Who We Are:

Rejoice Ministries provides inner city children from low income families an excellent dance education and instills character training through Christian education, giving them tools for successful living.  Click HERE for a roster of the Board of Directors.

What We Do:

Rejoice provides ballet, jazz, modern and African dance classes to eighty students from September through May each year. In addition to after-school classes, Rejoice offers an intensive summer dance camp that provides eighty hours of dance instruction alongside daily enrichment activities.

How We Do It:

Rejoice provides these services with excellence, enthusiasm and understanding. Rejoice’s dance instructors bring more than 100 years of experience to the dance studio. Students not only benefit from their instructors’ experience, but from their enthusiasm for the art of dance and their understanding of children.

Where We Serve:

Rejoice teaches dance at four East Nashville locations: Glenn Enhanced Option School, Edgefield Baptist Church, East Park Community Center and the Salvation Army. These neighborhoods are among the toughest to grow up in all of Middle Tennessee. The crime rate is above average, teenage pregnancy is above average, and school performance is below average. Rejoice has been serving the Glenn and Edgefield neighborhoods since 2000 and is pleased to have expanded our services to reach more students through East Park Community Center and Salvation Army.

Who We Serve:

Rejoice began with 14 students 8 years ago and registered 95 students in the fall of 2008. The typical Rejoice student attends a Metropolitan Nashville Public School and receives free or reduced lunch. All students on the free or reduced lunch program who enroll in Rejoice School of Ballet receive a scholarship. Scholarship students pay a mere $5 monthly for tuition while the school pays for and maintains dancewear and costumes and subsidizes remaining costs that average $1,000 annually per student.

Why It Matters:

Rejoice School of Ballet offers one of the only available, affordable after-school activities for at-risk East Nashville students. The positive environment offered by Rejoice results in increased self-esteem, valuing teamwork, and an improved respect for self and others. The study of ballet teaches children how to move with poise and grace, discipline, teamwork, and how to set and achieve goals. Rejoice provides children and their families with tools for successful living.