A well-established center for gymnastics, music, art, and just about anything else that children love, Gymtime placed a very big bet on itself a few years ago, jumping on an opportunity to expand and remodel its Upper East Side home to feature a whole floor devoted to gymnastics. The results are something to behold: a gorgeous, spacious, contemporary activity-and-enrichment center that, most importantly, seems as welcoming and family-friendly as ever. If education is the heart of York Avenue Preschool, which is the other key part of the overall facility, then Gymtime’s heart and soul is gymnastics, which it offers through recreational classes for kids of all ages and, since the remodeling, through a competitive team program as well. We recently caught up with owners Michael and Bonni Branciforte to chat about the expansion and everything it has meant for Gymtime and its families.
You’ve always been a popular neighborhood place. What was the motivation for undertaking such a massive redesign?
Michael: The key motivation behind the expansion was not to reinvent who we are, but to go back to our roots as a gymnastics center. A lot of readers may not know this, but Bonni and I started Brooklyn Gymnastics Center in 1978. It was one of the first gymnastic centers in the five boroughs, and by the time the ‘84 Olympics came around, we were competing on the state and national levels. But when we moved to Manhattan 24 years ago, we had to leave that behind because it was hard to find an adequate space to develop a competitive team. But I’m happy to say that once we completed our expansion, we were able to introduce team programs again.
This feels like a very personal move, not just a business opportunity.
Michael: It definitely wasn’t money-motivated. The chance to expand is nice, but there’s also a lot of risk involved.
Bonni: Being able to do it again, to be able to go back to 1984 and bring it into 2013, is just very exciting for us.
Michael: Of course, we hoped we could make at least enough money to pay for and to sustain the expansion. But did we think it was going to be such a windfall? No, it just happened to be. Now, what it really did help with was that it afforded us not only to expand our gymnastics program but also to help the facility as a whole, enhancing the preschool environment as well.
So what does it take to build an all-star gymnastics program from scratch again?
Michael: Most important, you have to invest in the right personnel. There is definitely a difference between people who teach age-appropriate gymnastics for beginners and the kind of coaches and teachers needed to develop a team program. In fact, Chris Vollaro, who oversees all Gymtime sports, including gymnastics, has been with us for more than 20 years and is a former gymnast of mine in Brooklyn.
Bonni: It’s a big part of the story. Chris was Michael’s student at three and a half years old. He continued in gymnastics, competed on a national level, trained at Colorado Springs [the Olympic Training Center], and stayed with Michael through all of that growth. So, really, we’ve come full-circle with the teams [and] also with the coaching.
Do many of the team kids start off in recreation programs at Gymtime and then request something more serious?
Michael: Let me put it this way: Gymnastic centers are like farm systems with Major League Baseball. So chances are, if you’re interested in gymnastics and have a knack for it, we’ll probably be speaking to the parents even before they come to speak to us.
At what age range can the more serious track start?
Michael: We will give parents an opportunity to put their children in a program of threes and fours that appropriately teaches developmental gymnastics in a way that the child is still having a lot of fun but also doesn’t skip any developmental skills, to carefully cultivate that child’s ability… The fun factor and the development factor have to be done proportionately, so that you don’t lose a young child out of frustration.
How’s the team program doing? Is it catching on?
Michael: Really well, I think. We’re coming into our third competitive season in the fall with 48 kids on our teams.
Since the last few years of Gymtime is, as Michael said, a return to your roots, I’d like to fill in a few more historical details. When did you two meet?
Bonni: Michael and I met in 1978. He was under construction for his first school in Bay Ridge.
Michael, back in the day, were you a gymnast?
Michael: I was a phys. ed. teacher who did gymnastics at a club, but I wouldn’t say I was a gymnast.
Bonni, were you involved from the beginning?
Bonni: I helped him get registration forms together, contact families, and all that, but I had a full-time job. In 1981, Michael and I got in a really bad accident, and I lost my job in the Garment Center because I lost the use of my arm for a year and a half. [So] I started working more with him. I learned how to write with my left hand. By 1984, we were a machine. It was so unbelievable; we were so ready for those Olympics.
How does the machine work now?
Bonni: To be together 24/7, you can’t. It’s hard. So I take care of the finances, overlook the front desk, make sure customer service is up to par. And Michael oversees the whole program.
Beyond gymnastics, please give us a peek of another program you’re particularly proud of lately.
Michael & Bonni (in unison): Kitchen Little.
Bonni: It’s wonderful. The focus is on natural ingredients, as little processed as possible, no sugar unless it’s natural agave. But to perfect recipes that kids like to eat took a long time. The age range is 2-6, there’s a recipe book, and they do two items a class.
Michael: To take those recipes and turn them into a curriculum and then a class, based on a whole development process of what a child needs—honestly, it took us about a year to get it right, but it’s really special.
Sounds like you have a good enough kitchen to feed the entire gymnastics teams.
Michael: Some of my friends say, ‘Why are you putting so much money into these facilities when you’re ready to retire?’ And I say, ‘A: I’m not ready to retire; and B: This is a passion for us, we’re going all out.’
Eric Messinger is editor of New York Family.
