The Alex Theatre holds close to 1,500 and Baade said they will be able to fill the audience for two shows and include the public for the first time.
Baade purchased Garri Dance Studio in 2003 from Marybeth Costanzo, who relocated to Arroyo Grande, Baade said. Costanzo’s mother PegE Bell and Jean Hartman founded the studio in 1958.
Costanzo was a partner in the business and continued to run it when her mother became ill in 1999 and after she died in 2000.
Hartman preceded Bell in death, Costanzo said.
The 2 p.m. show on June 8 is titled “Broadway Babies” and features dancers from ages 2 to 6, Baade said.
“They are doing all dance numbers from Broadway musicals in tap, ballet and musical theater-style dances,” she said.
“There will be ballets to ‘West Side Story’s’ ‘I feel pretty’ and from ‘The Sound of Music,’ My Favorite Things.’”
Maya Calvo, 7, of La Crescenta, will be dancing a ballet to “Ease on Down the Road” from the Broadway hit musical “The Wiz.”
“The music is fast,” Maya said.
“It was pretty hard to learn the dance. But when you get the hang of it, you start to memorize it and it’s funner. You don’t have to keep going, ah what’s the next step?”
Appearing in Garri’s anniversary recital is a unique opportunity, said Maya, a second-grader at Valley View Elementary School.
“I feel pretty special because I don’t think other people have been dancing in a 50-year-old studio,” she said.
The 7 p.m. show also on June 8 is titled “On Broadway” with dancers from ages 6 to adult, Baade said.
