Welcome to fit to be real and a little extra. Oh
Today we have a special one for you. We are talking to the person who has made
Most of our blooper reels what they are today
She is a business owner of 26 years. She is a mom of three beautiful children
Especially the middle one at least two of them middle one suspect. We're not we don't really want to get into it
She's had her foot in the director's chair in the
choreographers chair in the onstage dancer actor chair
Her claim to fame for singing is like nursery rhymes. That's about it, right?
But it's gonna be it's gonna be a really fun day to get on the inside of our family
I'm a little scared of what might happen today. You should be
I'm Victoria. Hey guys, I'm Carly
And the original hey guys
Carmella
Hey guys, I'm Carmella. Oh my gosh. It's even higher than mine
Hey guys
Oh, it's Billy here
That is one of her specialties is all of her voices and
Storytelling there was always every character had a voice. So maybe we can get some of those out today. What's up mom?
Yeah, you guys. Oh my gosh. So let's start there
Carmella or mom has and had a children's theater company called stages of imagination. She
You did it with your sister Vicki
She created it acted in it produced it choreographed it directed it
Was the transportation and what else anything else set that's not a designer not the set builder
But we were the techies Vicki and I will she had full control and was a hands-on
Full on control hustler. What does that sound like? Who does that? That's why I'm saying it
Okay, let's start at the beginning at the very beginning
Yes, it's a very good place to start
Little dear lord, okay mom where were you born? Where are you from?
Parish I was born in Philadelphia, but I grew up in Drexel Hill, St. Dorothy's Parish and
What's your full name?
Carmella Louise
guitarist mayo
My name is Carmella. That's interesting how I got it. Hmm. It's a generational
by
Carmella's in our generation in our family
It's really fun when you travel with
Carmella's and their passports are the same and their license
Causes a lot of problems. So I decided to name my daughter Carmella as well
Oh my god
All right, mom they all know we're hustlers
Mom sing it say
Mom wait wait wait mom say it's hot out there for a pair
It's hot out there for a pair. Why are you Southern?
I don't know
Okay, all right, all right bring it back bring it in bring it in bring it in okay name
We want you to tell everybody
How many jobs and what kind of different jobs you've had in your life because it makes you a very well-rounded person
And you've done a little bit of everything well. I hated baby sitting hated it
My parents she teaches kids
Babysit my sisters did it so I had to do it and it was it was painful
So then I went and became I worked at the movie theater and then I was a counter girl it will worse and
Then I delivered phone books
And then
Then I was a student helper at Westchester
I was a secretary and I took what do you call it?
notes with
What do you call it shorthand shorthand I took notes with the shorthand Westchester is Westchester University
Westchester University and then when I moved to New York
I became a waitress with no experience
But I worked at this Madison Avenue restaurant called Bailey Wick. It was high class restaurant
And it was a really fun
And I met a lot of good friends at Bailey Wick and then in New York. I was a party starter
She was a partier. She meant to say partier. No, I started parties
I would go to parties dressed in costume and then I would just
Mingle with the people and start parties. I decorated
But with balloons at the New York City Marathon. So then when I moved home, we're all she's only like 22 at this point
And then I danced in between I was getting dance gigs blah blah blah
and I was choreographed in colleges and high school and
Summer theater and that but then when I moved home my sister Vicki and I started a wallpapering business
But we realized we weren't going to make any money doing
Because we were having we weren't that good at it
We just did family and
We couldn't charge families so we weren't making any money at all
So then we became balloon decorators and we started our balloon bouquet business and we had business cards and everything
But again, we only did family like making balloon animals and no no balloon arches for parties
We did the family reunion. We did balloon forests
I did Billy's eighth grade graduation party with the balloon forest Billy is our brother by the way
We decided we couldn't make any money doing balloon fever because we were charging anybody any money
Oh my god, and that's why we are horrible business owners. That's why Victoria and I are struggling
Business to charge people. We are not business-minded. I couldn't charge family
I couldn't charge friends who else is going to hire us for wallpaper and balloons
So did you ever dance at all?
