Nicole Bigley
Liv Nielsen is a senior dance major with a goal. She grew up in Minnesota’s active dance community and saw a gap: serious training for young dancers ages 5 to 18 that didn’t exist in her area. She wants to go back and fill it, but first, she needs a business plan.
A Chapman performing arts education builds the artistry and technique to perform at the highest level. The Performing Arts Entrepreneurship Intensive was designed to complement that, helping students see that creative passion and business skills don’t have to live in separate worlds.
From Vision to Venture: How the Intensive Program Works
Launched during Interterm 2026, the program brought 12 College of Performing Arts students through a four-week, hands-on experience built on a direct question: what happens when Chapman’s College of Performing Arts and the Leatherby Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics work together? The answer is a program that takes performing arts entrepreneurship seriously, treating it as a skill set every artist needs.
Students worked step by step through every stage of launching a business including market research, brand building, finances, and sales strategy.
Chapman alumni Julia Foster (MBA ‘13), Eugenia Rodriguez ’18, Kristen Robinson ’13, Molly Mahoney ’02, and Amira Fulton Jensen ’13, returned as guest speakers, mentors, and judges, representing backgrounds in dance, theatre, music, and business.
One alumna co-founded a dance convention from the ground up. Another shared how the small classes she began teaching in Los Angeles eventually grew into a full studio. They came back to share lessons learned and to open doors, connecting students directly to their professional networks. For Nielsen, it brought the curriculum to life in a way that a typical business or marketing class rarely does.
Student Success in Performing Arts Entrepreneurship
Talented performers are everywhere, but building a sustainable career around that talent takes more than skill. It takes business savvy, a network, and the confidence to turn that passion into a career. The Performing Arts Entrepreneurship Intensive provides all three, adding the business fluency that turns artistic training into a lasting career.
The Gift Behind the Program
The program exists because of the generosity of an anonymous Chapman family, whose gift funded the program for six interterms and endowed student scholarships for College of Performing Arts students. Their investment ensures that every student who walks through the program leaves with a business plan, a professional network, and the confidence to use both.
The Final Pitch: Entrepreneurship in Action
Students closed the program by presenting fully developed business plans to a panel of alumni judges. Nielsen pitched her studio concept: a training program for young dancers in Minnesota, built to provide the kind of opportunity she grew up without. The judges offered actionable feedback on each plan and opened their networks to the students presenting them.
For Nielsen, the work didn’t stop at the pitch. She is pairing her dance major with minors in entrepreneurship and community education studies. This summer, she interned in arts administration at Minnesota Dance Theatre, a nonprofit ballet school, working on marketing, outreach, and business operations. She also kept building her business plan through an independent study with a Chapman dance professor, designing a course on how to research and launch a dance studio. When she is done performing, she will be ready to open her own studio.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Performing Arts Entrepreneurship Intensive program?
A hands-on program at Chapman University developed through a partnership between the College of Performing Arts and the Leatherby Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics. It gives performing arts students the entrepreneurial tools to build sustainable careers beyond the stage.
How does Chapman’s Performing Arts Entrepreneurship Intensive help students launch their own businesses?
Students gain hands-on experience, identify a market need, build a brand, develop a budget, and pitch directly to professionals. They leave with a completed business plan and direct feedback from Chapman alumni who have built careers at the intersection of the performing arts and entrepreneurship.
What skills can I expect to gain from the program?
Students develop practical skills in branding, marketing, financial literacy, and pitching to professionals, along with a professional network built through mentorship and connections with Chapman alumni.
Who is eligible to apply for the Performing Arts Entrepreneurship Intensive, and how do I apply?
The program is open to performing arts students at Chapman University.
