Growing Through Arts® retailer: Bright Lights Dancewear

Adam Frishman and his wife, Amber, owners of Bright Lights Dancewear in Austin, TX, are thinking big when it comes to selling the Growing Through Arts® line of books and toys.

Instead of selling them one at a time at their store, the Frishmans decided to use the Ballet Series books as a teaching tool in summer camp classes at Dance Xplosion dance studio, which they also own nearby. They used the books in the Princess camps and Girls Just Want to Have Fun camps, designed for children ages 3 to 6 years old.

“Every day, we had a snack time… and rather than turn on a movie, we had an instructor come out and read a book,” Frishman says. “They were a hit.”

Frishman said he and his wife first fell in love with the Growing Through Arts® books at the Southwest Dance Retail Show in January.

“We saw them from across the room and said, ‘We’ve gotta have these!’” he says.

As the parents of a 1-year-old boy, The Frishmans read a lot of children’s books, and they were captivated by the Growing Through Arts® books’ charming illustrations, thoughtful morals and values questions and informative glossary of ballet terms.

“We really liked that it is something parents can do with the kids,” he says.

Now that they’ve introduced the books to so many of their young dancers at the camps, the Frishmans are hoping parents will come into the store to buy copies to read at home.

They’re also hoping other dance schools in the area will start using the Growing Through Arts® books as part of their curriculum, too.

“We were kind of a nice test ground,” Frishman says. “We’re going to approach the other studios in town and say here’s this great thing they can do.”