Yes, I was dancing in and among all these jobs or I was teaching dance or I was
Choreographing in between these jobs or I would just stop the jobs and go on the road and dance and that's why part of the reason why
Nothing the balloons and wallpaper
Kind of failed but at that point I had kids so I wasn't traveling as much then hold on hold on hold on
Okay, this is where Carly this is welcome everyone to the land of no silence
Welcome, but I want to I want to take a step back
When was studio 54 in all of this neglected to tell them you were a cage dancer at studio 54? Oh
well see
That was when my party started days, so studio 54 was when I danced in New York
in between cages
Well, yes at that time
Dancers were in cages above the dance floor so we could look down at all the people on the dance floor
I'm gonna back up even further and just give you a little
Little fun fact she started college as an archaeology major
So none of these jobs have anything to do with archaeology because she got kicked out of the department in the first
semester
her hot pants and her go-go boots my go-go boots and the fact that I was upset that I broke a nail when we went on a dig
So she didn't make it too far. Yeah, so let's let's pass forward and then I
danced at
regional theaters and because the
Business is all about networking one of the people that I danced with or did shows with
He opened his own theater at Shawnee in the Pocono Mountains and called me up to choreograph
Shawnee is also the place where I met Andrew so Andrew and I met doing a
Theater show in Shawnee that my mom directed just a little fun fact so dancing
When did you open the dance studio? Oh?
okay, I
Open my own dance studio 26 years ago, but I've been teaching dance for 52 years mom. How old are you? Oh?
We forgot to mention she's also an avid stilt walker and used to still walk at parties
All the time and then she taught us how to still walk because she would because it's normal because it's very very normal
And now she still walks every year at the same Patrick's Day parade in Springfield
Pennsylvania yes, I don't still walk for money anymore, but I did still walk for money
I did walk-a-thons and parades and parties again
Dance parties. I was a party starter on still walking so on still so
So you've done a lot over this lifetime. Yeah
Quite a lot, but my favorite job is being I knew she was gonna say that
It's true
and my mother wanted me to open a dance studio from the time I graduated from high school and
You didn't listen to her I didn't listen to her because I didn't want to do the business side
I didn't want to own my own business. I wanted to dance. That's all I didn't want I enjoyed teaching
But I didn't want to run a business so I needed students
So so I
Open the dance studio
Just on a whim one day. Well, here's the best part of this
Vicki who is the business side of Carmella's dance studio. So her her dance studio is called Carmella's dance studio
It's a very clever name
It's very clever and Vicki is was her partner for the stages of imagination children's theater company
And is also the business end of Carmella's dance studio
Just like we've heard before
Carm is the face. She's the face of it. Just like Carly's the face of it. Well and
Victoria our aunt's name is Vic Victoria and Victoria is named after her
So we have a second-generation Carmella and Victoria as well. We don't we don't travel together. It's okay
Where the Carmella is the face and the Victoria?
Does everything else?
No, but um
Honey wanted me to open a dance studio
My life since I was 18. However, I didn't and my and honey passed away
I parked the car in front of the studio and the landlady was standing there and said hi
I'm waiting for a man to sign a lease for this building and there was a big for rent sign and she said what do you do for a living?
I said I teach dance. She said this would be a great dance studio
I'll give it to you and I went over and I signed a two-year lease called up my sisters and said
You're not gonna believe what I just did and they said where are you going to get the money?
To convert a doctor's office to a dance studio from her wallpapering business and her balloon
I said I never even thought of that
So it was my mother who from heaven made me sign that two-year lease and guess what my mother was right?
I love the dance studio. I love it. I love it. I love it and then I got fired from the
desk one year into the business and that's when Vicki took over the business part of it because if
Vicki wasn't doing the business guess what I still wouldn't be in business right because you would just give everything away for
Giving everything away the first year. I know that that's where I mean that's where we get it from
We have a very hard time doing the business. That's why we weren't eating very much
So if I remember correctly I came home from school one day and you said hey
We're gonna open a dance studio. Would you like that?
I remember that so what do you remember about owning a business with three small school-aged kids?
