Dancing Grounds was founded in March 2012 by Laura Stein and Jessi Donley. The two women shared a common vision for bringing the local dance community together and providing more high-quality, accessible dance programming for the city of New Orleans. 

Dancing Grounds incubated in Laura’s Bywater home. She converted her living room into a dance studio, the kitchen into an art gallery, and the backyard into a performance space. Starting with one adult Hip Hop class offered once a week, the “Speakeasy Studio” grew to serve hundreds of people by word of mouth alone. Our "Pop-Up Shows," multidisciplinary arts experiences co-produced with the New Orleans Society of Fly Ladies, and other arts events attracted hundreds of audience members.

Fueled by the high demand for Dancing Grounds’ classes and performances, Dancing Grounds started looking for new space and stumbled upon a guardian angel, a local property developer with a vacant shotgun at 3705 Saint Claude Avenue. Dancing Grounds worked with the owner to build out a state-of-the art dance facility with two dance studios and a performance space that opened in March 2014.

Now with over 20 adult classes per week, K-8 weekly classes, and a year round teen program, Dance for Social Change, Dancing Grounds has touched the lives of more than 3,500 young people and 8,000 adults.