We recently connected with Adam & Ashley Spadafora and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Adam & Ashley thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

While we met each other working a dance studio, we both shared the same dream of one day running our own studio together. At the time, it felt like a far-off vision, but when you plant the seed, sometimes the sprout is all you need to believe things will work out. From there, we moved away from the city to a small town, and saw the opportunity was there to offer our services to the local community, as there were few options for Ballroom dance in the area. From our humble beginnings sharing a space in a fitness studio, to today owning and operating our beautiful home-based studio, it is surreal to look back at the seed that was a shared dream we had that blossomed to become our reality.

Adam & Ashley, 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?

Adam started dancing as a young Michael Jackson fan, always wanting to be a performer and an artist like his muse. Ashley, a ballerina at childhood, always dreamed of owning her own dance studio. When the two met, it was fated for them to open their own dance studio together, now known as Lakeside Dance.

They teach Ballroom & Latin dance to adults in Ontario, Canada. At their Innisfil-based dance studio, they specialize in Wedding Dance Choreography, Line Dancing Lessons, Team-Building Workshops, as well as Social Dance Lessons. They love to share their knowledge and passion for dance with couples, teams, and the community. While they prefer to teach in-person, they also offer an online social dance program at: learndancelove.com, and are currently working on their next big project which will be an online wedding dance program.

The couple has been teaching for 12 years, and are proud of the many rave reviews from their clients. They are know for their patience and positive teaching styles, as well as their enthusiasm and community outreach. They have partnered with the Easter Seals foundation for the past 10 years, helping raise over one million dollars to support children with physical disabilities. If you want to experience the benefits and joy of dance, Lakeside Dance is the place to learn, and Adam & Ashley will offer you the skills and experience to last a lifetime!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

This is a double-whammy of a story. In 2019, we found out that the location in which we were currently operating our studio was being expropriated by the province to accommodate a new roadway. While that process was taking place, we soon had to close our doors due to the pandemic in 2020. The big surprise in this story is that when the pandemic hit and we were forced to temporarily close the business, we had also just demolished our home in preparation to build our future in-home dance studio. While things didn’t look too bright at that moment, we knew there was no turning back and that no matter the barriers to our goal, we would resolve to come out strong on the other side of this situation.

With the delays and price increases of construction, followed by the several forced business closures of the pandemic era, we were down on our luck for the better part of two years. We came close to bankruptcy and were not certain if our business would make it through the struggle. At that time, all we had to cling to was each other and our shared dream. The same dream of owning our own dance studio that got us to where we were, was our beacon of hope that things will all work out if we stick to our vision and believe that the future can be brighter. Fast forward to 2024, and our perseverance has helped us see our business through that rough patch. We are back in full operation, in our beautiful home studio, and while not quite back up to pre-pandemic operating revenue, we are even prouder today of all that we continue to accomplish together.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

This has been a two-part process. The first part is community-outreach: working with charities or organizations within the community which allows people to see that you care about your community, and it helps to build your network as well. And the second part is personal experience: giving each and every one of our clients the personal attention that has proven to them that we truly care about what we do and their success. This has also provided us great word-of-mouth referrals as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lakesidedance.ca/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lakeside_dance/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LakesideDanceBarrie/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.ca/biz/lakeside-dance-innisfil
• Other: https://learndancelove.com/