Beloved Beyoncé dancer duo will perform in KC before Sunday’s show. Here’s how to see them

Editor’s note: Do you want to commemorate the finale of Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour in Kansas City? Sign up to get a free digital download of The Star’s front page sent to your email after the concert.

Elaina Paige-Thomas waited for a call that never came, and it changed her life.

The call, if she got it, would have knocked her out of the running to be one of Beyoncé’s dancers at Oprah’s 2011 Surprise Spectacular, after hundreds auditioned for a spot in Chicago. Her dream would have been crushed and a golden opportunity missed. The show featured the choreography debut for “Run The World (Girls),” which became one of Beyonce’s biggest hits.

If the call didn’t come, she was expected to show up at a Chicago studio at 6 a.m. sharp.

Paige-Thomas waited until midnight. When the phone didn’t ring, she and her friends celebrated. And then she had to prepare for her new life.

After dancing in front of the likes of Aretha Franklin, Tom Cruise, Stevie Wonder, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, and Madonna, Paige-Thomas now finds herself teaching the next generation at The Next Paige, Kansas City’s first Black-owned talent agency, at 5930 Troost Ave.

And this weekend, ahead of the final stop of Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” tour Sunday at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, two of Beyoncé’s tour dancers, the Les Twins, are coming to Paige-Thomas’s studio.

The twins from France will teach a workshop and host a freestyle dance battle at an event scheduled from 4 to 11 p.m Saturday. The price of tickets range from $30 for the meet-and-greet sessions, $40 for the dance battle, $50 for the freestyle session or $70 for people who want to dance in the workshop. Tickets can be purchased on the ticketing website Eventbrite.com.

On Wednesday, Paige-Thomas hosted another Beyoncé-inspired event at the studio: a dance class where she taught 11 young adults and dance teachers the routine she learned on Beyoncé’s team. She broke it down for them piece-by-piece and then watched them put it all together in one smooth motion for the next hour.

“Beyoncé didn’t want no weak dancers by her side,” Paige-Thomas said to her class “She encouraged us to kill it, so let’s kill it.”

A few of the dancers who were in class Wednesday are going to the show Sunday night, where Paige-Thomas said they will see Beyoncé do, in front of over 55,000 people, the same moves they just learned.

Teaching the next generation

Paige-Thomas said she always wanted to give back to Kansas City. The talent agency she started in 2021 is her way of doing so.

The agency signs creatives from the Kansas City area and helps them fight for their dreams by providing resources, opportunities and training sessions.

Dance classes are just one of the resources the agency offers inside the studio that she built with a $50,000 grant from Kansas City G.I.F.T., a nonprofit organization founded in 2020 with the goal to close the racial wealth gap in Kansas City. Other resources include classes for singers, actors, models, along with teaching the community financial literacy.

“I’m grateful that I’ve been able to utilize my platform from that experience to now cultivate and help my community of creatives,” Paige-Thomas said.

Her impact has already been felt. A few of the students in class Wednesday night are themselves teaching dance to young people around the city.

Danielle Correa asked Paige-Thomas for help on a specific point during the routine. She couldn’t get the movement right during a turn to the side, and Paige-Thomas guided her step-by-step until she could do it with confidence.

Correa is the mother of a 2-year-old daughter, and looks up to Paige-Thomas as a role model as they are both balancing being a teacher and a mother.

“She’s (Paige-Thomas) still out here with her goals and her dreams and she has people like Beyoncé to continue to motivate her,” Correa said, “Elaina’s just a huge motivation for me.”

Lecia Sims graduated from University of Missouri-Kansas City in May, which is where she met Paige-Thomas. She’s teaching dance classes at high schools across the Kansas City metro through The Next Paige’s outreach program.

Sims teaches teenagers who’ve never danced before, which she said is challenging but also fun. She can see herself following in the same footsteps as Paige-Thomas: opening a dance studio, spreading the love and knowledge for dance and most importantly, dancing with Beyoncé.

“Being a Black girl here in Kansas City and owning a Black-owned business, Paige-Thomas is doing really great things for both Kansas City and the Black community,” Sims said. “I’m excited to see where it goes.”

“It really warms my heart to know that I had a hand in making someone’s dream come true,” Paige-Thomas said.

Paige-Thomas said she has a lot more in the works, but couldn’t share plans just yet. You can follow The Next Paige on Facebook and Instagram to see what she has in store.