Instructor
Joy Naik, Founder
Ballet, Pointe, Jazz, Freestyle, Drama, Tap
Joy Naik began her dance training over 30 years ago with the world-renowned, Dance Theatre of Harlem, in Harlem, NY. This would be the first of two full scholarships that she would receive from DTH during her dance training career. During the 90's Joy's family moved to Chesapeake, VA where she trained with the distinguished Academie de Ballet. In these early stages as a dancer she would also meet and train with Elbert Watson from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Her training in her early years consisted of classical ballet, pointe (Vaganova method), lyrical, jazz, tap, and musical theater. She would also train with Virginia Ballet Theater, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater and Ballet Magnificat!’s summer workshops. In 2001, Joy would become a trainee with Ballet Magnificat!’s company.
Her performance and choreographic opportunities would end up taking her across the country and internationally. This includes Project Dance in Universal Studios in Los Angeles and in Times Square, New York. Indonesia as the choreographer for The Man called Jesus's Indonesian version of The Play and in 2008 she was a faculty member at the Russell School of Ballet in Chantilly,VA.
In Rota, Spain she taught dance on base, and developed a dance team and produced two shows. During this time she would also develop a passion with working with the military and their families which has led her to her production entitled A Time To Dance, that was presented on September 11th, 2013, and showcased the following year at the Little Creek Base Theater, in Norfolk,VA. Five years after a car accident that took place after her last show, she is not only working as an off-ice coach with figure skaters at the Chilled Ponds Ice Sports Complex, but she has also founded her own dance studio, the Dance Theatre of Coastal Virginia.
In 2020 a major injury would lead her to be in the ICU from having a stroke, but again that hasn’t stopped her. While in recovery she would virtually instruct students in Germany, Spain and all along the East Coast, and has kept the studio going. She then joined the Renaissance School of the Arts, in Suffolk, Va, to teach their dance and theatre production classes and currently serves on the board. One of her blog post’s was published in Love What Matters, and two articles in Military Spouse Fine Artists Network. In August 2020, she and her family were featured in a segment on the NBC Today Show, after producer Yael Federbush saw them featured in an article in the Virginian Pilot.
Along with being a commissioner with the Fine Arts Commission of the City of Chesapeake here in Virginia, she has since trained and has seen with great pride many of her students make it into the Dance Theatre of Harlem’s summer workshops.
After competing in the local Dancing with the Hampton Roads Stars 2023, she brought home the first place trophy for the females in Act 1.
She is so excited to have her new studio’s home in The Mustard Seed Place in Portsmouth, VA. Joy currently lives in Norfolk with her four children and their dog Shakespeare.