July has been a banner month for the Fernley Performing Arts studio, marching in Fernley’s 4th
of July parade, performing at the Out-of-Town Park after the parade, and now preparing its
senior dancers to compete in the Starbound National Talent Competition Finals at Bally’s Lake
Tahoe early next week.
“The senior competition team will be attending Starbound Talent Competition in Tahoe July 20-
23. The 23rd is the day most of our groups compete,” said Mirandy Lewis, the studio’s office
manager.
Fernley Performing Arts has three dance competition teams, the mini team consisting of 5-8
year-olds, the junior team consisting of 9-12 year-olds and the senior team made up of 13-18
year-olds. The senior team advanced to the nationals after qualifying late last year in a regional
competition, also held at Lake Tahoe, Lewis said.
Admission to next week’s dance competition at Bally’s is free, Lewis said, and it will also be live
streamed on the internet. To view the live-stream event, log on to:
https://www.starbound.net/event/lake-tahoe-nv-national-finals-july-29-24-2025/
Lewis said she is especially proud of their team’s success, since Fernley High School no longer
fields a dance competition team.
Laken Boonlua, the teacher leading all the group’s competition teams, including the senior team
competing at Tahoe next week, trained with New York’s Radio City Music Hall’s world famous
Rockettes, ran her own dance studio for 17 years in Long Beach, CA and began choreographing
her own dance routines at 10 years of age.
Fernley Performing Arts began about 10 years ago, operating part-time in another business
location and began renting its own small space at 45 W. Cedar Street, Suite 130 for its growing
clientele about three years ago. But Lewis said the studio is quickly outgrowing its new space as
well.
The studio now has about 250 students participating in dance and musical theater lessons, as well
as teaching four musical instruments - the violin, guitar, drums and piano. Also offered are
Mommy and Me classes for infants and toddlers and classes for home-schooled students, she
said. New classes begin September 2 and are offered six days a week at their current location. More
information is available at FernleyPerformingArts.com. Lewis said they are looking for more space as their current lease has about a year left on it and
though they tried to rent two spaces adjacent to their current location, their landlord will not let
them knock down walls between the rental spaces to provide a larger performance area.
Classes cost $55 a month, though there are some additional costs for costumes and such, Lewis
said, also noting that all offered classes are for children only, except the Mommy and Me classes.
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