Well, I was a single mom and I had to do something
I was getting to the point where you kids were getting older and needing more and so I knew I was going to have to get
Some kind of a job but I wanted to be home
So I the dance studio landed in my lap and so it takes a village
I had my dad was able to take you guys out to dinner on Tuesdays
You were able to walk down to the dance studio after school
How convenient was that?
And then I had a neighbor who I bartered dance classes with so that she could cook dinner
Vegetable starch and a protein instead of Taco Bell, which is what I was running to get for the first year
So basically you had a lot of help
When you needed it where you needed it and you got very creative on your time off and probably not having a lot of time off
Um, I do remember doing a lot of things. So I'm not too sure how you how you managed to juggle it off
What I do remember is there is a third floor at studio
That was converted into inflatable furniture. So you would climb up the it was like one of those pull down
Oh, there were stairs. There were stairs before we got rid of the stairs
There was a stairwell to the attic right and then it converted to like a pull down lever of a ladder
But the third floor was like to hang out while you were teaching late
So it'd be after school we'd go up there
I think there was even a TV up there, but there was a bunch of your clothes from the 70s
And I remember just like playing with them and dressing dressing up and waiting for
Glasses to be over over for the day
So you've had many many many many little ballerinas in and out of the dance studio for the past 26 years
You have like a a nursery rhyme story or a we'll preface it by every
Every little boy or girl that dances in between their ballet and their tap section of the dance class
They have to stand up in front of the room and and do a nursery rhyme
And it's something that I used to
Get so nervous about I I remember getting nervous to stand up and do my nursery rhyme. Did you I don't remember anything
Really? I truly do not have memories. I don't know. Yeah, I used to get so nervous
Well, the difference between Carly taking dance in the dance studio was no one knew she was my daughter
until mid-year a mother came up to me and went
Is Carly your daughter because she called me miss Carmella and I just didn't do like
Make her didn't make me feel special. No, I tried to make you feel like everybody else in the class
And then car and then when victoria came she'd hang on the bar and say I don't feel like dancing today or mom
She's not doing it right
And I said to the other teacher I can't teach her
You have to you have to take her
It's amazing how the tables have turned
We have completely switched personalities
I don't know when that happened
Um, yes, I do have a nursery rhyme story that sticks out of my brain a little little blue-eyed blonde hair three-year-old little girl
Stood up. She was not a precocious child. She was extremely
Um shy
And she stood up and she put her hands on her hips and she went boom
Wow, wow
Chica wow, I looked at her mother her mother had her head in her hand
Just shaking her head like where did she learn this? Oh my gosh. Yeah, that was and then of course your abc's kind of
Melt into twinkle twinkle little star
Who which melt because they get nervous and then they but it's good public speaking
And it's a good break and then there's my kids who go in and sing the greatest showman. Yes
Nobody would sing every song from the greatest showman greatest showman. Oh my gosh
So you started the dance studio in the 90s and now it's 2023. Yeah, so what do you think or what do you see are the biggest differences between the kids?
Coming to the studio in the 90s versus now
Okay, the difference between the kids in the 90s and the kids nowadays are phones
That's it. And and I think because of the pandemic they have become the little ones. I'm talking about the little ones they have
Become very attached to their parents and they need hugs
So I've incorporated boray for hugs so that they can go over and have physical contact with their parents because
I encouraged the parents of the little ones to stay in the room
Um and watch the dance class
Most of them watch the dance class some of them use their phones and the teenagers and the older ones
It's just they do
Not quite get that their body is not on instant gratification. It takes a while for your body to be trained into be
Flexible and learn a technique. Well, that's from I think it's from like tick tock and stamp to everything is
15 seconds 20 seconds you learn a really quick
I don't even want to call them dances. They're they're kind of a snippets not yeah
And it's just hand movements so then when you try to ask them to do actual technique across the floor
Or learn a combination and come back the next weekend remember the combination like memory
Memory is almost it's the attention span. It's not existed. Oh, you know what I think too
Which I found because victoria and I both teach at the dance studio as well that the kids
Don't like to not get the step on the first try right they get so frustrated
Yeah, that why don't I get this right now? And I always say go home and practice if you could do it on the first day
You wouldn't need me. Why am I here?
