D E PA R T M E N T S LO C A L B U S I N E S S
TAKING ALL THE RIGHT STEPS
THE ACADEMY FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS IN APEX NURTURES PERSONAL GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT IN EACH DANCER
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BY KURT DUSTERBERG | PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE ACADEMY FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
hen Hillary Parnell recalls the early days of the Academy for the Performing Arts, she does so with a sense of amusement. Back in 2001, she was 21 years old, fresh out of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and working an advertising job in Atlanta. But when the agency went under during the dot-com bubble, she quickly found herself back in her parents’ home in Cary. A few days later, she was all-in on her next move: opening a dance studio. “I think I was naive enough to not know how scary that should be,” Parnell says. “I was a sheltered kid. I had never paid bills. I was still on my dad’s cell phone plan.”
Now celebrating 20 years in Apex, the Academy for the Performing Arts—known more commonly by its acronym, APA—has grown from a handful of beginner dancers to a thriving business with programs that serve a variety of kids. In addition to recreational and competitive dance classes, the studio is home to a preschool, adult dance, theater, voice coaching and more. Parnell estimates that 10,000 dancers have taken at least one APA class over the past two decades. Today APA enjoys a large space off East Williams Street in Apex, where close to 1,000 children and adults are enrolled at any given time. But APA spent its first decade in a facility tucked behind the main block
of downtown Apex. The building had three studios, but just five parking spaces. And without a business background to support her dream, Parnell learned a few hard lessons. She cheerfully recounts “the inflatable furniture debacle,” when she designed a student lounge and filled it with trendy kid gear, envisioning a space that would set her studio apart. “I spent a stupid amount of money on inflatable couches and lava lamps, and hangy, glittery things,” she says. “No one ever set foot in that place. For three years, it sat there collecting dust; it wasn’t the right time. The moral from that is, wait for the demand before you create something.”
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