Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Chang.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Michael. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
New England Movement Arts (NEMA) is a multi-activity facility offering world-class instruction in martial arts, dance, fencing, and fitness. NEMA was founded in early 2013 by movement artists in ballet, karate, fencing, gymnastics and wushu. These arts require an enormous amount of square footage for their training. Reasonable rents for such large column free areas can only be found in hard to reach industrial zoned warehouses. These artists had a vision of sharing a prime retail location with high visibility and easy access for their students.
Fortunately, a perfect location was found. NEMA is now housed in 18,250sqft building, centrally located in Burlington, near Lexington, Woburn, Winchester, Arlington and Wilmington. Ten column free studios ranging from an intimate 650 sq. ft. to a full sized 2800 sq. ft. performance blackbox theater makeup this spacious facility. Natural sunlight through nine large skylights bathes the hallways and studios. Thus, giving the space a comfortable and airy feeling.
Has it been a smooth road?
All in all, it has been a rather smooth road. Bumps are a fact of life and it’s those bumps that make us better. Three such bumps come to mind.
Each art has a specific requirement for flooring. For example, ballet uses a Marley vinyl dance sprung floor. Karate uses foam puzzle mats. Fencing uses wood flooring. Gymnastics uses a spring floor. Therefore, rooms are not interchangeable among the arts. Each art has its own separate and dedicated room. Therefore, the potential synergy of maximizing space utilization efficiency and thus the sharing of overhead, is not always there.
As we enter our fourth year, our once spacious 18250 sq. ft. studio is no longer sufficient…we are running out of space. We are a victim of our own success. During prime time hours, Monday-Friday 3:30-7pm, we are out of studio space. All ten studios are used and this is stopping our growth.
Our toughest challenge, though, is finding high quality instructors. All our lead instructors have national and international reputations and are in high demand. Finding similarly talented coaches with a keen interest in student development is not an easy task. Fortunately, our seasoned instructors having coached locally for ten or more years, have a strong following of students. Some of these students have been well trained and now can follow in the footsteps of their coaches.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I personally, have trained in most of the arts offered at NEMA, including ballet, TaeKwonDo, fencing, gymnastics…etc. As such, I am keenly aware of the life skills each art provides. While these activities build strong bodies, they also build minds with strong character. Certainly technique is of paramount importance to high quality movements. Those techniques require students…to constantly hone their skills, to instill upon the students the desire to do well and to reach a competent level of expertise. These are all important for the young developing minds.
So, NEMA is an outgrowth of my personal experience in the arts and my personal friendship with the founding coaches.
During my early high school and college years, all my coaches were of high quality, of high moral values and above all, stressed quality techniques to make efficient movements. It was those experiences which have driven me to give back to the community by finding similarly knowledgeable and enthusiastic coaches.
So, if I were to say what I specialize….I specialize in gathering world class coaches, who share my vision of quality instructions with character building for our young children. I specialize in bringing them together under one roof so that they can offer their skills to the next generation of athletes.
I am most proud of our karate, fencing, Wushu, ballet and gymnastics teachers, Nathan Porter, Fritz Chang, Calvin Wang, Cosmin Marculetiu and Ralitsa Kalmukova, respectively. These are leaders in each their respective arts. Some have been on the U.S. team, some have won Gold and Bronze medals on the international stage and some have students who have won similarly prestige competitions.
While our competition programs are a great way to instill a goal and to create personal drive, NEMA also has an outstanding and successful recreational programs. NEMA’s teachers bring their expertise to these classes these classes too. Good technique is always stressed for everyone.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
A suburban location is better than a city mainly because of overhead costs. While volume will be higher in a city environment, the nature of the arts is such that, even with high volume, rent is too a high percentage of the income statement to allow the business to succeed.
Large open spaces are also difficult if not impossible to find in the city.
Just like any other business, cities can offer tax incentives, offer rent control or offer certain real estate buildings/areas dedicated to the arts.
Pricing:
- Pricing varies with each art. Most classes range in the $15-$25 per one hour class. Some classes require a commititment of a 32 week school year, some are montly, some are 4-8 week sessions.
Contact Info:
- Address: New England Movement Arts
123 Muller Rd
Burlington, MA 01803 - Website: www.nemovementarts.com
- Phone: 781-272-NEMA (6362)
- Email: info@nemovementarts.com
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