Columbus Dancearts Academy

Located in Dublin, Ohio, Columbus DanceArts Academy (CDA) is a pre-professional performance based dance academy. Founded in 2003 by John Townsend and Robin Smith, CDA currently has 900+ students at all levels from beginning to pre-professional, from 2-years-of-age through adult. CDA teaches classes is ballet, pointe, jazz, lyrical, modern, hip-hop and tap. When it opened in 2003, it also offered tumbling classes but those only lasted a short time.

Graduates of Columbus DanceArts have gone onto college and professional careers. CDA has placed graduates of its program into dance programs as dance majors at Point Park University (6 students), The Ohio State University (3), Ohio University (1), University of Arizona (1), Slippery Rock University (1), Wright State University (1) and Hofstra University (1). Although the pre-professional program is important to CDA, only 7% of its students are part of it. The majority of students are in the Academy program, taking one or two classes a week for fun and exercise.

Robin Smith

Robin Smith is the Artistic Director and a founder of Columbus DanceArts Academy. Robin started her career in Marysville, Ohio as the owner and director of a studio there. In 1984, Robin became the first Artistic Director of Dublin Dance Centre owned and operated by Teresa Crye. She helped Teresa build a very successful program at DDC until deciding to go out on her own again in 2003.

John Townsend

John Townsend is the General Manager and a founder of Columbus DanceArts Academy. John also owns NuGrowth Technologies, a computer software company based in Columbus, Ohio. John has been a technology manager and business owner for over 25 years. John started CDA with Robin Smith in order to provide an opportunity for dance training at the highest level while maintaining an atmosphere of fun for all students.

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