Like you would not you don't need a teacher if you
I ask my question all the time
Why are you here?
I'm like literally there's six. I'm like, why am I here guys?
honestly
But it's true. I mean they get so frustrated so easily if they don't get it on the first day. Yeah, they don't understand
Training hard work. You've got to you've got to practice. They don't get that
They like you said it instant gratification everything is fast. Yeah, I have a question
That's not what we have given you already
So I'm a little nervous to ask you because I don't know where you're going to go with this
We a little statement first. We are not a competition studio
We've never been a competition dance studio and that's nothing against competition competition dance studios
It's just that we are not one. Why are we not one?
Because I want it to be a stress-free
Environment and nothing's about money clearly
We've stated that already money is not important. That's exactly right competition is a money maker for the dance studio
But but also it it creates competition among the dancers. I want my students to
Compete against themselves the previous week. I want them to get better
at something
Because because they went home in practice not and I don't want them to get better to be in the front line
Or to get better than the girl next to them. I want them to dance because they love to dance
I don't want them to dance for a trophy. You always said
You believed and even with like dancing with the stars that it's so hard to pick a quote-unquote winner because dance is an art form
It's an art. It's different. It's there is no comparison
between genres and techniques. So
I feel like that filters into your your studio motto. Absolutely. You can't compare
one
Person's choreography an idea of interpretation of a song with another one. They're apples and oranges
But it's a personal choice
How a judge judges at a dance competition and I will tell you another reason
I don't ask for tricks to blow out their knees or blow out their hips. I'm 60
years old
Uh, that was not an editing trick ladies and gentlemen
And I'm still dancing
Why because I was never required by my dance teacher here by any
professional dance studio that I danced in new york and I danced for 12 years in new york city
No one required me to do tricks that were going to damage my knees and my hips
Because they know that my knees and my hips are my money makers and people don't get hired
People don't get hired if they have injured knees or bad hips
A lot of the dance teachers at the dance studio are from competition studios. So we have nothing against that
So you just said that you danced in new york and they saved your hips
Cool uh, you used to take from your
You danced idols really. Yes, right? Who who were who were yours? Like who are the people that you learned?
Oh my gosh in new york, uh, phil black. He was awesome. He was 49th in broadway
Chuck kelly was broadway dance
Where the uh tonight show studio now is that was 50th in broadway. Wasn't he like rough chuck?
Kelly was tough man. He was tough. He I had a love hate relationship with him because
Uh, weren't you pregnant and he made you roll around on the floor? Yes with who which kid by myself which belly belly
I was 65 pounds heavier
And I was the only pregnant dancer that I knew of in all of new york
I went everywhere and I no one else was pregnant. Nobody that no that was unheard of
And so at the end of every class chuck would say okay
Everybody with white dance shoes get out in the floor and do the combination. Okay, everybody wearing a black top come out
And do do the combination one day. He said okay, everybody pregnant come out on the dance floor
And I was dancing with broadway dancers. I mean these guys and girls were
Awesome and I walked out. I looked at chuck like I can't believe you're doing this to me
And he put the music on and I did it and it was a combination where we rolled on the floor stood up jumped high kick
double turn and I nailed it and
dancers went nuts
Crazy if we had had phones at this point. You would have been viral. It would have gone viral
I can remember what I was wearing. I wore
blue maternity terry cloth top because of course couldn't show your belly you had to hide your belly back then but at
65 pounds heavier. I couldn't hide anything that I did have a love hate relationship with chuck
But he made me the best dancer I ever was
I feel like that's a big difference
in today's world like from teaching that
Criticism I don't know if criticism is the right word or construct. It's definitely constructive criticism to
What you're talking about with chuck kelly, right?
But it was in more of a harsh way than than I would ever do it to my students
But they can't take it these days. They can't take the corrections is what it is right jojo smith
We'd be on the floor stretching
And I was never the most flexible person in the class and he'd walk right on top of me and he'd look down and he'd say
So you want to be a dancer? Yeah, could you imagine if we said that to anybody we'd get parent emails immediately?
