Today we’d like to introduce you to Mitsouko Alvarez Pinon.
Mitsouko, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
After the demise of my 20-year marriage I found myself a bit lost and needed to reevaluate the life I thought I had. A friend of mine had a non-profit organization that brought the performing arts to schools in the area. I had danced ballet all my life but retired at the ripe age of 18 to get married and hung up my pointe shoes forever (or so I thought). At her persistence, I started teaching ballet after school through her non-profit part-time. That is when I started to live again. Just as I was figuring it all out, IT happened – my world fell apart. I lost my beloved mother unexpectedly and I was destroyed. Almost simultaneously my friend resigned from her company and the organization started to go a different route. It all seemed hopeless. I resigned as well. My friends and family thought I was crazy. Perhaps they were right. I didn’t care. Everything in me was dead. Everything! Well except for that inner simmering fire to share my passion of dance, music to anyone and everyone who would listen.
I was frustrated with the lack of performing arts in schools. Yes, there were Studios in every corner you would look, but it seemed to me they would cater to competitions and performances but not the art and technique of dance. Not to mention absolutely no performing arts offered in elementary or middle school. Some magnet high schools offered it as an elective but what about the younger kids. Where would they get exposure? I wanted to make the performing arts available to ALL the children that wanted to try. If you want to dance, YOU should dance. If you want to sing, YOU should sing. If you want to learn, YOU should have the opportunity to be creative and soar.
So, my business partner (and friend, Vivian Alzola) and I decided to start our own company and follow our passion. With little money in the bank, I was unsure I could even pay for the fees required to even start a company. Just then I received a small check from the social security department from my mothers passing and it was a sign. She was with me. She wanted me to do this. I used that check to pay my portion of the creation of TLBA. Three Little Birds was born.
We created Three Little Birds Academy and offered after-school enrichment to schools in our community through the performing and cultural arts. We started with one school, then had two, then had three. Today we are at seven schools with several programs being offered. Ballet, pre-ballet, musical theater, Flamenco, cheerleading dance, art, conversational Spanish, robotics, and yoga.
On another personal note; two months after creating TLBA. I still did not have enough money to survive. I found myself working hard to start up the business but that alone could not sustain me. Just then I received a call from yet another friend, creator, and founder of the Vixen Workout, Janet Jones offering me a part-time job to join their team as a Client Advocate. I had been attending her dance fitness classes for several years and now she was offering me a job? Just in time. Now I am also a dance fitness instructor for the HQ Studio in Wynwood. A dance fitness instructor at age 50? Yes! Why not? The sky is the limit.
Best of both worlds…during the day I hope to inspire little girls and boys to dream big and soar the skies. In the evenings, I advocate for women in our community to move, dance, engage their mind and body through movement. As an Instructor, I hope to pass on my passion for dance and inspire women of all shapes, sizes, and age to do something for themselves and remind them of who they are. Fierce, strong, and capable of anything.
After so much heartache and loss, somehow I survived. I can honestly say that I am much happier, stronger and wiser today not due so much to time, but more so due to the hard lessons thrown at me. I made my dream(s) come true at a much later time in my life. No doubt my mother had everything to do with it. Time is not your enemy…time is your blessing.
From the company but the fire in me was lit. Frustrated with the lack of performing and cultural arts in our schools, I decided to share my passion for the arts with children in our community.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Smooth road? Not even close. So many challenges. How do we offer quality top notch instruction and keep our prices affordable for the parents? We are a fee-based program and since my business partner and I are both moms, we understand the struggle of wanting to give our children opportunities within a budget.
Having your own business is knowing you will work long hours for little to no pay. We work 24/7 to ensure our little birds have the best curriculum available. We are all-inclusive regardless of previous experience or level of talent in our program. I have had parents tell me their child has two left feet but wants to dance desperately; I say, perfect! I’ve also had children that show great promise and raw talent; I will be the first to let the parent know to have their child extend their studies outside our program.
Perhaps our biggest challenge is satisfying ALL our clients at the same time. I say this because our business is a little different than most. We don’t have one client. ALL our families, schools, administration, and most importantly the children are our clients.
Lastly, since we are an after-school enrichment program providing services to children, WE are quite exclusive as to who we hire. We require all Instructors to be fingerprinted and Virtus trained through ADOM. We handpick each and every Instructor ourselves. We have several meetings and workshops throughout the year and pop into classes to ensure quality control.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
What sets us apart from other companies that offer performing arts is that WE go to you. We do not have a Studio. We bring the Studio to you. It’s convenient for the parents. No need to leave work early once a week to pick up your child and drive them to a Studio, wait for an hour and then go about your day. The children remain in their school (familiar surroundings) with their friends and take our class in their school.
I am quite proud of our growth and reputation in such a short time. We are commencing our third year and have had no advertising or promotion other than word of mouth from schools, parents and our social media. I handle our Facebook and IG account. Clearly, I do not have a degree in marketing, so that isn’t it. Our growth has been 100% from supporters of our program, happy children, satisfied parents and Principals/Administration wanting to offer performing arts to their students.
Originally we started small with only ballet, conversational Spanish and robotics. Now we have added flamenco, art, robotics levels (duplos, wedo, vexIQ), cheerleading dance (including a cheerleading dance TEAM for Downtown Doral Charter Elementary that won 2nd place at a local competition their first year out), yoga, musical theater levels (broadway bound for the little ones and master thespians for the older children). We have been invited by Barnes and Noble in Kendall for two years in a row to perform during their Book Fair for St. John Neumann Catholic School. We are also now offering an in-house program for schools wanting to bring performing and cultural arts to their middle schoolers. Currently, we have a robotics and musical theater in-house program for a school in Miami Springs for the Fall 2018. We will be providing conversational Spanish and art for their Spring term.
We also offer a social skills program that can be modified to a workshop or an eight-ten week course. Our Polish and Charm class offers etiquette to middle schoolers to better prepare them for high school. This program covers everything from table manners to proper social behavior. For the past two years, we have had the privilege to offer this class to the graduating class at a local school in-house. We prepare the graduating class with the tools necessary to have a successful high school experience. They then put what they’ve learned to good use during their graduation dinner alongside their parents. We have added the component of dance to this class as well. The students learn how to waltz, salsa and we give them one song they want to do as a class to perform for their parents during the graduation ceremony. Sounds awesome, right?
What were you like growing up?
I was a quiet child. Hard to tell if you know me as an adult now…I had little interest in anything other than ballet. I started ballet at a young age, three I believe. My mother was a single mom with two jobs doing the best she could to raise my sister and myself. There was a dance studio on the second floor of the restaurant she worked at so she signed us up and the rest is history.
Contact Info:
- Address: Three Little Birds Academy
7174 S.W. 47th Street
Miami, Florida 33155 - Website: www.threelittlebirdsacademy.com
- Phone: (305) 510-5242
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: threelittlebirdsacademy
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/threelittlebirdsacademy/?ref=bookmarks
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