London dance studio to take final bow after 35 years

When Donna Bayley opened Dance Steps Studio in 1989, she played rehearsal music on cassette tapes and shared details about her studio through printed newsletters and flyers.

More than three decades later, when Bayley announced she'd be closing the studio at the end of this month, she used email and social media to share the news. 

Throughout the years in between, hundreds of students age two to 70 have come through the doors of the Colborne St. studio. And dozens of teachers have taught everything from ballet, tap and jazz to hip hop, acro and lyrical — making countless memories along the way. 

"It was really difficult telling the staff and the students," said Bayley. "I wasn't even sure I had the strength to do it because as everybody knows, it's been a big passion of mine for my whole life."

When she closes the studio for good on May 31, she will also retire as its artistic director.

"I'm going to really miss the students," said Bayley. "They are very, very special and have been a big part of my life."

Bayley shared the news publicly on May 6 through Facebook and Instagram. Before that, she told staff and sent an email to the parents of current students about the closure.

Bayley started dancing when she was 12 at the London Academy of Dance and Theatre Arts. Over the years, she trained professionally, toured as a dancer and taught dance classes across Canada.

She opened her first studio, Jazz Dance in the early 1980s, then started Dance Steps in 1989, and quickly started building a lifetime community.

"Dance Steps is a family for me," said Lindsay McGhie, who takes adult ballet classes at the studio. "It was always a second home."

When McGhie was four, her mom ripped the phone number off a Dance Steps flyer taped to the side of a mailbox and signed her up for classes. McGhie has been at the studio for 34 years, dancing as a child and adult, teaching, and now enrolling her daughter in classes.

"Donna has such a family-oriented and welcoming environment," said McGhie. "You then factor in all of the experiences and emotions that are tied to Dance Steps, there was really no other place I was going to put [my daughter] for her first classes."

Bayley said many former Dance Steps students have continued their relationship with the studio by becoming teachers or bringing their own children for classes. This September alone, she said she saw about a dozen dancers whose parents were her former students. 

"It makes me feel old, but at the same time, there's nothing better than them coming back through generations," said Bayley.