Yeah, I don't think it's like that at all anymore. It can't be something something changed in the
In the effort to want to be better at something and putting the work in and getting
The correction which is also another word for the support from a tough teacher who just wants to push you into the next stage
Of your abilities
Yeah, and I find that I had maybe in 20 years one child who was a perfectionist and I knew that I couldn't correct her
Now I have maybe two in every class where I know I cannot correct them because they won't have a meltdown
If a teacher corrects you that means they care about your progress. I say if I'm correcting you it means I'm watching you
Exactly. There's a lot of kids in the class. That means I'm watching you and I want you to be better. That's right. Exactly
I don't want you to be better too, carly
Could you just be better? But I don't take your corrections
Now and I totally agree with you but just to put some perspective the people and the teachers that you're talking about in New York
You were not a child age. You were an adult. It was a different style and um
era
Yeah, an environment in the world of dance and I don't know what Broadway dance centers like these days
I haven't been there in a long time
But I definitely had a respect for the teacher and if they had something to say to me
I was like, oh my gosh
I can't wait to come in the next week and do it right and do it the way that they want me to do it
And yeah, it's definitely definitely changed. So is there is there any other teacher? I remember another name
Jojo Smith
Frank Hatchet
Jojo Smith
Chuck Kelly they were my three main ones. I loved Frank Hatchet. Yeah. Oh and I took from Luigi too, but that's Luigi
Yeah, Luigi and an Ryan King. I'm a good name drop now. No big deal, but
Oh
Wait, wait, stop. Yeah, hold the presses. Oh my gosh. Okay. Gregory Heinz. Yes is the probably the most well known tapper in the entire world
Okay, so when I was waiting in between classes at Broadway dance between there was like
eight different studios and in between classes
I would take two but I'd have to wait a couple of hours
And in walk this man who would sit there with me. He was writing a play and he would we became friends
He would ask me to read a scene. So I read his scenes with him
And he would come every day and I would love to be with him and people would walk by him and say
Hey, Heinz. Hi, Heinz. How you doing, Heinz? I'd be in class. Heinz. He would walk past the door. He'd wave to me
I'd wave
I was living on 92nd and Lex my girlfriend my roommate was having a wedding reception in our apartment
She married a soap opera star
In California, but she was having her new york party. Oh my gosh
In walks my friend to the wedding reception at my apartment in walks my friend with his entourage
And he I'll never forget it. He was standing by the kitchen
Sink in the kitchen and I walked up. I was like, oh my gosh. I can't believe you're here
Guess who's coming tonight and he said who I said
Gregory Heinz. He's a friend of my roommate's husband and Gregory Heinz is coming tonight
I'm so excited while all of his friends were standing around and they were kind of chuckling and laughing and he's like
Oh, are you kidding me? Now? He knew my name Carmella
But and I knew him as Heinz. He I never put the two together. I don't know why
Oh, you have no room to talk
so
He let me go on for a while and his brother Maurice was standing right next to him and I didn't know Maurice Heinz either
He's a big tapper. They tapped together as children
He said Carmella. I am Gregory Heinz. I was like, oh my god. We had a great time
Anyway, I just wanted everybody to know do things make more sense to you all now
Is it all coming together?
You're not here to see our mom doing a complete on musical theater show on the couch right now
I mean the arms are going wild the facial expressions hitting the plants hitting the dog. There's a lot happening
There's a lot going on so we're gonna move on and move into
A game that she's not prepared with
Okay, it's called pick me
But also known as pick which daughter is your favorite you have no choice or you'll die
Okay, the point of the game is that we're going to ask you a question
And you're gonna decide whether your favorite daughter to do that with would be carly or victoria
Or who you think it's most likely going to be
Or who would most likely enjoy it more. No, you're that's this is not your game
No, you don't get to make the rules here pick me
Who is most likely to go on a new experience with you?
There's no wrong answer. Okay, victoria. I think so too
Who is most likely to spend all of your money?
