EP 522: A Nonprofit Ballet School Builds Skill And Belonging

What makes Jennifer Dulin with Texas Youth Ballet a good neighbor?

We talk with Jennifer Dulin, founder of Texas Youth Ballet, a nonprofit ballet school in McKinney, Texas, about what it looks like to make high level classical ballet training accessible to more families across the Dallas Fort Worth area. The organization is built on the belief that talent and dedication should determine opportunity, not financial barriers, and that every child deserves access to meaningful arts education.

Jennifer shares her personal journey into ballet, including how scholarships and sacrifice made her own training possible. That experience became the foundation for Texas Youth Ballet’s mission to measure success by impact rather than income and to create pathways for students who might otherwise never have access to professional level instruction.

We also discuss how the studio navigated significant challenges during the COVID period, which nearly forced closure but ultimately clarified the organization’s purpose. In response, Texas Youth Ballet transitioned fully into a nonprofit model in 2021, strengthening its commitment to scholarships, performance opportunities, and community access.

Jennifer explains what families are really looking for in a ballet program beyond technique alone. Parents want a structured, supportive environment where students can build discipline, confidence, friendships, and a love for the art form without the pressure or negativity that can sometimes exist in competitive dance environments.

We also explore how students discover the program through word of mouth, performances, and community outreach, as well as how the studio supports dancers in pursuing scholarships, trainee programs, and future professional pathways in dance.

If you are interested in youth arts education, nonprofit ballet programs, or expanding access to the arts in North Texas, this conversation offers an inspiring look at how training, opportunity, and community can come together.

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Guest Info: Texas Youth Ballet | https://texasyouthballet.org/ | (214) 477-9434

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Sophia Yvette.

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a nonprofit ballet school? Well, one may be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Jennifer Dolin, with Texas Youth Ballet. Jennifer, it's wonderful having you on today. Now we are excited to learn more about you and your business. So please start off and tell our listeners just a little bit more about your business.

Why A Nonprofit Ballet Studio

SPEAKER_01 0:40

All right, we have a nonprofit ballet studio in McKinney, Texas. And um the reason why we decided to make it a nonprofit studio was because there are so many children who would love to study ballet, but it's really just out of their price range. And so we've decided that it was a calling to be able to bring very professional level ballet to students who would never get to understand or appreciate that art form otherwise. And um and some of our students have gone on into professional studies, and so it's it's very exciting to watch the growth in the students. A lot of students really feel like they need the ballet studio as a separate space, safe space for them, and um they're able to grow, they're able to make friends that stay friends for life, and we've got a lot of alumni that come back and um to our performances, and they support us and appreciate us, and so it's it's a very wonderful way of teaching ballet. It's not based around monetary or how much money we're making, but how many lives we can impact?

SPEAKER_02 2:05

Wow, Jennifer, that's quite a mission and something I'd love to impact further with you. So let's let's start off by going back in time for a second, right?

From Scholarship Student To Founder

SPEAKER_02 2:17

How did you originally come up with the idea for this business and where was your passion born for it in the first place?

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Well, I danced when I was growing up, and I was my parents were not wealthy, so they had to really beg and borrow and scrape and make bartering um situations for us to for my sister and I to stay in ballet. And so it was always a struggle. And um when I when I went to Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, which is what I credit for having given me a career because the training was just incredible there, um she had me on scholarship as well because she knew that there was no other way that it would happen for me. And so the fact that I did have a career, um and I never lost the appreciation for that. So when I had the opportunity to open a studio, I was um always trying to keep the price as low as I could because I knew that there were so many people that struggled. And when um when COVID hit, we um we had a pause and the pause almost put us under. And um at that point, that was when I said, What's really important to me? What is it that really drives me to want to continue to offer this training? And it was the nonprofit side of it, so we went fully nonprofit in 2021 so that we could continue the mission.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

Wow, Jennifer, and you said something else that had really stood out to me.

Building A Safe Space Culture

SPEAKER_02 4:10

You talked about making this a safe space for the young ballet dancers. Why is making this a safe space so important to you?

