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The Amanda Rose Belmont Dance for Joy Studio was founded in February 2006 by Sandy and Sam Arena after their daughter Alexis – age 13 at the time – asked her parents to open a Christian ballet studio for her. Alexis had been training in a secular classical ballet environment for many years and desired to train at a school providing excellence in instruction while glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ in a joyful and encouraging environment.

Since opening in April 2008, Dance for Joy Christian ballet school has grown to serve approximately 150 students in the greater Rochester area. Founding director Sandy Arena is not a dancer, but is rather “just a mom” who loves the Lord and who has dedicated her life to serving His purposes in this season for her own children and others like them. She gives all the glory, honor and praise to the Lord for all He has done providing excellence in instructors, finances, facilities and armies of willing hands and feet in support of the vision. The Lord has honored their steps of obedience into a world completely unknown, and opened the floodgates of heaven providing each and every need for Dance for Joy in His time, purposes and season. It has been a miraculous journey proving “all things are possible with God.”

The school's vision is the bring glory to God and joy to our souls through excellence in Christian dance education and ministry with an emphasis on classical ballet. Dance for Joy's curriculum focuses on training the heart of the dancer to glorify and worship the Lord, and the art of the dancer in the discipline of ballet and other forms of dance. The senior ministry group – the Yahweh Ballet – ministers in the community at events and churches and malls and bringing the good news of Jesus Christ to the public through worship and dance.