About
About Defy Gravity Dance
See your dancer twirl with delight, gaining confidence and a lifelong passion for dance! At Defy Gravity, your child will build strength, dance skill, artistry through creativity and authentic performance, boosting self esteem and promoting a solid work ethic that your dancer will apply to every aspect of their life. Dancers are lifelong learners and artists! Give them the gift of exceptional training in Ballet, Jazz, Contemporary, Lyrical, Modern, Acro, Tap, Hip Hop and Breakdance for dancers 3 yrs - adult, Recreational - Professional level, including opportunities for Competitive dancing and Cecchetti Ballet Examinations.
Why choose DG?
Your dancer is treated with respect from the moment you decide to join our dance family through clear communication, streamlined enrolment and dress code, dedicated and passionate teachers who strive to connect with each student to bring out their potential in dance and in life, focus on positive encouragement through
We are a community minded studio, with a group of dancers on our DG guiDance Team who performing locally to help raise awareness for the Canadian Cancer Society. To date, they have performed at 9 annual events and have raised over $40,000. Our studio family has sponsored the education of several students in Uganda and have donated over 120 shoeboxes for local families in need through the Shoebox Project! Join a studio that treats your dancer like one of the family, building them up from the inside to be confident and accomplished performers and the leaders of tomorrow! #dgdancefamily
DG History
In 2007, our dedicated mentor and Director, Miss Rishell, opened Defy Gravity Dance Co driven by a passion to connect age appropriate learning with building self esteem, life-skills, artistry and leadership training. Her passion to inspire the next generation of leaders fuelled the development of the Competitive and Professional Divisions with our mentorship team the “DG guiDance Team” leading the way in opportunities for community service fundraising, mentorship of young ones, work experience and training opportunities.
In 2010, after three successful years in our original location, Defy Gravity Dance Co expanded to our current gorgeous facility with three air-conditioned studios, a large change room and an on-site store to serve our dance families better!
In 2016, Defy Gravity finally went completely paperless! All communication was moved to online, including enrolment and store purchases and we couldn’t be happier to finally realize this initiative to align with our goals of being environmentally conscious and a sustainable business.
2017 brought change as DG expanded out to South Surrey, opening a second facility there and renovating it to meet our program needs. After 1.5 years, Miss Rishell realized it was too much for one person to coordinate both studios while maintaining the integrity of the Richmond location and being available for her own children. DG South Surrey was closed in 2018 and many dancers made the trek out to Richmond to continue training in our elite Pre-Professional Division.
2019 was a fun year for the studio as we decided to renovate the lobby and common areas, switching the office and lobby to make for a larger space for our dancers and families to relax and connect. Our office is smaller but more efficient (since we don’t keep much paper on site now!) and allows for us to greet everyone when they enter the front door! We added in a kitchen for our dance families which is regularly stocked with tea and coffee, a kettle, fridge and storage for dancers to be able to have an actual dinner at the studio! We added in a water bottle filling station (again more environmentally conscious) and comfortable seating in the lobby for catching up, hanging out and staying connected. We maintain a TV free lobby as we want our families to have less screen time and more connecting time, but don’t worry, we still have DG Family wi-fi for all your online needs!
2020 - what can we say? It was a season we will never forget, with a quick move to online classes, then a pivot back to in-person classes with safe distance and strict sanitizing protocol. The first Safe-Distance Recital in BC was held right in our own parking lot - transforming the parking lot to an outdoor theatre where parents could enjoy watching their little ones perform and share the joy with other dance families (all from safe distance of course!), Safe- distance Photo Day as well as an indoor Safe- Distance Recital for Pre-Professional and Competitive Dancers, topped off with Safe Distance Dance competitions. You nee it, we did it, from designing and implementing a DG Virtual Academy to arranging separate entrances/bathrooms/studios for cohorts of dancers to keep everyone safe. We keep rising to the challenge and feel our persistence has helped show our dancers resilience and commitment to what they love - to dance!!
The 2020-2021 season had many surprises for us including postponing and rescheduling of competitions, more mandated closures and finally we hosted the first in-person dance recital in Canada (AGAIN) in June 2021! We loved having our DG Dance family cheer on the DG dancers in person!!
2022 onwards: we have been rebuilding since Covid and have expanded our Competitive Teams to include 2 Pre-Competitive groupings to best serve our community. What will 2024-2025 have in store for us? It's season 18 and we have some wonderfully exciting things planned (a trip to the HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH?)!! Join us to find out :)