Studio's 30th year more special with nat'l victory BY VINCENT TODARO Staff Writer Dancers from the Center Stage studio in East Brunswick perform during the recent Headliners National Dance Competition in Pennsylvania. The dancers took top honors. EAST BRUNSWICK - It's not "Dancing With the Stars," but it just might get you there some day. The past year was a big one for Center Stage, a dance studio based on Tices Lane, as it celebrated its 30th anniversary and saw one of its dance companies bring home a national award. Owner George Warren opened the studio 30 years ago, though in a different location. The studio is now located in Suite 14 of the Tices Lane Center, behind Dick's Sporting Goods. Warren moved to the 12,000-square-foot studio five years ago when the building was being renovated. "I was able to design a facility that was perfect for actors and dancers," he said. In fact, Warren recently closed his studio in Somerset and consolidated it with the East Brunswick location. He also moved his Marlboro facility to a new location in that township last year. That studio, at 8,300 square feet, has four dance and theater rooms. Warren, who grew up in New Brunswick, actually began teaching while he was performing. He noted that he took up teaching in order to avoid the job that so many aspiring actors take on to make ends meet - waiting tables. Eventually, he became convinced that owning a dance studio was his calling, and he opened Center Stage. Today, the studio offers dance classes in hip-hop, jazz, classical ballet and tap, as well as a full acting department and vocal department. Shows are performed at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, and each year Warren writes a show that is performed at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank as well as the State Theatre. As a dance company, Warren said he looks for people who are very serious about performing. Students who pass the audition work on their art form and can possibly go on to compete in national events. Over its 30 years, the studio has seen a number of its students make it to the Broadway stage, he said. "We have some students dancing for fun and others who go on to become professionals," Warren said. Warren has over three decades seen the studio grow and students become more committed to excelling as performers. "We have so many who are serious and want to be professionals," he said. "When I grew up here, there were not so many opportunities to learn this way. You'd have to go to New York City." Among the national events where Warren's students have won top honors are the Great American Dance Competition in Florida, and even a dance competition run by Paula Abdul in her pre-American Idol days. Most recently, the dancers took the championship at the Headliners National Dance Competition in Pennsylvania. Warren had about 50 students at the event, and 24 took part in the Supermarket Shuffle, a piece Warren wrote and choreographed. He described it as a "dance/theater piece combining tap and theater." Warren said he is also very proud of his Marlboro facility. He had operated in Marlboro for years before moving last year to the new facility there. He said the studio offers hip-hop classes taught by Eric Samson, and that new companies using other types of music are opening. The studio also provides an acting and music theater department and a vocal department. Though the facility is large, Warren said many people miss it because of its location. It is located in the Central Jersey Complex on Campus Drive. Warren said classes run either for an hour or hour-and-a-half, and include 10 to 12 people. The studio's Web site is www.centerstagenj.com.