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The official podcast of Shoemaker Films. Every week we share content related to digital marketing, video production, and brand building; and frequently meet with local creatives, entrepreneurs, and business owners for in-depth conversations. Get to know local heavy hitters and influencers in the Greater Philadelphia region while picking up some tactical advice and tips on starting and running a business, being productive, creating content, and everything in between.
Hi. This is Dane Schumacher with the Schumacher Films podcast. We are in the lab today with Sam Sins of Twirl. Sam, how
Sam Sinns:are you doing today? I'm great. How are you?
Dane Shoemaker:Good. Good. Yeah? Yeah. Awesome.
Dane Shoemaker:We're, at the tail end of this heat wave or maybe we're at the middle of it right now. I don't know.
Sam Sinns:Yeah. It doesn't feel that bad to me, but I'm from Florida. So there's that. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:Yep. Yep. So we're here today to learn a little bit more about Twirl and, get your story. You have a pretty, pretty colorful, career in, you know, Disney and some national Broadway shows. And so I'm really excited to learn a little more about that today.
Dane Shoemaker:So, why don't you tell us a little bit about Twirl, how you got started?
Sam Sinns:Yeah. So, we opened here in 2016. I moved my family here from Orlando, Florida. I was working at Disney World. I was in Finding Nemo the Musical at the time, and I was performing in the show, and I was a dance captain for the show.
Sam Sinns:Yeah. And, I was also teaching for Disney Performing Arts workshop program and was a resident director
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sam Sinns:For them. And so I left my job there, and we moved to Newtown Square and opened Twirl in 2016. So
Dane Shoemaker:That's awesome.
Sam Sinns:Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Like, tell me about your career at at at Disney, you know, your time in Orlando there.
Sam Sinns:Yeah. So I'm a native of Orlando, Florida.
Dane Shoemaker:You are? Okay.
Sam Sinns:I was born and raised there. And when I was 16 years old, I went to an audition to be a parade dancer at Disney with zero dance experience and, like, really no theater experience. My my high school didn't even have theater, and, I just thought it would be a fun job, and I showed up, and I got hired. That's awesome. Yeah.
Sam Sinns:So I was 16. I was in high school.
Dane Shoemaker:No dancing experience?
Sam Sinns:No. No. None. I had done some I'd done gymnastics.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sam Sinns:But no no dance. Yeah. So, were you
Dane Shoemaker:interested in dance at that point? Or
Sam Sinns:You know, my sister danced, and I loved watching her dance classes and her dance dance recitals, but I was not gonna set foot in a dance class. There's no way. I mean, it sounded fun to me, but I wasn't gonna do that. Yeah. There's no way.
Dane Shoemaker:Way. It was, like, as residents of Orlando, is that, like, an inevitable thing to end up working at Disney for a summer at least? Mhmm. Or
Sam Sinns:Maybe. My sister never worked for Disney.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sam Sinns:You know, my parents didn't didn't. So Yeah. Back then, I don't know. You know what I mean? Some people did and some people didn't.
Dane Shoemaker:So yeah. Okay. Yeah. So at that point then, did they teach you? I mean, did you have lessons?
Dane Shoemaker:Or
Sam Sinns:So, you know, I learned parade choreography. And, Okay. Yeah. They I went through rehearsals, and I learned parade choreography, and they I think we both Disney and I both discovered I was pretty coordinated. So when it came time for the Easter parade, so I started in the Christmas parade
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sam Sinns:In in, middle of my high school, senior year, And then I got cast in the Easter parade, and I got, like, a better dance role. So Nice. Yeah. I was so excited, and then, I just kept that job. So I went full time when I graduated high school
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sam Sinns:And I stayed locally for college. So I went working at Disney full time as a parade dancer, and then I went to school full time and I had a degree of of hospitality management from University of Central Florida.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sam Sinns:Yeah. So and it was just a it was for fun.
Dane Shoemaker:You know?
