Toronto York-Eglinton International Street Festival
BIA Festival
Arsenals Peculiar-I Keep 'N' It Real Dance Troupe and Company KIR5 BB's Band

Jades Hip Hop Academy

Jades Hip Hop AcademyJade started dancing, teaching and choreographing all at the same time at the mere age of 14. Through out her years in high school Jade created a successful extra curricular dance program and led successful hip hop teams to Dance competitions through out the GTA.

In 2002 she also began volunteering and working as a dance teacher for the YMCA, teaching children and adults of all ages. In 2005 she became the Lead dance instructor of the Brampton YMCA Open Concept Dance Program. Under her leadership the program was noted as one of the most successful YMCA dance programs in the GTA.

In 2005 Jade was awarded the Youth Break through Award by the Canadian Association of Advancement of Women in Sport Association (CAAWS) for her work.

In 2006, Jade competed in the Canadian National Dance Championships where she won her category of 17 and Over Hip Hop solo, making her the Ontario Provincial Champion. She also represented Canada at the World Hip Hop Championships, held in Bremen, Germany in September 2006, as a soloist and as part of the Canadian National Hip Hop Team.

In 2006 Jade was personally notified by Susan Fennell, the Mayor of Brampton that she would receive the 2006 Arts Acclaim Award from the City of Brampton for her hard work and dedication in dance and for representing Canada in the World Hip Hop Championships.

A self taught hip hop dancer, the passion for bringing the real street hip hop to the studio prompted her to open up Jade?s Hip Hop Academy in September 2006 at the age of 18, specializing in Hip Hop, poping, locking, breakin and Krump. Jade began with renting a space for just two nights a week, but it did not take long to realize that this was not enough to accomodate all those who were interested in joining Jade's Hip Hop Academy. In 2007 she leased her own building.

The season 2007/2008 became a very successful year for Jade's Hip Hop Academy dancers. Despite the fact that many were only in their first or second year of dance training, they came home from most competition with first place finishes, high rankings and several dancers qualified to represent Canada at The World Hip Hop Championships in Germany. Jade also received 2 awards at The Canadian National Dance Championships for Teaching Authentic Hip Hop and one for Education in Hip Hop. Jade has become well known as a choreographer due to her authentic and intricate choreography.

Jade's passion is Hip Hop Dance and unfortunately it is a genre of dance that is still widely misunderstood and misrepresented at many studio competitions.Tired of seeing music video inspired Hip Hop routines score high marks with just booty shaking, chest popping, attitude and little technique Jade set out on a mission. So far she has written two articles published in Dance Canada Qaurteley Magazine discussing what makes a good hip hop routine and the different elements that teachers and judges should be aware of. Jade hopes that her continuing work on this project will lead to every competition being able to recognize authentic Hip Hop and award dancers for skills in poping, ticking, gliding, waving, locking, breakin and krump.

Jade received her most recent award of Honourable Mention from Zonta's Women of Achievement Award 2008 in the category Business/Professions and Trades in November 2008. Jade was honoured to be nominated with 9 other women including former Mayor of Caledon, former Director of Big Brother Big Sisters and Director of Brampton Arts Council for the prestigious award. Part of Jade's goal is not only to run a succesful business but to ensure that everyone who loves to dance gets the chance to do so. She believes in keeping cost to a minimum and making sure everyone in the community has acces to her classes and she rewards hard work and dedication of students with full or partial scholarships.


More Information ... http://www.jadeshiphopacademy.com/

The York-Eglinton BIA would like to thank the sponsors of last year’s festival

If you are interested in sponsoring this year’s event please contact the BIA Office



Photobucket Link | Twitter Link | Facebook Link | Blogspot Link | Youtube Link | Flickr Link | Photobucket Link |