Life & Work with Joy Senyah of Denver

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joy Senyah.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My name is Joy, and I had to earn my name. At an early age, I was diagnosed with lupus and it made me feel useless, defeated, and debilitated. Since then, I have made the choice to persevere through many health challenges including acute kidney failure and surviving breast cancer. Through the art of dancing, I have mastered the art of releasing grief, toxins, and dis-ease to heal from my challenges.
In 2015, I lost my baby son to medical malpractice and I became severely depressed and ready to end my own life. In my perspective, God’s divine intervention saved my life and from then on I vowed to use my resources to help others through their grief.
Shortly after Covid-19 and the world started opening back up, I started looking for studio space to start my own dance school for youth. In September of 2021, we opened and have been thriving since.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No, not smooth in the least. As an artist and new business owner trying to maintain this beautiful safe space…I have many challenges. On a daily basis, I am managing my lupus and making sure I am resting and not stressing. Also, while beating cancer, I had to close our studio for a short amount of time…which was a very hard decision to make. We have been blessed in the way of the numbers of enrollment and a wonderful dance community, however, costs of expenses and building costs have gone up so high that it is so hard to make ends meet. We have used multiple leasing spaces to try and find the right fit.
Fortunately, we just found our own location but it’s still very hard to make ends meet because some people are really struggling financially and are not able to pay their tuition.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Dance with JOY Denver is a cultivated safe space where youth aged 18 months through 16 years old can learn to thrive in multiple areas of their lives. Our classes are designed to not only train students in dance,
but to offer character building, social emotional coping skills, and living on wellness principles. As our program offers instruction in genres including Ballet, Jazz, Tap, Drill/Poms, Liturgical, and Hip Hop, we are expanding our program for other art expression such as theater, visual arts, creative writing, martial arts, etc. This is the business side that provides funding for our nonprofit, The P.U.L.S.E. Center (Prevention Unlimited Lowering Suicide Epidemic) which is extension of our services to provide resources
to promote the wellbeing of our community with education around gaining socio-economic growth, health, and overall wellness to promote the sustainability of quality of life for our families and community. Our
classes, resource seminars, masterclasses, community engagement events are all meant to bring joyful experiences through art, education, and relationship building. Not only do we hold classes for our youth
and parents, but our seniors aged 60+ to help them be more connected to society, and mentally and physically fit.

What was your favorite childhood memory?
When I think about my most fondest memories in childhood its always been playing outside in the front yard, on the school playground and field day.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.dance-with-joy.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dance_with_joy_denver/profilecard/?igsh=MWppbXBtZWwxa3N4ZQ==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/19NzRoj37U/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Image Credits
JMariah Images
Dance With JOY Llc