Sam Sinns:I wasn't really expecting to do that for a living, but I loved it. Yeah. You know, it was just a fun job.
Dane Shoemaker:It it is a cool job. Yeah.
Sam Sinns:So you
Dane Shoemaker:you guys you would do parades, like, for tours that were attending the parks. There would be parades.
Sam Sinns:Yeah. Yeah. I did the 3 o'clock parade. I did the day parade, and then I did the electrical parade at night. And then they had seasonal parade.
Sam Sinns:So then I did the I would do the Christmas parade and Easter parade, and then we did a lot of special events too.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sam Sinns:Filming, special events for conventions. Yeah. Nice. It was so fun. Always something different.
Dane Shoemaker:Were you did you dress as different characters, or was it more just,
Sam Sinns:like, what was going on? I did I was like a parade dancer. Like, so I was a a I believed I was like a banner dancer for the Easter parade. I was a, egg painter another year for Easter parade. I was a chimney sweep.
Sam Sinns:Yeah. There was a big riverboat float. I was riverboat dancer. So yeah. So I did a lot.
Sam Sinns:Just, you know, you know the random dancers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Sam Sinns:The dancers that were cute.
Dane Shoemaker:Costumes. Yeah. Yeah.
Sam Sinns:Right. Exactly. Yeah. And I was in the Christmas the castle show and and for and for the Christmas, for Christmas time.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sam Sinns:Yeah. Yeah. So Nice. Yeah. So fun.
Dane Shoemaker:So you were in Orlando to until 20 16. So you
Sam Sinns:Well, yeah. I lived in I had about a 7 and a half year stint in New York City.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sam Sinns:And then I was in and out of Orlando too. I did a couple of contracts at Tokyo Disneyland, a couple cruise ship contracts too.
Dane Shoemaker:Oh, that's pretty cool.
Sam Sinns:Yeah. As a dancer. So
Dane Shoemaker:So you lived in Tokyo over a little bit? Is that
Sam Sinns:what Yeah. I did.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. 2, 6 month contracts.
Sam Sinns:That's very cool. At different times. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. That's always been a dream vacation, Japan, Tokyo.
Sam Sinns:So great. I loved it.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah. At what point how old were you at that point?
Sam Sinns:So I was just out of college, my first contract. I think I was 20 2 or 23, and then I my second contract was 3 years later.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And then you did Disney Cruises too, you said?
Sam Sinns:No. I worked for Princess.
Dane Shoemaker:Princess cruise.
Sam Sinns:Okay. Nice. Nice. Yeah. What did you do on I was a dancer.
Sam Sinns:So I did 2 contracts, 1 in the Mediterranean where I was a dancer and crew staff. So I danced. I think we had 5 or 6 production shows, like hour long shows, and then I would, during the day, like, call bingo and run shuffleboard and Yeah. Escort tours. And then I did my second contract in Alaska.
Sam Sinns:I only did the shows.
Dane Shoemaker:Right. Okay.
Sam Sinns:Yeah. Nothing else. I didn't have any other duties. So Nice.
Dane Shoemaker:Nice. And then tell me about New York. You were there for seven and a half years, you said? Yeah.
Sam Sinns:So I feel like I did everything I could do dance wise in Orlando. I worked at Disney and Universal and SeaWorld.
Dane Shoemaker:You know,
Sam Sinns:I kinda maxed myself out there, and I thought I would just challenge myself and move to New York.
Dane Shoemaker:Sure. Yeah. Absolutely.
Sam Sinns:I didn't think I honestly didn't think anyone would hire me, but I thought I'd just give it a try. And Yeah. After I was only there a few months, and I got cast on the West Side Story national tour
Dane Shoemaker:Okay. Nice.
