HIGH LIFE A WEEKLY FORUM FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS : Dream Weaver : An 18-Year-Old Goes ‘2 the Limit’ to Fulfill Goal of Opening Dance Club

Dancing is serious business to many teen-agers, but 18-year-old Chris Corrales has really pushed it “2 The Limit.”

Corrales, a 1989 graduate of El Toro High School, took it upon himself to open a dance club of that name for teen-agers. Situated in Lake Forest in South Orange County, the club offers a mix of Top 40, funk and progressive dance music.

“I’ve always liked to dance, and I like business,” Corrales said.

But early on, he discovered that building permits, music licenses and a lease agreement would be but a prelude to the crescendo of hard work that preceded the club’s opening as Club Reflex in March. Though it is comparatively small for a dance club, Corrales was still hard-pressed to rebuild and refurbish the 2,000 square feet inside and 300 square feet outside in the three weeks the landlord had allotted him.

“I did it on my own,” Corrales said. “I researched it. I worked with the people with the stereo and lighting, and I did a lot of the building myself. When you decide to do it, you’ve just got to grab the bull by the horns and not let go.”

Corrales opened the club while still in school. He would often do his homework at the club and try to squeeze in four hours of sleep a night.

“You take everything home with you. It’s always on your mind,” he said. “You’ve got to have responsibility, and you learn it real quick when you own your own business.”

The club recently underwent some more improvements, a few format changes, the addition of a business partner--Rob Boldt, 19 and a 1988 El Toro graduate, and a name change.

Now that 2 The Limit is more established, Corrales said, its operation doesn’t take up nearly as much of his time. He lets his supervisors--especially head supervisor Boldt--share some of the load.

Boldt, who estimated that he puts in about 50 hours a week at the club, said, “It’s not as easy as an outsider looking in would think.”

Though Boldt and Corrales split the work and responsibilities, Corrales alone takes credit for the years of dreaming and planning that made 2 The Limit possible.

Corrales started dancing at age 14, when he would go to Studio K at Knott’s Berry Farm. His first taste of business came at age 15, when he started his own company--California Style Auto Detailing.

Even before he opened his detailing business, he had the idea for a dance club.

“Not only did he have the idea, he had it well thought out,” said Rudy Corrales, Chris’ father. “Instead of saying, ‘Well I can do this or I can do that,’ he said, ‘Here’s how it can be done.’ It’s the same as with a person of any age--they have an idea, and that’s it. The big difference is that Chris acted on it. He keeps going. That’s the difference between somebody with a good idea and somebody who follows through with it.”

Boldt pointed out a few other problems that keep new entrepreneurs from being successful: “They either don’t know what they’re doing, or they really don’t know what they want. It takes patience. It takes time.”

It did take time, and almost three years after Corrales conceived the idea, his club opened. Money raised from the detailing business, which a friend now manages, other money he had earned and financial help from his parents and friends gave him his chance. Today, Corrales estimates the club is worth at least $50,000.

“We helped a little, but not enough to finance the whole thing,” Rudy Corrales said. “We tried to be there in emergencies.”

Said Chris Corrales: “I was talking to some guy, and he said, ‘You’re a rich white boy with a really nice car and a club and everything.’ I’m not rich. I don’t have the financial backing a lot of people think.

“People think every single penny that comes in goes right into my pocket, and that’s not true. Everybody forgets about the $600 electric bill, the $500 phone bill. . . . “

Besides paying his bills, Corrales reinvests some of his profits in the club. He has added a video screen, chairs, tables, $7,000 worth of lights, and a bar that serves non-alcoholic drinks, peanuts and popcorn.

Occasionally, 2 The Limit features a guest band, such as Boldt’s rhythm and blues, Top 40 band One + One, which expects to release its first record in the fall. The club also sponsors contests, such as awarding a cash prize every Friday night to the dancer with the funkiest haircut.

“Fridays and Mondays always sell out,” said Corrales, adding that it is not unusual for people to wait 45 minutes to get in. With a capacity of 299, teen-agers are allowed in one at a time as others leave. The minimum age allowed inside is 16.

“We come to see guys, to have fun,” said Patti Dupaz, 16, who attends Dana Hills High. “We like to meet new people and learn new steps. It’s good that it’s run by a teen-ager, because he knows what we want.”

Russ Iiams, 17, is a senior at Laguna Hills High who occasionally works as a disc jockey at the club on Saturday nights. “It’s a place you can come to without going to parties and without drinking, and just have some good fun,” he said.

Corrales said 2 The Limit tries to provide more than high-decibel entertainment. “I like the people to come in and be in a clean atmosphere and feel kind of unique, some place where they’d like to take a girl and be proud of it,” he said.

2 The Limit’s success has inspired Corrales to keep dreaming. He said he has plans for expansion and aspires to open another, much larger club that could accommodate concerts. But for now, he is a full-time business major at Saddleback College who hopes to transfer to USC.

“As long as 2 The Limit is doing as well as it’s doing right now, I’m happy to keep it because it’s bringing me in what I want,” he said.