It’s 7:15 on a Thursday evening, and the chattering in the hallway at the Gail Towbes Center for Dance is getting louder as more than 50 women make their way to the studio where the La Boheme Productions dance class is about to start.

The women, wearing a colorful assortment of workout clothes — animal-print leggings, sports bras, T-shirts, tights and tennis shoes — find their places on the hardwood floor.

An expansive mirror reflects the dancers’ images as they begin to bend and stretch, warming up to the song “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).”

An event-driven dance group, La Boheme Productions is getting ready for its annual appearance in Santa Barbara’s iconic Solstice Parade, which is Saturday.

Rehearsals are held at the dance center on Las Positas Road and at the Carrillo Recreation Center in downtown Santa Barbara.

A parade regular, La Boheme is known for its showy costumes, which incorporate corsets, feathers, fur, wigs and bling — lots of bling.

This is the ninth year the group will be part of the Santa Barbara Summer Solstice festival, said Teresa Kuskey, La Boheme’s founder, director — and mom.

“They call me ‘Mama T,’” said Kuskey, who relishes the nurturing role she plays with her dancers, who range in age from 15 to their 80s.

The mother of six children, Kuskey said her motivation for starting La Boheme was to support local mothers, non-moms and even a few men.

“A lot of it stems from being a really busy mom, and mothers need an outlet, too,” she said. “There are a lot of different groups that are helping women overseas, and I felt when I looked around that the women around me needed help.

“Being a mom is the hardest job ever,” said Kuskey, who subscribes to Mother Teresa’s belief that, “The way you help heal the world is you start with your own family.”

“You need to start with those people around you,” Kuskey said. “So I created this. When mom is happy, everyone’s happy.”

Asked why she chose the title La Boheme for the group, Kuskey, who had a career as a professional dancer, said it is the name’s implication of creativity.

“I chose La Boheme because it meant to me the artists, the dancers, the writers, the painters, the poets — the creatives,” she said. “I believe our brains work a little differently; we tend to go outside of the box … and I feel La Boheme, the name, represents that type of people.”

In La Boheme classes, Kuskey brings her personal dance background to the studio. She started dancing at age 4 and has performed with such renowned companies as the New York City Ballet, the American Ballet Theatre and the San Francisco Ballet.

Many of La Boheme’s dance numbers have ballet and jazz roots “because that’s what I know. I bring in a lot of Latin and some hip-hop because the young ones like that, but it’s pretty traditional. It’s very Rockette-like,” she said.

What Kuskey doesn’t teach is the body-image requisite she experienced as a member of the professional dance world.

“I used to get measured; I used to get weighed,” she recalled. “There’s a certain look. I had the right length of legs and arms and neck, and the oval head. That is what they look for, and so I fit that.”

But for La Boheme dancers, Kuskey insists: “I don’t care what you look like.”

Part of that sentiment might stem from the fact that Kuskey is certain she can make her dancers look good.

“Some (of the dancers) have had training, some have never had training, and I don’t care,” she said. “I’m a great teacher. It’s a gift to be able to teach — and they look like professional dancers.”

Judith Smith-Meyer, who has been with La Boheme for six years, said she had danced for 25 years before having children. When she joined La Boheme for the 2017 Solstice Parade, it had been 22 years since she last danced.

“So, dancing with the group also reconnected me with something I loved to do most of my life,” Smith-Meyer recalled.

“That said, dancers with no training are welcome, and learn and perform the choreography. That is the most unique and amazing thing about Teresa Kuskey; she can teach totally new dancers, stepping way outside their comfort zones, to dance and be confident, and have a great time doing it.”

“I want every woman, no matter her body size, to feel comfortable,” Kuskey added.

While unconcerned about physical image, Kuskey has little sympathy for students’ excuses to not dance.

“I have a very high pain tolerance because in my dance world there was no excuse not to dance,” she said. “I would go on stage with bloody feet. If you were sick, you’d throw up.

“So my poor dancers, if they tell me anything, I say, ‘Well, you’re still living, aren’t you?’ I’m tough that way.”

That sort of tough love has had a profound effect on some members of La Boheme.

“I’ve had dancers who wouldn’t look up from the floor, and now they go through life with their head high, shoulders back and chest up,” Kuskey said. “I have women that tell me it’s changed their lives for the better; it’s helped them with their families.”

One of the first things Kuskey tells her dancers when they arrive at class is to leave their troubles at the door.

“They come in with so much — medical issues, financial issues, intense issues,” she said. “Let’s all just come in here and dance.”

Smith-Meyer loves the liberation she feels when she dances.

“Dancing itself brings me so much joy,” she said. “The whole world melts away, and I’m happy, joyous and free.”

It’s the kind of “dance-like-nobody’s-watching” attitude (even though a lot of people usually are watching) that gives La Boheme women the confidence to parade up a Santa Barbara thoroughfare, heads held high, wearing bouffant wigs, risque Victorian ensembles and gold spray-painted sneakers.

“I think they love the beautiful costumes,” Kuskey said. “You know what? It’s fun to dress up and put on the full makeup and the jewels. I think women want to feel beautiful, and I give them a goal to work toward with their fitness level. It’s just a good feeling.”

Right after the COVID-19 shutdown, Kuskey selected the theme “Life Is Short! Eat the Cake!” for a dance, complete with 18th-century period costumes reminiscent of Marie Antoinette.

Other performance themes have included “Circus” and “Science Fiction.” The topics are pretty much all Kuskey’s ideas, often stemming from something that caught her eye at an earlier event.

“Birds of a Feather Fly Higher Together,” the theme of La Boheme’s 2023 Solstice Parade entry, reflects the troupe’s philosophy of sisterhood.

“Together we’re better, or birds of a feather fly higher together,” Kuskey said. “Dancers use that sentiment in emails and messages. No matter what you’re going through, we’ve got your back.”

Smith-Meyer feels that camaraderie. “The sisterhood that Teresa engenders is uniquely rewarding,” she said. “We lift each other up and support each other. I’ve made new friends, and had a lot of opportunities to volunteer and help with company communications; both of those feel great.”

Once Kuskey gets her “grand vision” for costumes, she heads to Los Angeles to buy material for skirts, hats, feathers, etc. The dancers go online to buy the base layers — shorts, stockings and corsets — that are a signature part of nearly all their outfits.

“(Dancers) have been wearing corsets since ballet in the 18th century, because who wouldn’t want that? I’ve had six babies, so stick that on me,” Kuskey said, patting her stomach.

Instructions for assembling the clothes are sent out on Google Drive, then the dancers get together for a costume-making party, piecing the layers together on mannequins. No sewing experience is necessary, but it is helpful to know your way around a glue gun.

In addition to Solstice, La Boheme has participated in Fourth of July parades and leads a Mardi Gras march in February.

For nonprofits that might need dancers for a special event, Kuskey can provide entertainment for free or a nominal fee, she says.

La Boheme recently performed at a Chubby Checker party outside the Lobero Theatre, which this year is celebrating its 150th anniversary.

The Gail Towbes Auditorium at the Lobero Theatre was refurbished in 2013. Towbes, who was married to Santa Barbara developer and philanthropist Michael Towbes and passed away in 1996, had been a close friend of Kuskey’s parents. The Gail Towbes Center for Dance on Las Positas Road is also named for her.

Towbes loved the ballet, but she did not dance herself because she didn’t fit the ballerina model, Kuskey said. She did, however, urge Kuskey’s parents to point their daughter toward a life in the ballet — and for that Kuskey is forever grateful.

“She would love knowing what I am doing, so I thank you, Gail Towbes, for pushing my parents and keeping me in dance. I do this for her,” Kuskey said.