Sam Sinns:Which was awesome. It was my 1st actor's equity job, so it was a full equity production, national tour. I toured with that for 10 months, went back to the city when that was over, and went right into Radio City Christmas Spectacular, which
Dane Shoemaker:was a
Sam Sinns:great experience. So fun. And then I did regional theater, went back out on tour with Beauty and the Beast Okay. Back in the city, back into Radio City, Christmas Spectacular. So and so I kinda ping ponged around between tours, Radio City, and regional theaters too.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, a wide variety of experience and and yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:Is there a was there a dance type that I mean, I I guess, I'm not a big theater person to be honest, but, like, you know, is there a dance type that you've focused on throughout your years that you or was it really a a variety?
Sam Sinns:Yeah. So mainly, mainly entertainment dance is kind of it's jazz based, but musical musical theater is like everything. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Sure.
Sam Sinns:Sometimes you're a cowboy. Sometimes you're a gangster. Sometimes you're a pirate. Yeah. Absolutely.
Sam Sinns:It's all but it's all different styles. It's mostly jazz based, but I have a lot of ballet training because technique is really important.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sam Sinns:A lot of auditions I went to, the first thing that you had to do was a ballet combination, and they would make a cut
Dane Shoemaker:from that. Okay.
Sam Sinns:So I did I did a lot of ballet training, not with the goal of being a ballet dancer, but to get those entertainment dance jobs.
Dane Shoemaker:Got it. Okay.
Sam Sinns:Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah. Versatility, I guess, is important.
Sam Sinns:Sure. Yeah. Absolutely.
Dane Shoemaker:Do you have a favorite dance style? Like, if you could just do it for fun?
Sam Sinns:Yeah. I don't that's a good I mean, musical theater style is, like, I guess, if that's a style. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah. Nice. So so tell me about 12. You're you moved up here then 2016 Right.
Dane Shoemaker:Time frame? Okay. Yeah. What was that experience like?
Sam Sinns:It was crazy. So we didn't really know the area that well. I didn't really I'd been to Newtown Square twice.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sam Sinns:Once to drive around and once to look at the space we're sitting in
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sam Sinns:Right now. And before we opened the studio, we moved to Malvern. I had never been to Malvern before. We signed a lease through the mail. So we it was kind of like a leap of faith to move up here.
Dane Shoemaker:We
Sam Sinns:just knew I knew I liked the Philly area from being on tour. I toured through here with West Side Story. Beauty and the beast beauty and the beast were here for, like, a month, I think. Yeah. And so that's kinda how we settled settled here.
Sam Sinns:But, like, but the vision was was always to have a studio that would be, like, a training center for the type of jobs that I did, You know? The type of entertainment chant dance jobs that I did. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay. Is it is would you say that style of dance that you teach here, is it different than other studios in the area or dance companies?
Sam Sinns:I think the focus is different. Okay. I think maybe you can look at the styles the same. Maybe if you look at our class schedule, it might not look too much different, but I think the approach is different.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sam Sinns:So, like, I'd use the words entertainment dance. So that's dance styles you see at Disney World, Radio City, Broadway Right. Conventions, cruise ships. Like, that's that's the style that we kind of focus on on moving kids towards that career if that's something they wanna do. If you wanna dance for fun, great.
Sam Sinns:Yeah. But if this is something you wanna do, we'll give you the tools to get you to that next level of training, which is pop probably college, But what that means is that in all of our classes, we're all rowing the boat in the same direction.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sam Sinns:So it kind of it kind of rests on kind of a 4 legged stool, I would say. Counting music and dancing to counts, clean, sharp movements. You know, if you ever see, like, the dancers at Disney or Radio City, they're very clean. Right? It's clean, meaning they're very sharpened together.
Sam Sinns:The third one is dancing together as a group, and the 4th one is performance quality.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sam Sinns:And then there's an element of dance technique on top of that. Like I said, I had a lot of ballet training. There's that element. Technique has gotta be key to all of that, So to keeping the dances clean and and dancing together, all that is kinda held together by by dance technique. Yeah.
Sam Sinns:So that's so our approach is a little different than our offerings, I would say Okay. If that makes sense.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. That makes sense.
