Like many young girls (and boys) Kristi Garcia loved to dance. Her first dance lessons were through City of Turlock Recreation courses and then with local private studios. When she was around 17-years-old, Garcia went to a recital for Backstage Academy of Dance under then-Director Kathy Moser.

“I watched one show and I told my mom, this is where I want to go. I want to dance here and I want to be in their performing company. And yeah, that's kind of how I got hooked up at Backstage,” said Garcia.

A few decades later, Garcia is now celebrating 25 years of owning and directing Backstage Academy of Dance in Turlock and passing along her love of dance to new generations.

As a young adult, Garcia was asked by Moser to teach a few dance classes. From then on, Garcia continued to teach dancing — through getting married and having children of her own. In 1997, Moser was ready to sell and Garcia and her friend Monica Roberts decided to go in together to take up the Backstage mantel. A few years later, Roberts was ready to get out of the dance academy business and Garcia took on the company solo.

Over the years, Garcia has endured many challenges of owning a dance studio — from the Great Recession in 2008-09, when many parents cut back all extra-curricular activities to the COVID-19 pandemic, when the government enforced shutdowns.

“I kept going during that and found ways to survive. And, here I am, and now parents again are finding things for their children to do because the COVID scare is mellowed out,” she said.

Garcia has also seen changes in the classes children, and their parents, are looking for.

“When I danced, it was jazz, tap, ballet and pointe and then once we took over, we added hip hop and that took off like wildfire. We were one of the only studios at the time who offered hip hop,” said Garcia.

About four years ago, Backstage Academy added acro-tumbling (the fusion of tumbling, dance, technique, athleticism, agility and strength through the use of acrobatic skills without the use of a sprung floor) to their class offerings.

“Acro-tumbling took off; we had a lot a lot of people interested in that. I think nowadays you have to try to find things that draw people to your business. So adding new things helps,” Garcia said.

Along with the recreational dance classes, Backstage also has six competitive dance teams that travel the region and country competing. These dancers train up to 14 hours a week to improve their skills and hopefully win a spot on an elite team that travels from convention to convention.

“I had two dancers this past year who went to six cities and danced with one of our competition companies. So that's pretty fun. And one of them got asked to go back and do it again,” she said.

Garcia has passed along her love of dance to her own children, as well.

All three of her children danced as children. As adults, her oldest son, Keaton, used to teach dance before moving to Sacramento and getting a job as a counselor at an elementary school. Her younger son, Branson, took hip hop, but then got too busy with basketball in high school and then college to continue. Her daughter, Sierra, continues to teach at Backstage, alongside her mom.

“They all had a part in the studio and they still continue to help out when it’s recitals time,” said Garcia.

While the spring recitals may highlight the skills each young dancer has learned through out the dance year, it’s Backstage’s Christmas program that is a local holiday tradition in the community.

Every December, Backstage Academy presents its “Twisted Nutcracker.” What’s a ‘twisted’ nutcracker, you may ask? Well, when Garcia first took over Backstage Academy, they would perform the traditional “Nutcracker” ballet every December for their ballet and pointe students to feature their talents.

“But after a couple of years, we decided to change it up to the ‘Twisted Nutcracker’ so that we can allow more of our students to participate in it. So we do jazz, tap, ballet, pointe, and hip hop. And we did add tumbling last December to one of our numbers in production,” she said.

Every year, Garcia and her team of instructors recreate the production based on the talents of current students and their dance styles. The community performances are a holiday favorite because they also include a ‘Sugar Plum Party’ where audience members can see the characters and enjoy treats after each show.

After decades of dance, Garcia has no plans to stop anytime soon.

“My husband asked if I had a retirement plan. And I told him no, I didn't because I love my job and I love what I do so I'm just gonna keep going until I can't anymore,” she said.

For more information about Backstage Academy of Dance, visit https://www.1badinc.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/BackstageDance/