We recently connected with Jennifer Bopp and have shared our conversation below.

Jennifer, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

My daughter started taking dance classes at the age of 7. Dance was a completely foreign sport to me, since I myself had never taken a dance class in my entire life. I was more into acting and theatre growing up. My daughter quickly excelled in dance and became even more involved by joining a competition dance team. During this same time my son started getting into theatre and was being cast in plays and performing at events in the area. It was a constant back and forth between activities. One day I was talking to a friend of mine about my insane schedule and how I wished that I could find somewhere that offered multiple genres of performing arts in one location. It was at that moment the idea for Monarch started taking shape. I had the management background and the theatre/acting knowledge and my friend had the dance knowledge and background so together we made the perfect combo to create this dream. Knowing that I could help foster the love of performing arts in young people and help them find their passions and grow as artists was incredibly exciting! Now 8 years later and we are running a full performing arts conservatory.

We offer beginning, intermediate and advanced training in an organized, technique based environment. We offer training in all levels of Dance (including ballet, tap, jazz, modern, hip-hop, lyrical and acrobatics) and Theatre (acting and improv) as well as Vocal and Music instruction, taught by working professionals.

One of the programs that we created and I am most passionate about is our Accessible classes. Our Accessible program allows children and adults with intellectual and physical disabilities the opportunity to dance and/or act and gives them the chance to express themselves through the performing arts. We offer this program free to our community and I love watching it grow and expand every year.

It was incredibly important for our conservatory to be inclusive to all. We believe everyone deserves a chance to be seen and express themselves through the arts!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Monarch Conservatory’s mission is to foster a love of the arts in young people. We offer beginning, intermediate and advanced training in an organized, technique based environment. Our focus is to empower young artists to reach their potential and discover the joy of creating and performing.

We offer training in all levels of Dance (including ballet, tap, jazz, modern, hip-hop, lyrical and acrobatics) and Theatre (acting and Improv) as well as Vocal and Music instruction, taught by working professionals.

We also offer an Accessible program designed for children and adults with intellectual and physical disabilities. This program gives our Accessible students the opportunity to express themselves through dance and/or acting.

We are a one stop location that provides all your performing arts needs.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

As most business owners can relate to, we were on the verge of completely closing down when the lock down occurred from Covid. With us being a performing arts studio we had no idea how we were going to keep teaching classes and keep students enrolled. We decided we were really going to have to think outside the box. We ended up doing weekly virtual classes online. We did fun activities over zoom, like baking challenges and runway fashion shows. We did everything we could to keep the kids interested and participating. Eventually we were able to hold classes outside in the park or in the lot behind our building. Our most inventive idea was probably having our recital at the Drive-In that summer so families could watch from the safety of their own cars, but we still got to feel like we were getting to come together as a group. We were able to film the routines over the previous month and then edited them together as a movie. It was a great time. Had we not been as resilient as we were we would not still be here today.

How’d you meet your business partner?

I met my amazing Co-Owner, Chloe, when she taught dance to my daughter. We immediately clicked and happen to be on the same page a majority of the time, which is helpful. I could not imagine Monarch without her by my side. It is such a passion of both of ours.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.monarchconservatory.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/monarchconservatory/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/monarchconservatory/