Sam Sinns:Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:So, what about ages? Like, how, you know, how old are their students?
Sam Sinns:We start at age 3
Dane Shoemaker:Okay. And we go
Sam Sinns:to to high school.
Dane Shoemaker:Through high school.
Sam Sinns:Yeah. Wow. And what are the what are the
Dane Shoemaker:types of programs? I know there's you said summer camp starting up soon. Like, what does that curriculum look like?
Sam Sinns:Yeah. So our summer camps, we do, mainly, we do all half day camps.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sam Sinns:And, mostly 3 day we have a few 5 day camps, plus a dance intensive. They're heavily themed.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sam Sinns:We pack them in. We have 40 7 kids gonna be here tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock.
Dane Shoemaker:Oh, wow.
Sam Sinns:We divide them up. We have 3 rooms. We have we divide them up into 3 different groups mainly by age, and then, we go go go. We change we change rooms and activities room activities every 20 minutes.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sam Sinns:We're gonna out this room right here. It's gonna so it's a wish themed camp based on the Disney movie wish.
Dane Shoemaker:Oh, okay.
Sam Sinns:This room is gonna be tricked out.
Dane Shoemaker:Nice.
Sam Sinns:And this is and we always have, like, one room that's that's really highly themed to the the camp theme, and, they're they'll learn 3 dance combinations.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sam Sinns:We have there's a craft aspect. We usually have trivia games. It's so much fun. We just it's a really fun based. This Yeah.
Sam Sinns:The camps are mainly fun based and not necessarily technique based.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay. Got it. Yeah. Well, is there so is there, like, a morning and afternoon group, or is it just one group per day?
Sam Sinns:Right. No. So there's a 9 we go 9 to 12, and then we flip this whole place in an hour and cram lunch down our throats, and we go from 1 to 4. Wow.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah. You do that all summer?
Sam Sinns:It's sporadically throughout the summer. So next week, nothing because of 4th July, and then we'll go back into we'll do a 5 day dance intensive and a 3 day preschool preschool camp. And so kinda we kinda go yeah. It's a pretty yeah. It's not super consistent.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just kinda depends on the schedule. Right.
Sam Sinns:Exactly.
Dane Shoemaker:It's a busy time. People are Yeah. You know, vacationing.
Sam Sinns:I'm not gonna say vacation too. Yeah. There you go. Out there.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. So what about the the school year? You know, what does that look like? You know, after school, you know, what does the programs look like?
Sam Sinns:Yeah. So, Monday through Thursday evenings here and Saturday mornings into the afternoon
Dane Shoemaker:is the
Sam Sinns:school we do. We have after 2 afternoon preschool classes at 1 o'clock on Tuesdays Wednesdays.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sam Sinns:So mainly stuff in the evenings, late afternoon, and then Saturday mornings till early afternoon.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay. Yeah. And is that training just, you know, teaching the fundamentals all the way up to, you know, higher skill levels? You know, are you training for upcoming shows? Like, how many shows do you have?
Dane Shoemaker:Things like that.
Sam Sinns:Yeah. So, all the classes move with the goal of a we do a show a big show in June. We this year, we had 6 different shows.
Dane Shoemaker:Oh, wow. Okay.
Sam Sinns:So we separated the classes into 6 shows. Yeah. Or, we have a performance team as well. So it's a noncompetitive performance team, and they, will do a Christmas performance. We'll we'll package a Christmas show that will shop around to different events like Newtown Square Tree Lighting here.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sam Sinns:And then we'll, we learn, dances for the June show, that we'll do we package their theirs as a little dance performance. We did blue rocks. We just came from Disney World. We did our own 20 minute show there. It's awesome.
Sam Sinns:We'll do community events too that come up in nursing homes.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Okay. Nice. Do you do I'm sorry. Did you say you do a show at the high school, or where where do you where do you actually do the shows?
