A dance studio in Co Tyrone is aiming to help children from all sides of the community integrate, with the majority of its students coming from other countries.
Jessica Devlin, 29, first started teaching dance in her grandmother’s garage when she was just 17, and opened JD Dance Studio five years ago in Coalisland.
Now she takes classes which welcome students from around the local area, including many who have come from other countries.
“I first started dancing when I was 10, line dancing in a back room at a local pub. Not long after that I started competing and progressed into more modern forms of dance,” Jessica told MyTyrone.
“Then in later years I started up my own competitions, and from there then I got my own premises which I opened in 2016.
“We make sure that we are open to everyone, as when I was growing up there wasn’t much of an opportunity for people to dance in our area.
“We do a bit of everything here now, we do solo classes, ballet, hip hop, commercial, jazz, everything you could think of.”
Jessica added that people come from Co Fermanagh, Armagh and other places in Northern Ireland to her classes, which also cater for people with special needs.
“We get a lot of students who are originally from foreign countries, in fact the majority of kids who come here are from other countries," she said.
“We also get quite a lot of people from the travelling community who come in, and we cater for those with special needs as well.
“It’s working out well for us so far, we were closed for two years there which meant it was difficult to keep the thing going.
“We weren’t sure if we would be able to open again or even if we could afford to reopen again.”
Now with new students arriving every week, Jessica says demand is now greater than ever, with two Christmas showcase performances coming up in the local CRAIC theatre in Coalisland.
“The shows are a great opportunity to showcase all the talent we have," she said.
“Each group has worked on a specific routine for their show, and for a lot of them it will be their first time performing in front of a crowd.
“They are all very excited and for us as well to have our first show in three years, it’s great to be back.”
