Former dancer for Milwaukee Bucks opens local studio

K. L. Klein
Brookfield Now
June 22, 2010

She knows she can dance, and she wants to teach you how to, too.

Brookfield native Kim Pieronek, 26, opened Studio VIA School of Dance, 2445 N. 124th St., June 1.

Pieronek began training at age 3, and has been performing regionally and nationally since she was 12. Most recently, she performed for three years with the NBA as an Energee! dancer for the Milwaukee Bucks, which included a trip to China in 2008.

In addition to running her studio, she is the director of group fitness for the Wisconsin Athletic Club in Wauwatosa. She works there from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. during the week. She runs her studio from 3 to 9 p.m.

“It is easy when you love what you are doing,” she said about the long days.

She doesn’t notice she’s tired until the weekend, she said.

“It’s long days with lots of coffee,” she said.
Economy

Opening a dance studio has been her dream since she was 8. But Pieronek said she has been getting some mixed reactions about opening one in this economy.

“Some people start telling me the dreams they wish they had fulfilled and the things they would do if they were young again,” she stated in a news release. “The rest give me a lecture on the bad economy.”

After graduating with academic honors in May of 2007 from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, where she had a double major in dance and athletic training, she moved back home to Brookfield with her parents. And she has been saving for her studio ever since.

One benefit to a bad economy, she joked, is low rent prices.

And while many families are finding ways to cut corners, she said, “People aren’t going to take away from their kids.” They still find ways to provide for extra-curricular things for their children, she said, and will cut out other things.
School

Studio VIA caters to dancers age 3 to adult, and will develop technique using cutting-edge choreography, up-to-date training techniques and performance opportunities.

Pieronek started with informal group classes for the summer, but plans to offer more structured classes this fall and spring with a recital in June. In addition to the group classes, she also teaches some private lessons.

She has about 20 to 25 students, but has room to grow to a couple hundred students, she said.

“I want to be big,” she said.

She is working solo but, depending on enrollment, hopes to add teaching staff in two years.

While her focus is dancing and teaching, she said there is a balance between running a business and her creative side.

Pieronek said she has participated in seminars and relies on her dad, who owns a business, and her older brother, who is getting a master’s degree in business.

“You just have to know who to ask,” she said.
Experience/dream

Pieronek attended Brookfield Elementary, Elmbrook Middle, Wisconsin Hills and Brookfield Central High schools. While attending Central, she was captain and MVP for the Brookfield Central Lancerettes her sophomore, junior and senior years. She also traveled to Paris for a two-week performance opportunity. She continued pursuing dance opportunities in college.

Dancing wasn’t forced on her. She said she tried other things, like soccer and clarinet and violin lessons.

“But I always came back to dance,” she said.