BODY AND SOUL: Health food store and fitness studio picking up steam

WASILLA — Aspiring Valley acrobats won’t have to run away to join the circus anymore.

At Sahara Storm Studio and Circus Arts in Wasilla, up-and-coming big top headliners — or those just wanting to stay in shape — can learn how to use a trapeze, juggle, perform fire and hoop dancing, or dangle from suspended aerial silks.

Taught by Krista Gray and other instructors she brings in, the circus arts are part of a unique business partnership between Gray and Tony Glaser. Together, they own and operate Glacier Dietary Foods and Fitness, which on first glance appears to be a typical mom-and-pop health food store.

There are dozens of bins with healthy nuts and grains and plenty of gluten-free foods. From the back of the store, located in the strip mall across from Wal-Mart, the rhythmic beat of the music can be a lure. It’s coming from a pair of fitness classrooms that can be modified.

The hardwood floors and mirrors make the rooms perfect for dance, but a quick trip up a ladder has a trapeze hanging from the ceiling, or a number of chrome poles can be installed from floor to ceiling for one of the most popular classes — pole fitness.

“The pole dancing was just something I used to compete with,” Gray said, adding her classes are not about the stereotypical stripper-on-a-pole. “I’d like to see it legitimized as an acrobatic element instead of being associated with strippers. There’s strength and fitness and sensuality, and it can all be done in a very classy way.”

While Gray takes care of the fitness, Glaser is the expert on the food side, and he has the experience many of his customers are looking for. Originally from Nebraska, Glaser came to Alaska with the military and moved to the Valley in 2002. Before opening Glacier Dietary Foods and Fitness, he spent seven years heading up the health food department at Fred Meyer stores in Wasilla and Palmer.

After awhile, he started thinking about opening his own health food store.

“I was going to open a nutrition place, then my wife started belly dancing with Krista, and they needed a place to belly dance,” he said. “So, we put this together.”

At first, Gray wasn’t sold on Glaser’s idea of a partnership, but admits business has been picking up over the past couple of months.

“I thought it was weird at first, but people who are into fitness are also usually into eating well, and the whole gluten-free situation is universal,” she said. “One-stop shopping, so why not? Come in, get sweaty and take dinner home. It works.”

From the food side, Glaser said he enjoys the freedom of being his own boss. He’s also able to be more responsive and attentive to special requests customers may have.

“It’s quite a bit different from the corporate world,” he said. “I don’t have to worry about corporate coming in and telling me what I have to do. When customers tell me what they like to eat, I can bring that stuff in for them.”

While circus training and health food make a good partnership as a business concept, Glaser said he leaves the performance to Krista.

“I don’t do any of the circus stuff, I do the food side of it,” he said.

Teaching skills like juggling, fire and hoop dancing, trapeze, unicycle and — eventually — tightrope, Krista said she’s hoping to be more than a novelty act.

“We’re trying to maintain the tradition of circus (performing), and it’s kind of a lost tradition at this point,” she said. “There are really only two traveling circuses in existence anymore.”

And she knows what it takes to be part of the circus. Originally from Seattle, Gray performed with her dance troupe when the circus would come to town.

“It’s exhausting, really,” she said. “Two shows, set up, tear down, 9 in the morning ‘til 4 in the morning each day. After all that work, you have to be spot on, because the show’s in the afternoon. The performers all have many jobs and they help each other.”

Through March, people can take Zumba fitness classes, learn power and flow yoga, go through the Better Body Boot Camp, learn hoop dancing and belly dancing, practice the art of aerial silk acrobatics, trapeze and learn to pole dance.

The variations on performance art are an extension of the gymnastics and dance background Gray has from childhood.

“It’s a dream. I have the best job in the world,” she said. “I make people sweat, I make them healthy, I make them happy. What more could I want?”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.