Jackson’s School of Performing Arts (JSPA) was founded by Mrs. Louise Jackson in 1953 and was the first dance school on the island to become integrated, with teachers and students. With forty students enrolled, it was originally called Louise C. Jackson School of Dance. As the school expanded its focus, adding music, gymnastics and theatre, it became the Jackson’s School of Performing Arts in 1978. 

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Jeanne Legere, who taught at the school from 1985, became the managing director after Mrs. Jackson’s retirement in 1999. Upon Mrs. Legere’s retirement in 2019, her daughter Brittany Adams, an alum of the school and current teacher, became the managing director alongside assistant managing director, Alexis Richens, who is also an alum of JSPA. 

JSPA currently offers dance classes from two years old to adult in Creative Dance, Ballet, Modern, Jazz, Tap, Musical Theatre, Contemporary, Hip Hop and Salsa. JSPA continues to evolve and reinvent itself. Starting hip hop classes in the late 1990’s proved to be a success, as the school now boasts an enrollment of over 40 boys. In addition to dance classes, JSPA also offers classes in Barre, Pilates and Yoga. The school has also expanded to teach in schools across the island, taking dance to the whole community.

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JSPA owes its success to its talented teachers. For over 65 years, our qualified and caring teachers have taught and nurtured thousands of dancers, providing them with a strong dance technique and deep appreciation of the performing arts. Many of our former dancers have gone on to study dance in college and university, receiving degrees in dance education, performance and choreography, dance therapy and kinesiology. Some have gone on to dance professionally, others have come back to teach at JSPA, and over five now own dance schools of their own!