Abiba Biao photo
Maya McDuffie (left) instructing young Hamden dancers.
Sitting on Lia Davila’s office floor, directly in front of her desk and constantly in her line of sight, is a row of five trophies. The trophies, which stretch all the way up to her chest, serve as a reminder of the grind, grit, and glory her students put in over the summer at the Turn It Up Dance Challenge in Orlando, Fl. in order to bring those awards home to Hamden.
ABIBA BIAO PHOTO
Trophies in Lia Davila’s office.
Davila, 51, is the co-owner of Hamden Academy of Dance and Music alongside her husband Dwayne Davila. Her academy’s studio is located at 295 Treadwell St.
Davila’s dancing career started at the age of 9 at the now closed Dee Dee’s Dance Center and stopped at 17 when she went to Morris Brown College in Atlanta, where she also met her husband. After college, her love for dancing remained, and she returned to Dee Dee’s to teach. But this time, she also wanted to start a new venture.
Davila standing next to the trophy awarded by the 2023 Hartford West Indian Independence Celebration.
“My husband noticed I was revolving my life around teaching these two classes,” she said “so after he noticed that I was revolving life around two hours a week, he said, ‘Why don’t you just open your own dancing school?’”
And so she did, opening the doors to Hamden Academy of Dance and Music in 2002, which has been up and running for over two decades.
For this season, Davila has an enrollment of around 100 students, a big improvement from last year with 70 students. While the pandemic took a toll on the enrollment of students, the studio is slowly starting to regain life.
Davila has cemented a name for herself throughout the state, winning the Hartford West Indian Independence Celebration for the third year in a row and amassing honors such as “best choreography” and “studio choice awards” from in-state competitions.
Hip-Hop practice with the 6- to 8-year-olds.
But this summer marked a huge turning point. Hamden Academy of Dance and Music was dubbed grand champion thrice in three different categories and first runner up this past July at the Turn It Up Dance Challenge in Florida, a national competition — marking the first time the dance studio has won big.
“It was just like we just won an Emmy,” Davila said, reflecting on the experience. “But then, you know, you go back to the drawing board like, ‘Okay, now we gotta do better.’ We’re always competing against ourselves.”
But Davila doesn’t let competition drain her students. Instead, she enforces a healthy balance of competitiveness while emphasizing hard work and enjoyment. She raved about her alumni becoming teachers, cops, playwrights, Broadway performers, and even dancing for famous artists like Todrick Hall and Mariah Carey.
“If you do what you’re supposed to do, if you be in uniform, if you come to class on time, if you’re working hard, you can take those values and put them into anything you want to do in life,” she said.
Leading the multicultural dance practice for 9- to 12-year-olds on a recent visit to the studio by the Independent was Metropolitan Business Academy senior Maya McDuffie. You wouldn’t have guessed that it was McDuffie’s first time leading the class, as the 17-year-old guided the students through the movements with ease, drawing out their energy as they glided through the routine.
McDuffie has been a student at the studio for almost 15 years, and first started dancing when she was 3. She says that the experience has made her “more confident as a person.”
“Dance really makes me who I am as a person,” she said, “because l’ve been dancing for so long it’s really a part of my identity.”
McDuffie’s post-secondary plans currently lean toward attending the University of New Haven and majoring in criminology. While she doesn’t know whether she’ll continue dancing in college, she’s open to the possibility.
Shondra Leigh.
Dance instructor Shondra Leigh is the newest addition to the Hamden Academy of Dance and Music family. She has only been working there for a little over a month, but she has received a warm welcome.
Leigh, 43, teaches progressions, a techniques class that covers flexibility, conditioning, and open contemporary combinations. After a plentiful performance career of traveling and dancing around the world, the Hamden native came back to the town in 2016 to settle down and be around family.
Leigh teaches two classes and 24 kids in total, with one class having kids whose ages range from 6- to 11-year-olds and the other with 12- to 18-year-olds. As a new teacher, she’s getting to know the kids and seeing them acclimate to her class format. She described her instruction style as “strict” but she also upholds a “judgment-free zone,” wanting her students to focus on how they feel and ignore negativity from others.
Leigh hopes to instill in her students “empowerment, confidence, etiquette, discipline” and other virtues that attracted her to the art.
“A lot of people you know, they won’t necessarily dance as a career, but they can really take the lessons of the dance world into their life,” she said. “Learn how to float when things don’t go right, learn how to be strong when things are hard, learn how to really breathe when things are needing of breath.”
It’s wonderful to read about another positive, fun and constructive thing for children and teens to do in the area besides sports related activities. I’m glad the dance studio is having such success, and I hope it continues to draw in more dance students and win more contests.