Today we’d like to introduce you to Leah Boresow Groover.
Hi Leah, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I have danced all my life.
I have been in countless studios over the past 26 years, and needless to say, dance studios have been my second home. My best friends and colleagues have always been in the dance world, from when I started dancing and training as a child to becoming a choreographer and competitor and ultimately becoming a multi-genre dance instructor. It was only natural, though still a big step, to open my own dance studio this year, Get Up And Dance.
I started training after I fell in love with classical dance when I was young, and proceeded to try to make it my career and trained in high school at the Atlanta Ballet in their pre-professional program. After a devastating back injury, I started leaning towards contemporary dance and went to Indiana University to receive my B.S in Contemporary Dance. While I was in college, I was introduced to social partnership dancing, a whole new world, when a friend brought me to a Ballroom Dance Club party. I thoroughly enjoyed it and joined the IU Ballroom Dance Team. By the time I graduated college, I was a classically trained, contemporary dancer who did social and competitive Ballroom and Latin dancing. My multi-genre dance career had only begun.
After college, I started teaching adult dance classes-beginner ballet, open level contemporary, etc. I quickly realized that teaching dance to adults was more than just a job, it was a passion. I loved seeing how much joy dance brought to people, just as it had brought infinite joy to me.
Fast forward nine years later, after finding and owning my teaching style and dance instruction system, Get Up And Dance was established and born, ready to share dance joy with the Atlanta community and surrounding areas!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road to opening GUAD has been smooth enough, surely with its natural ups and downs. Because I am my own business, finding the right time between balancing personal challenges and successes with the future studio wasn’t easy. I suffered my own injury last year, which I needed to overcome before moving forward, and of course, the pandemic threw a huge wrench in the growing plans. I told myself in 2019 that 2020 would be my year to finally pull the trigger and make a studio home for myself and my student clientele. And well, 2020 happened. And I am glad that I waited. I had to take many obvious breaks from teaching and performing because of COVID-19 and had to find creative ways to keep lessons going virtually and safely in person. So when 2021 arrived, I knew that there was no right time to open the studio, there was only my ambition and my own time frame. And knowing how precious life can be, I decided to make the move, and sign a lease, and open my very own dance studio.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a professional dancer, instructor, and choreographer, as well as the owner of my own business, Get Up And Dance Studio. I specialize in multi-genre dancing as a performer and instructor. This means I don’t focus solely on just one style of dance. I have trained and fallen in love with well over 20 styles of dance, including ballet, modern, jazz, tap, contemporary, musical theatre, ballroom, Latin, swing dance, and so much more. I have personally experienced the magic of each one of these styles and how they all help and influence the other. I take all of these styles with me moving forward and pass them on to my students, dancers who experience my choreography. I believe this truly does set me apart from others in the industry.
I am also proud of the fact that my studio and community around it are all-encompassing and welcoming, with no drama and no politics- I have only the genuine best interest of my students in mind, to give them the best dance journey possible. I try to be fully transparent with prices and intentions, and I continue to try to remain my authentic self through it all – a dance loving human who enjoys the company of others.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
I have a few favorite childhood memories grouped together over the span of 14 or so years- and they are all from my studio dance recitals growing up. Over a collection of years, I have a bundle of memories of getting ready to perform, putting on whatever costume my class or group had at the time, putting my makeup on and doing my make up, rehearsing choreography, performing it on a stage, and then rejoicing in all the post-performance glory afterwards with friends and family. The entire package of it all was amazing to me- I was truly obsessed with the whole process of performing, and after each recital had concluded, I was already looking forward to the next one. To this day, I applaud all parents who help and support their children into learning to dance for these very reasons- the commitment to a performance was everything to me.
Pricing:
- $15/person for a one hour group class
- $18/person for a 1.5 hour group class
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Private lessons available by appointment only. Pricing for packages can be found at getupanddanceatlanta.com/
private-lessons
Contact Info:
- Email: guadatlanta@gmail.com
- Website: getupanddanceatlanta.com
- Instagram: @GetUpAndDanceAtlanta
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GetUpAndDanceAtlanta/
- Other: leahboresow.com
Image Credits
Nova Star Media Mike Glatzer Photography Stephen Matey
