LeRoux Studio of the Arts Thriving under New Ownership

It's been 68 years since Phyllis LeRoux Gershbach first started teaching dance classes in a small room above a sandwich shop at 1st and Fayette Streets in Conshohocken. Since then, there's been no telling how many young girls have walked, point shoes in hand, in and out of classes held under the LeRoux name.

Some kept on dancing, bringing pride to the studio, while others became mothers, and sent their own daughters to learn tap or ballet at the school they trusted. But two decades ago, when Susie Messmer was one of those young girls taking classes, she couldn't have predicted that she would one day come to own the studio and hold the responsibility to carry on its legacy.

"We really are a family oriented school," says Messmer, sitting in the studio's front office at its location in the Plymouth Square Shopping Center. "Most of the teachers that we have danced here when they were younger, and most of our clientele are people that I danced with growing up, or kids or grandkids of people who danced here."

Messmer is the fifth owner in the school's history, and renamed it the LeRoux School of the Arts when she bought it from Kelly Logan Stento in 2009. It was a homecoming for Messmer, who studied dance at Cedar Crest College in Allentown and worked at various area dance studios before taking the dive into ownership.

"I had been teaching all over, but I didn't really know the business behind it," Messmer says. "I came here the year before I bought it, and [Logan Stento] kind of taught me along the way, so I had a year to prepare for how I wanted to develop the studio."

Messmer says that each owner has provided their own legacy to the school. Under Logan Stento, the studio drastically expanded its participation in events far and wide, most notably parading down Main Street USA in Walt Disney World. Another former owner and daughter of Phyllis LeRoux Gershbach, Bonnie Gershbach Gordon, was the one responsible for moving the studio from its Apple Street, Conshohocken location to the shopping center in the early 1980's.

And Messmer's legacy so far?

"We actually started a dance team for the first time, and I'm working to start a professional company, a traveling dance company," Messmer says.

In addition, Messmer says the school is offering adult classes for the first time in its history, and that she has been working hard to bolster LeRoux's web presence. The school also continues to offer classes for special needs children and those as young as 18 months, in addition to traditional classes in tap, jazz, ballet and contemporary.

"I always wanted to open a school that had classes for people of any age to come and take dance," says Messmer. "Gym memberships are kind of expensive, and people just like to able to come and take a class as they please."

However, LeRoux's foundation is truly its tradition. The school has held an annual recital every year since 1945's original show in the Forest Theater, with the exception of 1946, as Phyllis LeRoux was with child.

It also continues to hold its annual end of summer open houses, when families return from vacation to pick up their performance tapes from the previous year, and gear up for another nine months of dance. However, it’s also a chance for new families to get a look at the studio and what the world of dance has to offer.

“Dance helps children out creatively and helps them mentally, just learning how to relax and get out your energy,” Messmer says. “It also helps with structure and discipline, and most of our kids come here every single week.”

Among the families at the school is Messmer's own. Sister Becky Anhorn works as the studio's manager, and believes LeRoux's reputation is what gives it its competitive edge.

"I have a feeling that people like that small Mom and Pop kind of feel," Anhorn says. "When customers call they know who they're talking to, and when they come in they know who they're going to see. And I'm not sure a lot of places can say that anymore."

The LeRoux School of Arts will be hosting its annual open house on Monday, Aug. 13 and Tuesday, Aug. 28th from 5-8 p.m. The studio is located at 200 West Ridge Pike, Conshohocken, in the Plymouth Square Shopping Center. Visit LeRouxArts.com for more information, and follow them on Facebook here.

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