Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Following in her teacher's toe shoes

A Dance Factory student joins with her former teacher to expand the possibilities of what the dance studio can be.

By BETH N. GRAY
Published September 27, 2006

SPRING HILL - Dance brought them together. Now, the love of dance has reunited them.

Nicole Gomez founded Dance Factory 10 years ago, and Jenna D'Angelo, once Gomez's student, is now her partner and a fellow teacher.

Both started dancing at age 2, pitter-patting across the lacquered boards, trying soundless pirouettes on curled toes or swanlike leaps and bounds.

For the two of them, dancing is like breathing.

To the 80 students in 24 weekly classes at the studio, 7267 Forest Oaks Blvd., - they are Miss Nicki and Miss Jenna Jazz.

Gomez, 30, and D'Angelo, 25, work in an airy second-floor space with arched windows, polished floor and a mirrored wall.

The students, mostly girls ages 3 to 17, pursue ballet, tap, jazz, acrobatic, lyrical, modern, hip-hop and pointe dance.

Gomez ran Dance Factory for five years, during which she worked with D'Angelo, who grew increasingly competent. When Gomez took time off to raise a family, D'Angelo stepped into Miss Nicki's footsteps and the director's role.

Now, Gomez's kids are ages 7, 8 and 9, and she figured it would be a good time to get back into the studio. Now, she'll give D'Angelo some break time to rear her own children, ages 1 and 2.

"We sort of rescued each other," D'Angelo said.

The women share plenty of common threads. "We're known for our artistic side," said D'Angelo, and for choosing funky, little-known music. "The main idea: we dance for the art of it."

"Fifty percent of dance is music," says Gomez as she dials up the CD player and D'Angelo directs the student dancers.

"The majority of everything is team teaching," Gomez says. "We feed off each other."

Indeed, they are such a team. The lithe teachers with long dark hair, styled in the requisite ballet bun, often finish each other's sentences.

"Every girl wants to dance," Gomez says.

"You fall in love with the sport," D'Angelo adds.

D'Angelo announces to the competition class, "Next, the straddle. You know I'll put that in. It's my favorite."

The students groan, assume the A position, leap high into the air, legs extended, land in a split, some rolling and moaning in mock agony.

But they bounce up and perform the maneuver again, this time legs splayed back to front.

Miss Nicki and Miss Jenna Jazz have performed and competed these and other breath-catching contortions all over the country, from Busch Gardens to Orlando to Las Vegas, on cruise ships, at the Super Bowl and at county fairs.

They took the Dance Factory competition troupe to dance in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade last year. Gomez also has danced in Spain, Russia and across Europe.

One of Dance Factory's graduates is a professional dancer on a cruise ship, another is on stage in Las Vegas and another recent graduate, who credits her dance lessons for her current job, is a cheerleader with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Next for the partners, now that they are a duo again, is opening a second studio next door and opening more classes.

Dance instruction is in demand, Gomez says.

"There are lots of shows on TV," she said. "The career opportunities are definitely out there. You could open 10 more studios and not have enough."

Beth Gray can be reached at graybethn@earthlink.net.

[Last modified September 26, 2006, 19:57:26]