Dance for joy: Palm Coast's new dance studio finds a permanent home

It’s late February, and The Dance Method’s new studios are echoing with the exclamations of little dancers trying on their recital costumes.

In just two short months, The Dance Method’s students will be performing at their first recital. The recital hits a lot of firsts, actually: first recital for the business, for many of the students, and even Lauren Jaussi’s first as a studio owner.

The Dance Method is her baby, she said, and her life-long dream. Jaussi has been dancing since she was 4, but it wasn’t until 2022 that her studio opened. 

But Jaussi said she knew even as a child in her fist dance classes that she wanted to own her own studio one day.

Dance classes were expensive even when she was a kid, Jaussi said. Her father was a police officer in Ozark, Alabama. They didn’t have much extra money. Her mother, Jaussi said, used to clean and teach at dance studios just so Jaussi could afford to take lessons.

Jaussi said she took every class she could:  She was hooked.

“I fell in love with [dancing] immediately,” she said.

She spent her childhood in dance studios — taking classes, doing her homework, hanging out, and, later, assisting with classes. Eventually, she began teaching her own classes at dance studios, all the while taking notes and designing her own studio, she said.

But The Dance Method didn’t have the smoothest start.

When it opened in January 2022, it was supposed to be leased out of the Belle Terre Swim and Racquet Club building through May. Instead, the lease was ended in February, and the studio had to move. And move again, a few months after that. And again. And again.

Hayden Jaussi, Jaussi’s husband, said finding a location in Palm Coast was very difficult. There weren’t many options to begin with for a dance studio, he said, and the cost was another issue.

“Finding this place was magical,” Hayden Jaussi said.

Their new location — 3371 N. State St. in Bunnell — is under a five-year contract and was built to Jaussi’s design, with two studios and a lobby. It opened in November 2022.

Hayden Jaussi said it was incredible what his wife pushed through to get to this point. He would have given up, he said, but she persevered.

I can’t brag about her enough. I just think she's so cool. It’s inspiring and I don't know how she does it. — Hayden Jaussi, Lauren Jaussi's husband

“I can’t brag about her enough,” he said. “I just think she’s so cool. It’s inspiring, and I don’t know how she does it.”

The studio teaches a variety of classes: ballet, tap, jazz, hip-hop, contemporary and musical theater. There are classes for parents and infants ranging from 3 months old to 3 yearsold, independent dance classes for children starting from two-and-a-half all the way to 18, and classes for adults.

All of this, Jaussi said, she does while keeping the costs as low as she can for kids whose parents are like hers were — struggling to afford extracurriculars.

The studio offers recreational classes only — students don’t compete, which is a major money-saver on its own, she said. 

But Jaussi also doesn’t require specific uniforms or gear. As long as the kids are covered and can move around, a T-shirt and shorts work fine.

Participation in the recital, while fun, is also not required, meaning fewer fees to pay for parents who can’t afford it. 

For this first recital, the students who are participating paid for their own costumes and will get to keep them afterward.

 Next year, Jaussi said, she hopes to start a fundraiser for the costumes, allowing the studio to keep them and reuse them.

“I’d love to get to the point where I can have an annual fundraiser … and maybe have local businesses donate a scholarship,” Jaussi said. “I do want to support anybody who definitely has a passion for dance and wants to be here.”

Amber Jackson, who has taught dance for 10 years, joined The Dance Method team in August. She said she grew up in a competitive environment, but can see the draw and positive impact the relaxed environment has on the kids at the studio.

“It allows for the child to grow at their own pace,” she said. “It’s more of a lifelong, ‘take-with-you’ type of thing. … It gets to stay with them a lot longer.”

Jackson said she and Jaussi both have a similar passion for taking care of their dance students. 

“She’s all about them, and making sure that they’re getting what they need,” Jackson said. “And I love that about her.”

She's all about them [and] making sure that they're getting what they need. And I love that about her. — Amber Jackson, teacher at The Dance Method

Jada Hathaway, who also joined in August, is in her first year of teaching dance and said The Dance Method really focuses on the joy of dance and balancing that with the technical work seen at competitive studios.

Even over just seven months, her students have grown tremendously in The Dance Method’s environment, she said. 

“At The Dance Method, we really focus on just bringing out that passion and love for dance,” Hathaway said. “I never see [the students] coming in looking like they don’t want to be here.”