I have always dreamed of being my own boss and doing what I love. Who doesn’t, right? They say that “when you do what you love, you never work a day in your life” and I would say that’s exactly what rings true for me.
I won’t go on to talk about where I have taught and the places, I have gained my teaching experience from, I want to keep this about US.
I informally began the brand of Innovative Dance and Drama Studios back in 2014 when I was freelancing for preschools as a dance teacher. I would go in, have a ball with all the little souls, and leave, feeling like “I could do this all day long”. I contacted my best friend and said to her “can you design this logo for me” to which she said “of course!” And so, Innovative Dance and Drama Studios was born again, and this time, with a face!
I continued freelancing for schools, and at every school holiday available throughout the years, I would run holiday workshops focused mainly on Performing Arts (Drama), costume creations, arts, and crafts, along with dance. One day, towards the end of December 2018, I got a call from the premises I would always rent offering me the opportunity to lease full time. I nearly had heart failure (in a good way of course) – before I even knew the cost, the days, the times, the everything else in between, I immediately said YES!
Flash forward to February 2019 and there I was, with 2 students to begin with, and huge faith that ‘this will work out’. I won’t lie, it was a struggle. But as months passed by and the word got out that Milnerton had their own resident Dance & Drama teacher, so the beautiful faces started walking through the doors. At the time, I was focused on baba’s, juniors, and teens, until my friend said “Rach, why don’t you start an adult hip hop class? If you do, I am sure many women would be keen to come and dance”. – Well, I just said yes alright! Suddenly, the studio was booming, and I could not have been happier to be performing. It was from there that the brand started to expand. And then, the pandemic hit – we somehow survived. I think we survived because I really couldn’t bear to lose what I had grown from the ground up.
In 2022, I brought in my mom, a fully qualified drama teacher, Maxine, who has added nothing but value to our performing Arts Department. We are now 2 instructors who simply bleed energy, joy, and love for what we do. We work as a team.
The rest is simply history. Here we are, in 2026 now, with constant support from my family, demonstrations, shows and exams under our belts, many workshops later, tonnes of growth and personal development, and I would not change a thing. If I did, this brand would not be what it is today, a family, a place to call home for many.
It with this that I urge you to try new things, don’t be afraid to fail, you will fall, get back up always… and never, ever, quit.
“Dancers don’t need wings to fly”
“Live, Love, Dance, Act”
With love,
Rach xx
4 to 21 years old
In our modern classes, we encourage free movement and independent thinking alongside choreography, whilst teaching the foundation to being a strong little dancer. Creative movement is a form of stimulation for young minds, and so, we nurture this to encourage the development of confidence and expression. The benefits of modern dancing include, but are certainly not limited to, the learning of fine motor skills, coordination, physical health, social development, and emotional wellbeing. Our younger students are exposed to the knowledge of counting, beats, and rhythm whereby over time, they can count to the beat and dance accordingly to the music. For our older students, we base our classes not only on technique, but we touch on various styles of music and movement to create diversity for the dancer. Modern dance is a natural method of physical and emotional expression.
6 years old to adult
There is nothing like turning on the music and getting down like you own the strip! Our Beginner, Junior and Adult classes are geared towards fresh, fun, popping dance styles whilst bringing flare to the table. In these classes, coordination is key, and we focus heavily on the understanding of one’s body and how to move fluidly. The benefits of Hip Hop dancing include a release of stress and anxiety, improved flexibility, and cognitive abilities, it strengthens the bones and allows for an improvement of one’s fitness ability too. Hip Hop is a huge tree with many branches of styles, and in our classes, we aim to expose students to various genres to understand not only the fundamental skills but the commercial flavour too.
9 to 18 years old
No matter what you aspire to be when you grow up, performing arts is a window to a whole new world of confidence, speech improvement, voice production, modulation, improvisation and over all acting. Our classes are geared towards self-exploration, development of characters, breathing and vocal capabilities. Social skills and personal growth are key to all students across the board, and we encourage cooperation, imagination, empathy, concentration, and we create an environment for an emotional outlet. Our students are always encouraged to think outside of the box and to pack away fear to promote the development of a non-judgemental environment.
2 to 6 years old
A sense of grace, posture, physical coordination, mental focus, and concentration. An opportunity to promote social skills and well as listening skills – and not just for musicality. Our ballet is taught through a method of story theatre, allowing students to dive into a fantasy world whilst learning. Students learn discipline and how to follow instructions, through learning new positions, whilst encouraging the understanding of their own bodies in motion. Ballet encourages a happy release of emotion as well as creative expression and we ensure that each class is structured around pure enjoyment for the student.
6 years old to adult
I have always believed that making music with your feet is a superpower. It is exceptionally magical to be able to create beats with a flick of the foot. Tap develops a stronger dancer working on the balance of one’s body, posture, fluidity, core muscles, as well as muscles ranging from the neck down to the feet. We work on the counting of music and the understanding of complex counts in between the beats, thus creating music around the song itself. Tap dance may seem like a daunting form of dance, but no matter how old you are, you have a place in class to take on a new, fun challenge.