If there ever was a passionate person, Jennifer Jones is definitely one of them! She owns and runs the dance studio @joyofdanceto that shares the same building as The Yoga Sanctuary and Tapas at Embrujo, on the corner of Broadview.

Joy of Dance was established in 2006, around the same time Yoga Sanctuary moved in. The space was less than ideal to say the least, and took them 8 months to fully renovate. The building had suffered a fire approximately 10 yrs prior, and had not really been touched until they moved in. There was a large amount of work put in to bring it up to the standards we see it in today. The hard part was carrying all the equipment and materials up the stairs, even more so was convincing the local help to willingly carry it up. But it all got done.

Jennifer got into this business when she had started a partnership with her mother, who had been an instructor with another Ball & Dance studio for 14 yrs. Her mother wasn’t happy with their apparent heavy focus on the money they were bringing in, she was more interested in the passion for dance. Thus it prompted her to start this studio with her daughter. Hence the name “Joy of Dance”. Jennifer at the time was working at U of T and looking for a change as well. So it was a partnership that was meant to happen.

Jeniffer loves the sense of community the most here. She says that whenever in need all she has to do is reach out to the local businesses and patrons and they all jump in to help. And she has in turn helped them out as well. There are a number of other business owners within the BIA who have come to either take classes like Ed of Globe Bistro, while Mambo has used their dance space for their dance performers to practice in. She has often helped Starbucks out with staffing needs or come to the rescue when Tim Hortons needed it. So there is a real tight community here.

If you’re interested in taking up classes, jump over to their site and have a look at what they have coming up. For those looking to try something new they currently have a $10 Adult Try- it classes running until May 5th!