By Anelia K. Dimitrova
Fortunes sometimes change in a matter of minutes.
And just as quickly, a turn of events, which seems sudden and insurmountable at first, can swiftly change for the better with good will and good neighbors.
And so it happened on Tuesday, when a teacher at Aspire Dance Studio in Waterloo was getting ready for class around 4:18 p.m.
In the next short 12 minutes, bad weather changed everything for the worse, and in the next couple of days, fast thinking and a fighting spirit changed everything for the best.
What happened
That late afternoon, with the suddenness of weather, the studio at 3551 University Avenue, quickly became a wet mess as rain, and then hail started to pound the roof of the building.
Then, rain water began pouring onto the floor, presumably from the holes created by the hail on the roof, a repair crew later estimated.
Heavy rain and hail pelted the area that week with weather alerts sent to personal cell phones and social media messages warning of potential hazards, signaling the seriousness of the situation.
For the Aspire Dance Studio team, owners and families, the bad weather had hit too close to home.
“The best way to put it is it started raining inside,” Molly McMahon, the studio’s co-owner, told me, recounting the dramatic evening. “The whole studio was just getting soaking wet.”
Founded by Molly and her business partner, Alexis Roling, just eight months earlier, the studio was in need of help as the elements had created its first big logistical challenge.
The damage was disheartening for sure, but to the owners, who exemplify self-reliance and problem solving, the situation offered an opportunity to role model for their young students how to handle the unexpected, a lesson they hope would have staying power.
“I think this is teaching them that we don’t give up when things are hard,” Molly said. “We just keep working through no matter what happens. There’s always a solution. And even when things happen at the worst times, there’s always a way to get through it.”
Looking at the pictures of what the rain and the hail had left behind is hard to digest, even now with the benefit of some distance from the shock. The images show that the studio was clearly unusable and not just for the evening, but for at least a couple of months until the roof is repaired and the space is safe to occupy.
That realization came later.
In the moment, though, as the rain poured in, Molly and her husband, Kyle, drove to the studio thinking towels might be helpful.
But the extent of the disaster they saw when they arrived there made them roll up their sleeves and start moving items as fast as possible before the water could ruin things permanently.
Parents and friends pitched in to help.
“Once parents saw the intensity of the situation, they were just asking how they could help,” Molly said. “They were doing whatever they could to help us out in the moment.”
What was needed was quick thinking and equally quick decisive actions. The students urgently needed rehearsal space for the week as they were about to leave for a competition on Friday.
Help came when needed: temporary studio will be at The Mall of College Square until needed
After shaking off the unexpected loss of space, Molly and her business partner, Alexis, both recent UNI grads, jumped into action.
As hard working women, who know how to navigate the duties of full time jobs–Molly as a program manager at Balance Autism in Waterloo and Alexis as a fourth-grade teacher at Cedar Heights Elementary–they wasted no time bemoaning the situation. Instead, they started to look for solutions to relocate the studio and minimize the impact of the unavoidable interruptions on the dancers.
As one might expect in a close-knit community, assistance came in unexpected ways from their networks and friends exactly when they needed it the most.
The principal of the Denver elementary school, Josh Sinram, offered the use of the gym for a couple of times and that carried the team forward.
But they needed a longer-term solution.
It was then that someone suggested Molly and Alexis talk to the new owners of The Mall at College Square.
It was the right call at the right time as the new owners, who had taken over the mall in early March, had already started to attract local businesses under its roof.
The studio owners jumped at the suggestion.
“We couldn’t just leave these kids high and dry,” Molly said.
By Wednesday morning, they were prospecting for spaces at the mall and, after looking through several vacant storefronts, they emerged with an action plan by noon that day.
Chris Jung, who serves as the mall’s do-it-all cheerleader, had offered them a spot with an open lease until needed.
“It was very exciting, especially for our girls,” Molly said. “They were very sad to see the studio look the way that it did, so to have somewhere else they could dance, it was really good for them.”
On Monday, April 20, the girls had their first rehearsal in the mall space, which is located next to Ashley Furniture where, at one time, a store called The Buckle, stood.
“Dancing in the mall space was different but our dancers had a great time and we were all happy to be dancing,” Molly said.
Meanwhile, there’s a lot to handle in terms of returning to the studio’s original home on University Avenue.
The 8,500-square-foot space needs a new roof, new flooring and numerous other issues need to be addressed, in order for the classes to resume.
But it is comforting for everyone to know that even with delays, if those occur, the students will have a place to rehearse at the mall in the meantime.
Reflecting on how the predicament has helped the owners’ own growth, Molly said that challenges toughen the tough.
“I think in the grand scheme of things this shows that we can be resilient,” she said. “We can find ways to make fun out of a situation that really, really sucks and that could cause a lot of other studios to close down. We had the mindset from the start that that wasn’t an option for us and we were going to make it work. We did, and we’re going to be dancing not in the same space, but you don’t need much to have a dance studio.
“It’s been really amazing to work with Chris and have community support from just about everybody.”
