When Sabrina Wichhart first saw the Irish dance musical “Riverdance” on PBS as a child, she was awestruck. The dancing mesmerized her, and the music captivated her attention. Wichhart loved everything about the show.

“From the dancing to music to costumes, it was all incredible,” Wichhart said. “At the time I didn’t even know what that style of dancing was called; I just knew I wanted to do it.”

Wichhart quickly went from dancing to the movie’s soundtrack in her family’s Las Vegas home to beginning lessons at the age of 9. By the time she was 16, she was competing in Open Championships, the highest level in Irish dance. Now, Wichhart has entered a new phase of her life as an instructor and entrepreneur as the owner of Columbia’s only Irish dance studio, the Bratten School of Irish Dance.

Wichhart quickly went from dancing to the movie’s soundtrack in her family’s Las Vegas home to beginning lessons at the age of 9. By the time she was 16, she was competing in Open Championships, the highest level in Irish dance. Now, Wichhart has entered a new phase of her life as an instructor and entrepreneur as the owner of Columbia’s only Irish dance studio, the Bratten School of Irish Dance.

“You don’t teach Irish dance really for the money. It’s more because you love it. But I couldn’t imagine it not being a part of my life,” Wichhart said. “I just feel like I’m connecting with my lineage by continuing to Irish dance.”

Her studio name, Bratten, is Wichhart’s middle name. Bratten is also her grandmother’s maiden name, which her ancestors used when they immigrated to the U.S. from Ireland. Before starting her own studio last year, Wichhart was an instructor with the Clark Academy of Irish Dance. When the academy stopped offering classes in Columbia in May 2022, she found alternative spaces where her students could continue learning while she finalized a space for her own studio. Wichhart used the ARC for group lessons, and she even taught private and semi-private lessons in her basement studio.

Two months to the day after Clark Academy closed, the Bratten School of Irish Dance officially opened its doors at the Columbia Mall. With the help of Victoria Hamlin, an assistant dance teacher at the studio, Wichhart offers classes throughout the week for a wide range of age groups. Her youngest students must be at least 5 years old, and Wichhart said her oldest dancer right now is in her 60s. Although teaching may be second nature to Wichhart by now, she is still learning how to navigate the nuances and responsibilities of small business ownership.

“I love dance. It’s my passion. But at the same time, I can’t continue a studio if I’m not making money or at least breaking even,” Wichhart said. “I can’t take money out of my family to keep the studio going. So it has to be successful on its own.”

Because of rules for competitive Irish step dancing, students at Bratten had to sit out of competition for six months. The dancers also needed to learn entirely new choreography before they could compete in a feis. Pronounced “fesh,” a feis is the Gaelic name for an Irish dance competition. In February, after months of practice, 15 of Wichhart’s students participated in the two-day St. Louis Irish Arts Feis. For five of them, it was their first ever feis.

This weekend, 10 dancers will take part in the Sunflower Feis in Shawnee, Kansas.

For St. Patrick’s Day, Bratten students of all ages and skill levels danced two shows in Columbia, one at Lenoir Woods and the other at Solstice Senior Living.

“It’s a typical St. Patrick’s Day. They are crazy. They’re chaotic. They’re stressful. They’re exhausting. But that’s what St. Patrick’s Day as an Irish dancer is like,” Wichhart said.

One of the dancers who has been with Wichhart since the Clark Academy, 17-year-old Szymon Slusarz-Kowalczyk, performed in this year’s St. Patrick’s Day show. He has been Irish dancing for three-and-a-half years. Slusarz-Kowalczyk said Wichhart can be a bit “like a drill sergeant,” but she still supports her dancers and pushes them to do their best while respecting their bodies’ limits.

“I really like how accepting dance is, and I feel really confident and truly able to be myself and be open and expressing every part of that. It’s really fun,” Slusarz-Kowalczyk said. “Kind of ironically because it’s a place where, you know, you get judged for everything you do, but I feel like the least judged when I’m dancing.”

In addition to her professional responsibilities, Wichhart is also the mother of two: a 4-month-old son, Finnegan, and an almost 2-year-old daughter, Lorelei. Her husband works during the day while she handles child care, and they trade in the evenings when Wichhart goes to the studio.

“Being a mom with two littles and then having a business on the side is quite hectic sometimes,” Wichhart said.

But looking ahead, Wichhart has no intention of slowing down. Even though Columbia isn’t known for being a hotbed of Irish culture and dance, she said she would like the school to one day have multiple locations around the country and for Bratten to become a well-known name in Irish dance. Wichhart said she would like to increase the studio’s racial and ethnic diversity, attracting people from all walks of life and helping students thrive under her instruction.

“I hope the studio is here forever. I hope after me it’s my daughter and grandchildren,” Wichhart said. “I would like to grow it, and I would like to grow out of our location. I hope that we have classes six days a week, and every class has 15 dancers in it. And I’d love to have this huge school of 100 kids and just be this really powerhouse Irish dance school.”

Although hosting a feis in Columbia isn’t in the cards just yet for Wichhart, she said she wants to one day make that a reality. In the meantime, Bratten students will continue to take part in mid-American regional competitions elsewhere.

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