Sam Sinns:We've done Cheney University the
Dane Shoemaker:past year. Okay. Got it. Yeah. I feel like or something.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sam Sinns:We need a bigger auditorium. Yeah. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Cool. You know, tell me about your students.
Dane Shoemaker:I mean, what, you know, you know, what are some of the things that they can they learn, you know, going through the programs, you know?
Sam Sinns:Yeah. The students are awesome. Like, we just have a lot of happy happy families here, which I love. Yeah. Yeah.
Sam Sinns:So we, they wear black. We have a dress code that we're, I don't say strict, but it's orderly. Yeah. They learn technique, but we my goal was to have a training center where they're actually learning, and we can really focus on training, but being nice at the same time. Yeah.
Sam Sinns:So it's friendly. The kids are happy. We have fun, but they act they learn. We have a lot of we leveling is very important to us, so we've got quite a few levels, that keeps the the learning the the learning in our curriculum consistent, and it levels by age and skill level. Yeah.
Sam Sinns:So Okay. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah, man.
Sam Sinns:A goal is for them to have fun and to learn.
Dane Shoemaker:That's good. Yeah.
Sam Sinns:Yeah. Yeah. It's important that to me that they learn technique in a really cool fun environment.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Well, they're gonna they're gonna absorb that better and enjoy it and, you know, yeah, it's just gonna be more enjoyable experience. Sure.
Sam Sinns:Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Well, besides the physical, you know, they're they're gaining the dance skills. Right? They're strengthening their bodies, like, mentally, emotionally. What are some of the things that they they're, imagine there's a lot of growth from that perspective as well from senior students.
Sam Sinns:Yeah. Tons of confidence building. You know? A mom showed me this picture of her she's on it's her daughter's 2nd year in the performance team.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sam Sinns:A picture of her at the Blue Rocks game last year before the the the performance. She just she looks a little stressed out. And then the picture of her before this year's Blue Rocks performance with a big natural, relaxed smile on her face, and she was like, look at the confidence that my daughter has now. Yeah. So, dance is a big confidence builder.
Sam Sinns:You know, making friends is important too for for them and for us. You know? Yeah. Yeah. And then we have a lot of boys here too, and a lot of the Yeah.
Sam Sinns:The feedback we get from the the the parents of the boys is that this is just a great place for them. If the because I was never a sports person. I was terrible at sports. And if
Dane Shoemaker:you Yeah.
Sam Sinns:Sometimes that can be, alienating socially at school.
Dane Shoemaker:Sure.
Sam Sinns:Yeah. And they come here, and they're super popular, and everybody loves them, and they fit in. And they have a great time. So this gives them a happy place too. Yeah.
Sam Sinns:And that goes for the girls too. You know? I mean, you know, it's a place where you can kinda fit in and
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You find your tribe. You find
Sam Sinns:your Yeah. Exactly. You feel like you belong.
Dane Shoemaker:Right? Yeah. That's important. Yeah. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. What about the what about the instructors? You know? I mean, it's not just you
Sam Sinns:doing everything. No. We have 11 or 12. I think we might have up to 12. I think we're 12 instructors next season.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sam Sinns:So they're all adults. We don't have teenagers. I have a daughter who dances, and I was like, oh, I bet she teaches the classes when she was in high school. And we don't we don't really, I just feel like, yeah, we'd rather I'd rather adults
Dane Shoemaker:Certain level of professionalism.
Sam Sinns:Yeah. So, the adults all have these experience. Most of them have dance degrees or study dance in college in one way or another Yeah. Or have an education background, and they're great. You know?
Sam Sinns:They're on board with what we do.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sam Sinns:It's important to me that everyone's on board. I check-in with them. You know? Are we teaching the kids to count? Are you you know what I mean?
Sam Sinns:Are they dancing together? You know? Yeah. But it's everyone you know, they're great. They know the kids' names.
Sam Sinns:They're invested. You know?
