We recently connected with I’yana McNeill and have shared our conversation below.

I’yana, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today The more we talk about good leadership the more we think good leadership practices will spread and so we’d love for you to tell us a story about the best boss you’ve had and what they were like or what they did that was so great?

In 2012 after graduating from The Baltimore School for the Arts in Dance, I was introduced to teaching dance in an afterschool program at Hilton Elementary School by my Mother, Ivy McNeill. After graduating high school, my goal was to move to New York and join a dance company. After doing more research and having more conversations with my parents, my mother pushed me to be a dance major at Coppin State University and to start using my dance experience to teach in her afterschool program. In the beginning, I was very hesitant about teaching in the first place, once I used strategies I’ve seen my mother use in her classroom into my classroom, I fell in love with teaching. I watched my mother teach special education for almost 8 years. I watched the way she became more than a teacher to her students, a mentor. While teaching in the afterschool program my mother pushed me beyond my comfort zone. She pushed me to teach all styles of dance, organize performances, more leadership roles, and the opportunity to start and choreograph for the schools competitive dance team. Without the leadership of my mother in life and the afterschool program, there would be no Dynamic Force Dance Company. All of the tools that I use in my company I learned from my mother and I still continue to follow under her guidance moving into my 10th year of teaching.

I’yana, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I began my teaching career at Hilton Elementary School in the Child First Authority afterschool program in 2012. From 2012 to 2018 at Hilton Elementary School, I held multiple recitals, and classes throughout the school years choreographed for the championship dance team, and more!

Since beginning my teaching career in 2012, I have worked with many youth at multiple schools and programs such as Hilton Elementary, Barclay Elementary, Harford Heights Elementary, Rosemont Elementary/Middle, Coppin State University Bravo Programs, The ARC Preschool, John Eager Howard Elementary, S.A.F.E Alternative Center, Creative City Public Charter, Jubilee Arts Baltimore and Cross Country Elementary/Middle School and now ConneXions: A Community Based Arts School.

In 2015, While choreographing for the Hilton Elementary Schools dance team, I started my own dance team with Jade Davis. We started as Dynamic Force Spirit Squad then changed to Dynamic Force Dance Team. We took our students to travel and perform on high platforms such as Prelude, L.O.V.E Philly, and ECDC. We also exposed our students to many master classes and dance convention opportunities.

In 2019, I took over Dynamic Force and we then became Dynamic Force Dance Company. Our company started with only 12 students, we now have 40+ Students ages 1-18 years old. All students take classes 3x per week, perform over 30 times per season, take master classes, mentor workshops, and more. Students love attending DFDC because we make our studio feel like a second home, all of our students have a brother/sister relationship.

I’m a dance teacher and choreographer. I specialize in teaching Ballet, Hip-Hop, Modern, Majorette, and Tap. I am the best know for teaching Hip-Hop. I am most proud that I am able to make an impact on every student and location that I teach at.

When I teach at different schools, recs, and after-school programs a lot of the students that I teach end up continuing to dance with me at my dance company. I feel what sets me apart is I like my students to have a voice in the studio space, I do not allow my students to limit themselves to what they can do and I have stuck by students from when they were in the Pre-K to now in high school.

I also give my high school students learning service hours, job opportunities over the summer, and teaching experience during the season. I want my current students to be the next teachers/directors of Dynamic Force, they understand the true mission and passion of our company.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

We built our audience on social media by doing various dance challenges, tik toks, engaging with local artists, going live during rehearsals and giving our kids a chance to engage on our page.

Our main fanbase is kids, we do a lot of interactions on our Instagram story where students can shout out their friends, do polls and share dance videos.

We also share our social media tags at every event that we attend and also on all of our videos

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The most effective strategy would be engaging within the community. We perform at local events, teach at multiple schools/ outside programs and have our members engage with the community.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.dynamicforcedancestudio.com
• Instagram: @dynamicforcedancecompany
• Youtube: Dynamic Force Dance Company

Image Credits
Juan Gordan (JR Gordon Photography)