By Vivian Le
vivian-le@uiowa.edu
Ambition Baton Twirling tossed things up earlier this month when it opened its new studio at 4172 E. Alyssa Court. Currently, it is the only baton-twirling studio in a 130-mile radius of Iowa City.
The new studio offers private as well as group classes for ages five to 18. Currently, the studio’s sole focus is twirling, but dance classes will be offered fall of 2017.
Owner Jessica Baker decided to make a new facility available in order to further promote the sport she fell in love with at the age of 5.
“The sport is dying, so why not start it up?” she said. “We have a lot of dance studios, but I didn’t want the baton twirling to die because I had so much fun performing growing up, and I loved the competition and my team.”
As child, Bakerwas was immediately awestruck at a Hawkeye football game when she first saw former University of Iowa Golden Girl Diana Reed perform baton twirling. She began taking twirling class through the UI with her younger sister Julia Baker, who is now the featured twirler for City High.
Reed instructed these classes and helped guide the Baker sisters’ passion for twirling.
Since then, Baker has graduated from Western Illinois University where she was the featured twirler. When she left Western Illinois, she did not quite want to give up twirling yet.
“When I was finished, I decided to continue the passion that I had and teach others,” she said.
Baker has been teaching for eight years now, with 18 years of twirling experience under her belt.
She began coaching recreational and competitive teams in recreation centers in Coralville and North Liberty, and the Field House.
Her teams have been competing under the name of Ambition for four years now, but this is the first year the new studio has been in operation.
It was around the time she realized she had 35 separate families enrolled in her classes, that she decided it would be best to expand her operations.
“It was a safety hazard, so we had to get our own place,” Julia Baker said. Part of their search was finding a building that would have ceilings that would allow for baton tosses that could go nearly 20 feet in the air.
“With baton twirling, you have to be consistent. You’re not only dancing and you’re not only doing gymnastics, but you’re also throwing a metal stick,” Jessica Baker said. “You have to practice a lot more than you think.”
West High School featured twirler Natalie Sherman also participates at Ambition. Similar to the Baker sisters, Sherman began twirling after seeing the Golden Girl perform at a Hawkeye basketball game.
“The studio opening is awesome. It provides more twirling opportunities, and can service a larger number of students,” Sherman said. “The new studio is a much better place to have baton in because it provides an easily accessible, and safe place for kids to learn and practice. I think it will be so fun to be able to twirl in a studio specifically for Ambition, because we’ve never had that before.”
This year the studio will be taking its teams to Twirlmania in Orlando. The event is hosted by ESPN Wide World of Sports in February and will include teams from all over the world of varying ages.