A. Tutu School offers ballet classes for kids up to age 8. B. Genevieve Weeks founded Tutu School to teach dance to kids in a fun, nontraditional way. C. Tutu School started 16 years ago and recently signed its 100th franchise agreement.
What’s it like teaching pre-ballet to kids under the age of 8? “It’s like herding squirrels,” Tutu School founder Genevieve Weeks said.
Tutu School offers classes for kids aged 18 months to 8 years. Those who wish to study ballet on a more serious level typically do so around age 8, Weeks said. Students up to age 3 are accompanied by a caregiver.
Weeks, a former ballet dancer, started teaching preschool kids in between performances, “and I just fell in love with it,” she said. “I always tell people you have to be a little bit crazy to teach pre-ballet.”
Tutu School is filled with pink, joyful decorations inside the studio. The franchise offers classes and camps, as well as parties. Weeks started the company 16 years ago and started franchising five years in.
Ballet is notorious for strict instructors, promoting a certain body standard and its obsessive “dance moms.” Tutu School’s mission is to make ballet more inclusive for the franchise’s young students. Ballet classes can teach kids to use their imagination and gain confidence at a young age, Weeks said.
“You get to make space for children for creativity and joy,” she said. “You get to provide them with a physical space in their lives where they’re getting to explore movements and music and be creative.”
That mission is what convinced Tutu School’s first franchisee, Christy Pommerien, to buy into the brand. She now has nine studios open in the San Francisco Bay Area with plans for another four. She came to Tutu School with no ballet or dance experience.
“My mom just never put me in ballet. She was one of those moms that thought that ballet had the stigma of being too intense,” Pommerien said. “Even my best friend, when I told her that I was doing this, she was like, ‘I would never have my daughters do this.’ And I was like, that’s exactly what Tutu School’s trying to change.”
Pommerien is the brand’s largest franchisee and is set to open its 100th studio. She worked in business development in Silicon Valley, but wanted to switch careers to something less traditional when she had children.
“I’ve never been happier,” she said. “I’m so glad that I took that leap 10 years ago and I was the first one that came in” to the Tutu School system. “I had countless people tell me, ‘You know you’re crazy.’”
The cost to open a Tutu School studio ranges from $89,100 to $158,300, including a $42,000 franchise fee. Studios are typically 700 to 1,100 square feet, Weeks said. “We really wanted to be cozy for our students and not intimidating,” she said. “Then it has the added benefit of not being a huge line item as far as our overhead.”
Studios have anywhere from two to 10 teachers on staff. Owners with dance training sometimes also teach, which Weeks said isn’t sustainable as they grow, so they hire a few teachers to take over most classes. Depending on demand, studios offer up to 60 hours a week in classes, while others have closer to 20 hours, Weeks said.
Pommerien hired directors to run her territories in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento, and is in contact with them regularly to ensure things are running smoothly. “I don’t speak to the customers anymore, I don’t even see the dancers, but I work with my managers on a weekly basis to make sure I’m updated,” she said.
Average 2022 revenue for studios open the entire year was $236,182, according to Tutu School’s Item 19, with a range of $40,707 to $609,309 among 44 franchised locations. The company rang in 2024 with about 80 locations open in several states.
The Chicago-based company has a large presence in California, where it began, and is looking to grow nationwide, Weeks said, particularly in the Midwest. She looks for franchisees with entrepreneurial backgrounds who want to run their own business but know starting from scratch isn’t for them.
“The beauty of franchising is that you own your own business, but you’re doing it in a community with other people and you’re doing it with support,” Weeks said. “So you never feel like you’re on your own, but it is yours.”