really hard to make these events the best they can be.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the 8 National Talent Competition story. Tell us more about the business.
8 National Talent Competition is known as the “Competition of Unity”. We do an on-stage warmup for the dancers at the beginning of each session where they get their bodies warm and meet other dancers. Following the warmup, we do our judges tips. This is when the judges go up on stage and talk to the dancers and give them some pointers that they will be looking for as well as wishing them the best on the stage. We do an Improv Challenge called “Movement over Mind”. This means don’t think, just move. The audience gets really into cheering on the dancers and it’s a lot of fun! We do give top awards for all levels of dancers instead of just the elite levels so everyone is a big part of the weekend no matter how much experience they have. At Nationals, we do some extra parties to bond. We recently did our Gulf Shores event where we had a huge welcome party for all of the families, beach party with Improv in the sand and some fun dance challenges, teacher parties, and more. We have a lot of fun at our competitions and the kids from all studios have become such good friends! It’s amazing to hear them cheering each other on and getting pictures together with all different team jackets on.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I’m not sure that it’s necessarily luck that plays a part, but what I teach my own children and my students is a strong work ethic will lead to success in whatever you want to do. It took a lot of time and hard work to develop exactly what we vision for this company and it’s pretty incredible to look on the stage and see that backdrop of your dream that has come true. It could not have been possible without the time and dedication from everyone on our 8 staff.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.8nationaltalent.com
- Phone: 8322337072
- Email: info@8nationaltalent.com
- Instagram: @8nationaltalentcompetition
- Facebook: 8 National Talent Competition
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