Dane Shoemaker:Right.
Sam Sinns:Yeah. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:That's good. Are they part time, full time? Are they do they do
Sam Sinns:other things once? Well, most of them are part time, I'd say. Although, they say, like, teaching dance 20 to 30 hours a week is considered, like, full time.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. I'm sure it takes a toll on you.
Sam Sinns:Yeah. Yeah. And there's class prep work and stuff, but most of them are, part time
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sam Sinns:Due to the hours that we have.
Dane Shoemaker:Are are they involved in other, you know, like, do do doing their own dance?
Sam Sinns:Yeah. So some of them dance at other studios.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay. A couple
Sam Sinns:of them dance in other dance companies. Yeah. So they they pee they piece together like a like a a, you know, a teaching schedule. Yeah. But it's it's important for me to have diversity in my my teaching staff too.
Sam Sinns:You know Yeah. So that the children are and the students are, exposed to different teaching styles. Right? We don't want them to another thing that's important to you for me is that they learn choreography quickly, which is important for auditions and rehearsals. Mhmm.
Sam Sinns:So being exposed to different teaching styles and choreography style is important for that too.
Dane Shoemaker:So some of the students, you know, any any particular success stories you you wanna share? Or
Sam Sinns:Yes. So we're fairly new. And when we started, everybody was a beginner, and, yeah, they were like a young, young, young. So when we opened, we had this boy that was a junior in high school that took class with, like, 3rd, 4th, 5th graders. Oh.
Sam Sinns:And he ended up, he wanted to do go to college for musical theater. He was super focused. He didn't care. He was here to learn. Yeah.
Sam Sinns:He didn't care that he was in class with kids, and he ended up at Elon University. Now he's in New York. But Elon's got a great musical theater program, and we're really proud of him. And then last year, we had That's amazing. 4 graduating seniors, 3 going into the performing arts, 1, into AMTA, American Music and Dramatic Academy in New York City.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sam Sinns:My daughter was one of them, a dance major at she's a dance major at Oklahoma City University, which is the nation's top program for entertainment dance. And then, another one, is at, Roosevelt University. There's the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt. She went in as a musical theater major. She's switching to vocal performance, but, all of them into the arts, so that's that's the best we have.
Sam Sinns:Like, we do like I said, we started young, so we don't really have anyone. Yeah. That's it. That's really So
Dane Shoemaker:in a couple years, you might have some people
Sam Sinns:on Broadway. Absolutely. You know?
Dane Shoemaker:So cool.
Sam Sinns:Proud that we got to that. I feel like Twil had a little bit of a hand to get them into some really great college programs, which is fun. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Have you ever had to get on the phone with, like, a recruiter at a college or, you know, be a reference or anything like that?
Sam Sinns:Not not well, I've written letters of recommendation, but we also believe, weirdly enough, the the casting director for Lion King Broadway and National Tours cast me in Beauty and the Beast national tour. And so they reach out to us occasionally when they're looking for kids for Lion King Broadway and national tour. So they'll send out an email and send audition materials, and that means that those auditioners will will it's a self tape, which means they give them a script, they give them music, and then they submit that via a video, and then they'll if they get a callback, they'll call them back. Nice. So yeah.
Sam Sinns:So we do get we do get some casting calls. We had another one for, they were looking for an autistic actor for a feature film. They reached out to 12 for that. So
Dane Shoemaker:Okay. Yeah.
Sam Sinns:So we're kind of on the radar for some casting directors too, which is kinda cool and fun.
Dane Shoemaker:That's cool.
Sam Sinns:Yeah. I love it.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah. Do will will you ever go back to dancing on Broadway? Is that is that like a
Sam Sinns:I mean, that's a great question. I would love to
Dane Shoemaker:if it
Sam Sinns:came up. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:If someone could if I could give you a call. Yeah.
Sam Sinns:If I could give a balance at all. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I love performing. Of course.
Sam Sinns:That's awesome.
