Mambo Room to close Norfolk studio, but will continue dance lessons
While the Mambo Room Cultural Dance & Event Center is closing its doors at the end of the month, the heart and soul of the small business cannot be stopped.
Kianda Fiske, owner of the studio on 21st Street in Norfolk, said she can no longer financially sustain the current location.
“We’re closing because of all of the things that everyone has experienced after COVID: inflation, rent increases, staff costs, insurance costs and tax costs,” she said. “Everything has gone up and dance can’t support the size of the space that we have.”
On April 28, a celebration of the business’s 16th anniversary will be the last event held at the 6,600-square-foot Ghent location. The $20 per person event, free to members, will include performances and, of course, dancing.
“It’s bittersweet,” Fiske said.
The business moved from a 1,900-square-foot space to its current location in April 2016 when Fiske joined the former owner, Tracy Holland-Gramajo.
Closing for three months during the pandemic, Fiske said the Mambo Room maintained a large following and held dance socials, artistic events and fundraisers, but never rebounded on the large event side that includes weddings and quinceañeras.
The studio’s membership dwindled to 17 dancers during the pandemic, but has returned to just under 100, close to pre-pandemic numbers.
“The dance community has always been really supportive of the Mambo Room and are behind us 100%,” she said.
Referring to it as more than just a dance studio, Fiske said she has students from all walks of life ranging from 15 to 76 years old who come not only to dance, but also to heal, express themselves and be part of a community.
That’s why Fiske said although they can’t maintain their physical building, some of her instructors will continue lessons while they look for another commercial space.
Fiske said she had found a new roughly 2,000-square-foot space, but it fell through.
So, in the interim, in May, classes will be held in an event space at Dave & Buster’s in Lynnhaven Mall in Virginia Beach.
Tuesdays will be free Latin classes 6-7 p.m. and social dancing 7-10:30 p.m. Members can continue their salsa lessons 6:30-9:30 p.m. Wednesdays and bachata on Thursdays. Drop-ins cost $17.
“We’re going to regroup and, hopefully, when a space that will work opens up, we’ll move in,” she said.
COVID also brought multiple styles of dance into the Latin-themed studio, such as belly dancing and country-western two-step, as other instructors found themselves in search of space. Fiske welcomed them all in.
“We really ended up expanding our classes and genres, which was part of our original vision when we opened into that space — to create a cultural center,” Fiske said.
Nadira Grubbs, owner and director of Seven Cities, a belly dance studio in downtown Hampton, became a main instructor at the Mambo Room when she was forced to close her studio in 2020 after six years in business.
She wants to find a 1,000- to 2,000-square-foot space to open a Mambo Room on the Peninsula while Fiske searches in South Hampton Roads.
“We want to keep the multicultural arts alive in the seven cities,” Grubbs said, “and reassure our clients that the place that they come to dance, have fun and feel good is going to continue to be around.”
While Fiske said they are keeping everything fluid right now, she said the spirit of the Mambo Room has not died.
“We’re just taking this as an opportunity to be more mobile, try to reach people we weren’t able to reach before being in one location,” she said. “If a space became available tomorrow, we would move in.”
Sandra J. Pennecke, 757-652-5836, sandra.pennecke@insidebiz.com
