A dance studio gets back on its feet

Maritza Cruz Salinas is not about to settle for a bad ballerina bun of a hairstyle. ‘You’re not doing it right, Mom,’ the 10-year-old snaps, reaching for her brown locks and wiggling impatiently in her black leotard and powder-pink tights. ‘It has to be perfect.’ Perfect because class is about to begin -- and, for the first time, the fifth-grader will dance on her toes like a real ballerina. And she must look the part. Across the shiny walnut floors and freshly painted walls of Gabriella’s Place dance studio in the Pico-Union district, she and nearly 500 other children are celebrating the return this month of a popular dance program that closed three years ago after losing its home. The closure came after rain heavily damaged the makeshift studio inside a dilapidated church building, making it uninhabitable. It was a major loss in the immigrant neighborhood, where the $5-per-month classes offered a rare relief to families, many of whom live in tiny apartments and travel by foot or bus. One student, Norbert de la Cruz, went on to receive a full dance scholarship to the prestigious Juilliard School in New York.