The Studio at Hoboken - Blog

march 20, 2023

Why I started the studio - lauren greenwood

I grew up dancing from the moment I was born. no more made me dance, no one forced it on, no parent was a stage parent. I just loved it, through every fiber of my being. i took all genres; ballet, tap, jazz and modern. by the age of 16 years old i was taking master classes with companies such as limone, teachers such as luigi (who has since passed), with of course the standard master classes as steps and broadway dance center as well. i was living my dream and my body felt limitless….

just one short month before i had felt a “twinge” in my lower back. my teacher immediately said to rest it and not over do it. i was able to get it back to normal and though that was that.

however, later that summer after i had returned home from a family vacation severe pain set in and it was relentless. sitting too long in a car just about did me. any type of long pressure on my lower spine was agonizing.

We of course realized it was more than just a pulled muscle and headed in to the doctors for an Mri, and then a cat scan. i was originally told by the attending nurse over the phone it was a herniated disc - i thought “ok this is bad, but i’m out 6 months and then i’m back, i’m young i can come back from this.” fast foward to a week later sitting at the doctors office and i was told “the nurse unfortunately told you wrong…It was in fact a degenerative disc with no cure and i would never be able to dance professionally.

i told the doctor right then and there to get out of the room, as he obviously assumed this was a hobbie and not a lifetime passion and pursuit. but that was that…the doctor was right, it was too painful to ever be able to dance at the level i was at long term. pt, epson salt baths, massages, nothing really fixes it.

so at the age of 17, spending every waking minute at either school or the dance studio, i was applying to colleges now, not knowing what in the world it was i wanted to do.

i eventually went on to college and pursued acting for awhile, moved to nyc permanently, fell in the love with the city and it become home. i realized that nothing would ever fill me the way dance did, so i resigned myself to joining corporate america so at least i could make money if i wasn’t going to be a starving artist. this path has and did serve me well for nearly 12 years.

I lived in manhattan for years before moving to hoboken, nj just a few years ago. a string started to pull at my heart and i realized i don’t have to be good at dance to do it again. there has to be a place i can go to dance as an adult. I looked for 8 months and….nothing in a 30+ mile radius. Then here comes covid, my company is purchased in february 2020 and i’m without a job for 9 months…

This may have been the best thing that ever happened. during this time i decided to create my own studio, a place for just adults to learn to dance and/or dance again. They didn’t have to have professional experience, but i wanted professional teachers. just because we weren’t going to broadway didnt’ mean we shouldn’t have outstanding teachers. so i worked, each day to build my dream dance studio. it was a huge risk and i can’t say everyone thought it would work….but i did.

now nearly two years after we have opened we’ve been able to offer dance to adults all over new jersey and are definitely here to stay. Come check our dance studio just for adults - 251 1st street hoboken, nj 07030

life did not in any way take me the way i thought it would, but ya know what, i actually like it better this way.

-lauren