SPEAKER_01 4:20

I feel like so much of what goes on in the world today is negative. And um, and ballet is hard. Ballet is the hardest of the art forms, and it takes a long time to be able to do it. Um every little every little victory is celebrated. Um, but we have a wonderful group of kids here. You hear about dance studios, you see dance moms on TV, you think, oh my goodness, they're so mean to each other. And there are places like that, but our kids will cheer for each other, they're happy for each other when they get a lead role. They there's just nothing of the drama that you would find elsewhere. And it's supportive, and it's supportive in their whole life because they know they have this place to go to where they'll be supported and accepted.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

Wow, that's all so wonderful.

Reaching DFW Dancers And Families

SPEAKER_02 5:28

Now that brings me into my next question here. Now, marketing is the heart of every business. So, what areas are you looking to attract, you know, these young ballet dancers from around the DFW? And today, you know, how are you able to reach them?

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Um, there's there's some word of mouth. I like to use word of mouth because people do get excited about being here. They they get excited about um the fact that it is an art studio and it's not it's not recreational. And um, and so they'll tell their friends, they'll talk about it. Their friends will come to performances and see the level and want to be a part of that. And so that's that's a big part of it. We we are determined to stay on the east side of McKinney. Um, so it's it's it's by choice and necessity because we have to keep costs slow too. Um, but um, but we draw from as far away as the Sherman Denison area, and we've drawn from Garland and just like uh the whole area, really. It's it's it's about 30 miles away that we draw. And um, in the summertime, we'll have people from all over Texas, or we've had some uh we've had students from Mexico, and so yeah, we we get a little bit of notoriety as we go along.

SPEAKER_02 7:11

Very cool, and when it comes to these students' journeys, um, do you help connect them to any scholarships for further opportunities? How does you know that side of things really work?

SPEAKER_01 7:25

That's ballet is very difficult to get into, and um, it's kind of skewed, I think, towards the people who have the money to spend. And so it is hard to get the scholarships on and whenever they can. Well, uh what my job is to make them the best dancers that they can possibly be so that the scholarships will come naturally. Um, and we've got student, we have a student dancing in Brazil with Ballet Magnifica right now in their trainee program. We have another person at the Joffrey Ballet Trainee Program. So they get out there. Um the the fact that they can save money while they're in their studio means that they can save towards whatever expenses are going to be out there too. Um, but we do everything we can to get them in front of people that can give them scholarships.

Scholarships Careers And Ballet As Art

SPEAKER_02 8:28

And Jennifer, as we are kind of summing everything up today, one of my final questions for you is when you talk about ballet being an art form, give our audience an example of what that means versus for recreation.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

Um, a lot of times ballet in the in the recreational schools or the competition schools, it's it's treated as um spinach. Um it's the thing that you don't want to eat, but you do it because it'll make you strong. And so, and that negates a whole world of beautiful repertoire that um that it speaks to your soul. It ballet is one of the fundamental training uh tools. And so it it does make the, it does prepare students to be any kind anything, an an athlete, um, a dancer of any kind. Um, ballet is like the bot the base of training your body to learn. And so um, but the art of it is just something that has always appealed to me. I can't I can't separate my heart from the art of ballet because it's just in there. It's so beautiful, it's so uh expressive. And I don't express too well with words, but emotions are are really expressive.

SPEAKER_02 10:09

So it's definitely funny you say that you're doing really well expressing your words today. It actually leads me into my very final question for you, and that's where can our listeners go to learn more about Texas Youth Ballet?

Where To Find Texas Youth Ballet

SPEAKER_01 10:25

Our website is texas youthballet.org. Um, and we have a Facebook page uh that is Texas Youth Ballet. It's all pretty simple, it's all Texas Youth Ballet. So um we have a T, let's see. TYB Dance is our Instagram, and um I think it's Texas Youth Ballet for LinkedIn too. So um just wherever you wherever you put those words in, you'll stumble upon us.

SPEAKER_02 11:04

Well, Jennifer, I really appreciate you being on the show today. We wish you and your business the best moving forward. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GMP Frisco dot com. That's GNP Frisco dot com or call four six nine two two two two two two two two two two two two one nine three four five.