Rasa School of Dance is having an anniversary show at the Regent Theatre to celebrate.
Principal Lisa Wilkinson said 20 years and a lot of sweat and tears later she had no regrets about starting the school.
"When I first made Rasa I didn’t think it would last longer than a year. It was kind of just filling in time before I got a real job or something like that."
She moved to Dunedin to go to teachers training college and get a performing arts degree after a back injury forced her to stop dance training, she said.
When she started Rasa, it only taught hip-hop and Bollywood dance and she was the only teacher for 10 students.
Now, Rasa had about 10 teachers and 500 students.
Much had changed, including her approach to dance training.
"Because I’m older now I can’t dance like I used to dance and over the last 10 years it’s been a bit of a letting-go process in terms of what I can do and what my body says no to just because of injuries.
"I care more for my students’ bodies because we were bought up with just going hard and not complaining but these days we know more."
Rasa alumnus Ona Fraser said she started at the school in 2008 and was a shy child.
"I wasn’t a big fan of high school and I didn’t fit in there, so it was nice to go to Rasa and just fit in."
She was now studying dance in Wellington and was planning on moving to Sydney to continue her training next year.
