Dance teacher offers unique line of original paintings, dance gifts

Long before Mitzi Sato-Wiuff became a dance teacher at a Grand Junction, CO dance studio, she was a part-time artist who specialized in 100% colored pencil art. She had won numerous awards at local, regional and national art shows, showcasing the once-obscure 100% colored pencil art in the United States.

A native of Tokyo, Japan, Sato-Wiuff started drawing as a toddler and continued with her joy of drawing and painting throughout her school years. Despite her apparent inclination to paint, her parents did not encourage the young artist to pursue the path to commercial fine art field. Rather, she was encouraged to follow her parents' wish of going to college for an academic field of study. Many years went by with no painting produced. Art became pushed away as a mere hobby to this once aspiring artist.

While earning her Bachelor's of Arts degree in psychology from an American college, Sato-Wiuff discovered ballet as an adult beginner. First she took jazz, modern dance and ballet for physical education credits. Later, as she became more and more drawn to the field of dance, she continued to study ballet by enrolling at a local dance studio. Her apparent natural talent for dancing was spotted by all her teachers as she became a member of the student dance company wherever she studied.

Her strong interest and dedication to dance eventually led her to become a teacher at the Institute of Dancing Arts in Grand Junction, CO. It was there where her love of ballet was nurtured and the encouragement shse received eventually led her to produce her own collection of ballet-inspired art in watercolor and colored pencil.

During one holiday season, Sato-Wiuff was looking for suitable gifts for her dance students on the Internet, but didn't find anything that pleased her. "I mostly found cute pictures with lots of technical mistakes or inaccuracies", Sato-Wiuff remembers. "Then it just occured to me, why don't I paint some ballet images that I would like to see out there?"

This was the very beginning of her Studio Miyabi Ballet Gift Shop. Sato-Wiuff first offered her prints to the students who were taking classes from her at the studio. The response encouraged the dance teacher to create a full collection of dance images to market to dance students in her town. Her business started out by offering matted prints and greeting cards that she sold during holiday time. Eventually, her collection of ballet paintings grew and she decided to market her line of dance gifts online to all the aspiring dancers out there.

Her ballet images are characteristically warm and accurately depicts the ballet technique.
"I definitely wanted to show the corrent positions of the feet, legs and arms," Sato-Wiuff explains. "I wanted to stay away from really tight renditions like I used to do in colored pencils because it disracts from the fact that dancing is all about movements, and when you see too much detail, the image becomes too confined and static," she says.

Her softly colored watercolor and colored pencil ballet art is popular among the dance teachers and parents of young dancers. Studio Miyabi Ballet Gift Shop, which she named after her daughter, now offers over 1,500 gifts and apparel all with reproductions of her paintings or her graphic designs relating to the art of ballet or dance. She has found success through CafePress.com's print-on-demand, no- inventory-required business approach.
"CafePress takes care of the business side of it from processing the orders to producing the items to customer service. All I have to do is to paint the images and design the products and do a bit of web designing," Sato-Wiuff explains.

Today she splits her time teaching dance at the studio and painting and designing at home.
"It's really true what they say — when you do what you love, the money will follow," Sato-Wiuff says with a smile.

Her online store's URL is http://www.cafepress.com/studiomiyabi. Her products have been featured in such publications as Dance Teacher magazine and her artwork has been featured in professional company performance posters and programs, corporate holiday greetings and many other venues. She lives in Grand Junction, CO with her husband and daughter.