Carly, yeah, we know that who is most likely to call from jail at 2 a.m.
Billy
She said she said she's gonna pick Billy. I knew it not even an option, but it's okay
Who is most likely to drive on empty carly?
Carly scar has left carmella in the lurch a few times on the new jersey turnpike
My bad
Okay, who is most likely to drive across country with you?
I don't think anybody don't have a stroke just answer the question victoria, but I don't think she would survive
I think she would take a bus home midway
Hey, who are you still most likely to be the designated driver for?
Oh, oh, okay. Oh carly. Yeah, okay
Um, who is most likely to be late carly. Yeah, okay. Yeah
Who is most likely to go overboard on everything in life? Oh, geez
Billy
Ding ding ding correct
Who are you most likely to move in with when you get older? I know you don't want to live with anybody
But if you had to pick I'm not living with anybody. I'm not I'll be homeless first pick. No
Pepper this is the dog
Okay, fine you win
Who are you most likely to be spontaneous with?
uh spontaneous
Victoria yeah ding I think so
And last you don't have to say ding do dings are dings worthy of anything?
dings like do I get anything for a ding you get to live another day
Last one who is most likely to help you bury a dead body. Oh, oh
Now think about this answer Billy
If there's no right answer carly
That's Victoria. Are you kidding right now? All three of them would come and help me. Honest to god. No, I wouldn't
Yes, you would you'd be yelling the whole time that Victoria wasn't digging right?
That is so
And I would be standing there with their arms folding saying I don't want to do this but dig a little deeper
She would rattle off all of your true crime
information that you learn
And I'd be so mad that Billy got out of it by living in Kentucky Kentucky
No, but you know what if I had a dead body Victoria would do the labor carly would be standing there
officiating or looking for the lookout and Billy would have be advising from long distance
That's pretty much. Have you thought about this before?
Um and that is it mom you've completed the game you've won and you've lost
And from birth to death
Well, it's been a joy
Carm it's been very fun to have you on
Thank you for for enlightening us. Well, thanks for having me
You say that just as well as I say my name
Oh, man
Thanks for having me
So she's giving us options to give us another one
Thanks for having me. Thanks for having me. Oh just different emphasis just different ways to say. Well, no, well, thank you
Oh my god, we're never gonna get out of here. Thank you girls
You're real tip and your real extra tip don't necessarily go together today, but we pulled both of these options
from Carmella's conversation
And we think they're really important. So your real tip today for me is hey look ma I made it
So the beginning of the conversation was all about all of Carmella's jobs throughout the years
And we're not gonna rattle them all off again. Don't worry
But the tip is if there is something that you have not done or I've always wanted to try
Or just something that maybe just sparked your interest recently do it
Do not think about it do it life is too short if you end up not liking it. Oh, well, but do it try
Figure out a way to get it done start it experience it
And then you'll have that experience under your belt and there will be absolutely no regrets
And now for your real extra tip of the week. It's called. Hey ma the meatloaf
Which is a reference from what movie victoria?
Wedding crashers wedding crashers if you've never seen it
Look it up
What that means is to find a family member or friend who tells the absolute best stories and really be in the present moment
Listen to them. Heck even write it down. It's about taking time to really connect and create some memories
All right, thanks. Carm you can find her every day of the week at Carmella's dance studio or
At her own time frame for all of our c-fit fitness classes. She doesn't really follow the schedule. She does her own thing
So, uh, she's around well, thanks for having me and I have a lot more stories that I wasn't allowed to tell today
So if anybody wants to hear them they can read my book in about 20 years
Or I can burn your ears and tell you more stories. Thanks girls. I love you. Thanks mom. Love you
Remember you are always fit to be real and always allowed to be a little extra or in this case a lot extra
For legal reasons we have to tell you that this podcast is meant for entertainment and educational purposes only we are not health care
professionals for all of your health wellness fitness and self-care needs, please refer to the medical professional in your life
Your primary care physician your therapist a certified coach
Whoever it may be
And then let us know what they say because I guarantee we need to know it too. Okay
Okay. Bye.