Feel the Beat

History

Jari and Julia met while working at an elementary school together. Their students became motivated by incorporation of dance and music into learning tasks and the daily classroom routine. Jari and Julia noticed an increase in students' academic skills, self-confidence, motor coordination, and emotional regulation. They noticed that there were no pre-existing extracurricular outlets or programming for these students and wanted to do something to change that. After watching a deaf-blind student interact with instruments and having observed how deaf and hard of hearing students were drawn to feeling the face of a speaker they knew they not only had to create their own program but that it needed to have a tactile element in order to provide access to music. From there, they worked to create a studio with an accessible curriculum and program along with a floor that generates the vibrational sensation of all aspects of music.

Specialties

Dance studio, nonprofit, dancing, movement, jazz, hip-hop, children's yoga, ballet, lyrical, tap, music, after-school program, arts and education, early childhood education, special education, sign language, ASL, deaf and hard of hearing, dance for everyone.