Joyce Smith - Ballet + Pilates Teacher

Joyce currently teaches Ballet, Pre-Pointe, Pointe, and Pilates Mat & Reformer classes. She is a former dancer, classically trained, with over two decades of professional dance training, performing and teaching experience, in addition to experience working behind the scenes in arts administration and dance production.

Joyce Smith began her initial training in classical ballet and pointe with Lisa Boehm and later began her training in the techniques of Martha Graham and José Limón while completing her undergraduate degree as a scholarship dance major. She has also studied at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance and has been fortunate to deepen her study with master classes and intensives with numerous dance artists such as Peter Sparling, Denise Vale, Jan Erkert, and former Balanchine ballerina Jillana, among others. With her range of training in both classical and modern dance, Joyce enjoyed dancing professionally for independent choreographers as well as modern based companies. She feels fortunate to have had the opportunities to dance the diverse repertory of numerous choreographers; one of her favorite experiences was dancing in Paul Taylor’s iconic Aureole.

While still actively performing, Joyce spent ten years simultaneously working behind the scenes in arts administration and dance production for organizations that include The Juilliard School Dance Division, Vanderbilt Summer Dance Festival, Shelter Repertory Dance Theatre, New York State Summer School of the Arts School of Dance, the American Dance Legacy Institute, and Illinois Summer School of the Arts. She currently serves as a Technical & Marketing Assistant for Integrity School of Dance, building and maintaining the school’s website, assisting with their registration and scheduling software, and creating social media marketing.

Joyce has been teaching dance for over twenty years for organizations that include Vanderbilt University, the School of Nashville Ballet, Chicago School of Ballet, Integrity School of Dance, Sarratt Youth Art Institute, Nashville School of the Arts, Vanderbilt Summer Dance Festival, and The Harpeth Hall School Dance program. She has also taught auditions, staged and rehearsed dances, and served as a rehearsal assistant for companies and schools. In addition to teaching dance, Joyce earned her Pilates mat certification through New York’s PhyisicalMind Institute and has created and taught Pilates classes for all populations including specialized classes for dancers, high school athletes, and adults. She is also a RYT 200-hour yoga teacher and is currently in the process of completing her Reformer Pilates teacher certification.

Joyce currently teaches ballet, pointe, pre-pointe and Pilates in the northwest Chicago suburbs, as well as Mat Pilates at Delta Yoga Studio.