Dancing to Go

A seventh grader from South Field, MI, is living her dream—literally. In September 2008, Amiya Japeri Alexander, then 9, was in a deep sleep and

dreaming about teaching dance, on wheels.

 

“In my dream, I was teaching a little kid how to dance, and a few seconds later the whole world was inside a bus,” Amiya says. She woke up in the middle of the night, drew the bus she imagined and immediately ran to wake her mother.

 

“I said, ‘I need a pink bus! I’m going to go to different schools and teach them how to dance,’ ” she says. Her mom believed in that dream, helped her write a business plan and got Amiya an old school bus for Christmas. 

 

Now, every Saturday you’ll find Amiya inside Amiya’s Mobile Dance Academy, teaching eight to 12 kids between the ages of 2 and 9 ballet, tap, jazz and more. She charges between $11.50 and $12.50 per class.

 

Inspired by hearing First Lady Michelle Obama discuss the childhood obesity epidemic, Amiya is doing her part to get kids moving. “If you’re dancing, you don’t notice you’re working out because you’re having so much fun,” Amiya says.

 

A dance lover, she hopes to one day franchise her business and take the mobile studio across America, especially to places where children from low-income families don’t have access to affordable dance classes. “I want to help underserved children,” she says. “I can bring the dance studio to them.”

 

For more information, visit amiyasdancebus.com.

 

 

Photo of Amiya Japeria Alexander courtesy Amiya’s Mobile Dance Academy.