Local Christian Dance Studio Joyful Soles, Feeds into Youths and Community
By Elliana Denton
Many children grow up dreaming of dance. In their living rooms or in the distorted reflection of kitchenware, they imagine ballerina turns, dance competitions, and music videos, clumsily learning to express themselves through movement.
Joyful Soles, a local dance studio that recently moved locations to Troy, cultivates this creativity by uniting it with faith. Teaching ballet, jazz, lyrical, technique, and Pilates to various ages, Joyful Soles incorporates God into each class, creating a faith-driven, welcoming environment. Through the implementation of prayer, modest costumes, and worship music, the studio keeps God at the center of all they do and contributes to students’ lives by fostering their beliefs and providing them mentorship.
Owner Heather Lamm grew up in dance, beginning at four years old. She danced for two years at Dayton Ballet School and had experience with a competition team and college-level dance classes. She founded the studio twelve years ago with the intention of creating a space where her faith, career, and hobbies could merge in a way that feeds into youths.
“I love cultivating an environment in Joyful Soles where it is more of a family,” Lamm said. “It’s not just some place you come, take dance, and leave, but it’s a place where we can all support each other and pray for one another and experience highs and lows of life with each other.”
Joyful Soles has had a positive impact on many Tipp City residents, including Reese Morgan, who teaches classes at the studio and is Joyful Soles’ Outreach Coordinator. She joined six years ago with little dance experience.
“Before Joyful Soles, I didn’t even consider dancing,” Morgan said. “I thought ballet was boring, and God really used it to open up a whole new world of opportunity for me. Now that’s one of my main passions in life: dancing and sharing it with other people.”
Morgan is now on her fourth season of teaching at the studio. Although she began with little experience at a late age, Joyful Soles showed her that it wasn’t too late to start something new and become enamored with it.
“I fell in love with dancing and learning how to dance as a form of worship,” she said, “and it felt like such an amazing way to give my emotions to God and to express myself to Him and feel His heart in different ways that I hadn’t before. It really helped me become more solid in my identity in Christ and what that means to be His daughter.”
Through her experience with Joyful Soles, she was able to not only develop personally, but also offer mentorship to other young girls, giving them a shoulder to lean on while offering faith-based guidance. The students at Joyful Soles, whether they are a three-year-old new to dancing, a sixteen-year-old going through high school, or a mother enrolled in a Mommy and Me class, develop their confidence, creativity, and faith through dancing at the studio.
Along with fostering individual students, Joyful Soles has made a notable impact on the Tipp City community, especially through donations to public and private causes. Additionally, Joyful Soles can often be found performing at the Mum Festival, walking in the Mum Festival parade, dancing at city tree lightings, and performing at Christmas in the Village. Through these events, Joyful Soles reaches new people in the community to show them God’s love.
“Performing and interacting at those things really makes it feel like the practicing and the rehearsing and learning new choreography is all worth it when it touches someone else,” Morgan said.
Joyful Soles recently moved to Troy and plans to extend their impact by utilizing the new studio to offer new and larger classes, workshops, and performances. Troy extended their support at Joyful Soles’ ribbon cutting ceremony, where Troy Area Chamber of Commerce ambassadors attended.
“It’s been exciting because I’ve seen God through it all,” Lamm said.
For anyone searching for an encouraging, faith-filled, community-driven environment to learn dance, Joyful Soles is the place to go. Classes are affordable, thirty to forty-five minutes, and are held once a week, running from September to May, making them widely accessible.
“If you love Jesus, if you love worshiping, and you’re interested in learning more about dance, this is the perfect place for you, because we combine all of those things together,” Morgan said.
For more information, see Joyful Soles’ Instagram and Facebook (@joyfulsolesdance). They are located at 1385 Stony Creek Rd, Ste 1 AB, Troy.