2018 Newsmakers: LaKrisha Moore

During college, LaKrisha Moore, founder of On Cue Performing Arts Studio in Cape Girardeau, created the business model behind the performing arts school she wanted to own someday. Then she put the project away in a box and forgot about it.

Nearly a decade later, she found the plans her former self had made, and the timing to create the performing arts school was right. In 2015, she opened On Cue Performing Arts Studio in downtown Cape.

�I�ve always been a theater kid,� Moore says. �I did Muny as a kid, I had done a ton of different productions growing up. I was a natural-born performer. I didn�t start dancing until I was 12. I went to bring-a-friend day with a friend, and fell in love at that moment. Then I went into a studio to help out when I was in college and kind of fell in love with being in a studio, and knew I needed to teach.�

On Cue is the only school of its kind in the area, offering dance, theater and instrumental and vocal music classes. Moore has also implemented film camps, student-teaching programs for teenage students and parent-assisted classes for children 18 months to two years old. The school will soon have instructors for students with special needs.

The school�s past performances have included �Alice and Wonderland,� �The Little Mermaid� and a steampunk version of �The Wizard of Oz,� to name a few. Their next musical production will be �It�s Not Ogre Yet,� a parody of Shrek 2. For most of the productions, Moore and her husband write original scripts based off of famous stories that are a part of the public domain, and Moore�s musician friends write original music. Their staff of 15 people helps build the props, handle lighting/sound, projections and music, while Moore does the directing, choreography, costumes and makeup.

The school has been a wild success. After the first year, 130 students enrolled and the school moved to a bigger location. Now with more than 300 students, On Cue has a second satellite campus around the corner from the school. Moore says they�ve already outgrown this, too.

This isn�t Moore�s first teaching gig: she taught dance in Naples, Florida, for five years, as well as at her own studio in Sikeston, Missouri. She has also danced professionally with a modern dance group who toured in London.

Moore and her students put their talent to use in the community, helping with charity events including producing the halftime performances for the VintageNOW fashion show that benefits the Safe House for Women. She hopes to teach her students they can use their art, talent and passion for good.

Moore is also the creative director of Black-Hearted Cabaret, a new adult vaudeville company in Cape Girardeau.

�I love what I do,� Moore says. �The teachers that I have love what they do. I think if you�re passionate about your job and you�re passionate about your vision, it shows in all things you do, and others want to be a part of it, too. I�ve been very blessed with it.