Dane Shoemaker:So. Yeah. Yeah. So what's, what's next for for Twirl and
Sam Sinns:Yeah. So we next season, we've increased our offerings for our older, more advanced students.
Dane Shoemaker:So Okay.
Sam Sinns:We've we've for the first time, we have more classes that go till 9:30 at night, increasing the hours. Their evening hours has allowed us to open up classes, more an advanced hip hop class that we've never had before. Yeah. Hip hop is actually pretty important in the entertainment dance world. My daughter is, is experiencing that in her college program.
Sam Sinns:So, we're gonna we're gonna get our those older dancers up to speed hip hop wise, and then we're just just so they can have more classes, more training Right. In the week, the ones that are more serious about it. So, we're able to offer a higher level jazz class. We squeezed in an extra tap dance level by expanding to 9:30. So those are ways that we, you know, we're always looking for ways to improve the program, always moving forward, always trying to find ways of improving.
Sam Sinns:And so that's one of those ways.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Awesome.
Sam Sinns:Yeah. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:Do you think you'll be always be in this space? Did the other will outgrow it or anything?
Sam Sinns:We're bust we're busting at the seams now.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sam Sinns:So we have 3 rooms where we hover around 500 students, so which is a lot. Oh, wow. Okay. And we have a lot of sold out classes. We could use a 4th space.
Sam Sinns:Yeah. Definitely. So I have my eye out, but I don't wanna stray very far from this this intersection of 252 and route 3. I wanna stay close by. Yeah.
Sam Sinns:So, I have my eye open, but this space is great. I can walk to Starbucks or Michael's or Acme, and they're right here in the shopping center.
Dane Shoemaker:So Yeah. I'd be at nifty50 too much. I'd be
Sam Sinns:at 5050. Yeah. It's awesome. Yeah. So we love this location.
Sam Sinns:Yeah. But, but, yeah, we could definitely stand to to to expand.
Dane Shoemaker:And what's the what's the address here?
Sam Sinns:It's 3544 West Chester Pike Okay. Newtown Square Shopping Center.
Dane Shoemaker:Cool.
Sam Sinns:Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:So if anyone is, yeah. I mean, anything else you wanna add? Anything we didn't talk about?
Sam Sinns:No. It's just I I just think that twirl is is kind of the culmination of my dance performing experience, my experience as a Disney dance captain, as a Disney performing arts workshop teaching artist and resident director, as a father of a dancer, as a performer, and as, like, front row seat to Disney's guest offerings and customer service and all that. All of that experience comes right together here where we're at right now. That's what Twirl is all about. Yeah.
Sam Sinns:All these pieces of my career come together, and that's kinda what formed and shaped this business, which is really awesome.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. I mean, like yeah. Right. Like you said, culmination of, really strong background and dance in your career, and I can just sense the passion that you have for it as well.
Sam Sinns:And Yeah. I love it. It's so much fun.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah. Well, Sam, thank you very much.
Sam Sinns:Thanks, Dang.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. How can, you know, if anyone's listening, how can they find you? How can they sign up for your classes?
Sam Sinns:Yeah. So jump on our website, twirl performing arts.com. Even though our name is Twirl, not Twirl Performing Arts. Jump on the web that so that that has all the information.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sam Sinns:But actually, to get our personality, social media is better. Okay. So there's their icons you can click on the bottom, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Dane Shoemaker:Sounds good.
Sam Sinns:That that's the best way to know our personality. Information on the website, personality, social media. Cool.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. We'll link all that stuff in the, description here.
Sam Sinns:So Thanks, Dan.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Well, thank you very much, Dan. It was great great chatting
Sam Sinns:and I love it. Thank you, Dane, for this. I love it. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:Take care. Have a good one.
Sam Sinns:Thanks. See you.
Dane Shoemaker:Thanks for listening today. Shoemaker Lab is an original production by Shoemaker Films
Dane Shoemaker:LLC.
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