Hazel Boone Studio will celebrate centennial with anniversary gala

By Canton Citizen

Little girls in black leotards and pink tights. Grade schoolers in black tap shoes tied with ribbons. Aspiring ballerinas in shiny pink satin pointe shoes. Lanky teenagers in jazz pants and high-heeled tap shoes. These sights are seen at dance studios throughout the country every afternoon, but at the Hazel Boone Studio in Canton — the oldest family-run dance studio in the country — while the outfits may have changed somewhat, these sights have been seen for the past 100 years.

The Hazel Boone Dance Studio was once located on Tremont Street in Boston, as shown in this 1925 photo.

Hazel Boone Studio was founded in 1910 by 16-year-old Hazel Boone, who began her teaching career by taking dance classes for a quarter and then teaching what she learned to friends in her neighborhood for a nickel apiece. She built HBS into a successful professional studio over the following 44 years.

Upon Boone’s death in 1954, her youngest daughter, Sandra Simpson Philpott, a professional dancer with the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes, Broadway national tours, and international USO tours, took the helm. Philpott continued the traditions and philosophy established by her mother and led the studio for another 44 very successful years.

In 1998, Philpott passed the torch to her daughter, Holly Costa, an award-winning dancer, dance adjudicator, and dance teacher with a degree in education. Costa has continued to lead the studio in producing young dancers with excellent technique, physical and mental discipline, and a love of dance. Costa’s two children are also dancers. Kayla, a high school freshman, has been dancing for ten years and is a coach of the HBS Dance Team. Troy, a seventh grader, has been dancing for eight years.

The HBS Centennial Celebration this year includes two major events: a Centennial Gala on May 29 and the annual dance recital on June 19. The Centennial Gala will be held at the Canton Town Club and will feature dance performances by past and current students and faculty, a multimedia presentation of the studio’s history, and dancing to a live big band.

All alumni are invited to attend and to participate in the dance performances. Alumni participating in the performances may choose to dance a Latin Tap number to the song “Temptation,” which was originally choreographed by Philpott many years ago and will bring back memories of past recitals for many of the participants, or they may opt to participate in a Jazz piece choreographed by Costa to the Black-Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling,” which will be a fun, upbeat new number.

Over the past 100 years, many hundreds of students have studied dance at HBS. A number of alumni families have two or even three generations of HBS dancers, and HBS hopes to welcome many of them to the gala. Details about the event, including ticket information, are available on the HBS website at www.hazelboone.com, or through Facebook on the “Hazel Boone 100^th Anniversary Gala” page, or by calling the studio at 781-DANCE-38.

This year’s recital will continue the centennial theme and will feature dance styles and costumes reflecting the studio’s 100-year history.

HBS is located in the Canton Sportsplex, 5 Carver Circle in Canton. The spacious, air-conditioned studio includes the main studio with mirrored walls, sprung dance floor, dance barres, surround sound, office space, and a waiting room with closed-circuit TV.

For more information about HBS, visit their website at www.hazelboone.com, join their Facebook network (Hazel Boone Studios), call the studio (781-326-2338), or e-mail Holly@HazelBoone.com.