Jessica
Jessica Yuen, DBA(c), MBA, MRes, PG Dipl (Music), BA, HETC, MYCC
Ms. Jessica Yuen is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and passionate advocate for lifelong engagement in the performing arts. With an extensive background as a music educator, concert performer and performance artistic director, she brings to her dance teaching a distinctive understanding of musicality, artistry, movement, and expressive performance.
Jessica has taught more than 1,800 students throughout her career and is an active and versatile performer of piano, guzheng, harp, and violin. Her artistic and educational work has taken her across Asia, North America, and Europe, shaping a teaching philosophy that values not only technical development, but also curiosity, expression, confidence, and the joy of performing.
Alongside her extensive work in music, Jessica has pursued a deep and continuing passion for ballet, dance, and movement education. She is Progressing Ballet Technique (PBT) certified.
Her own ballet practice and continuing education have taken her into studios in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. Her training experiences include various Adult Summer Intensive internationally, as well as ongoing adult ballet study in London through classes at the Royal Academy of Dance and Pineapple Dance Studios, Covent Garden. In Paris, she has also studied in classes led by former Paris Opera Ballet artists. These international experiences continue to inspire her appreciation for classical ballet traditions while shaping her approach to teaching adult dancers with encouragement, musical sensitivity, and respect for each dancer's individual journey.
Jessica is particularly passionate about the adult ballet community and believes that the artistry, discipline, and emotional experience of ballet should not be limited by age or professional aspirations. She is the founder of Dansica Paris, an international dance initiative creating opportunities for adult and aspiring dancers to train, explore repertoire, and experience the excitement of performance. Dansica Paris presents all four season adult ballet intensive: Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer in Paris, including an Adult Ballet Division and Pre-Professional programming, with selected programs also offered in Banff and Calgary, Alberta.
As an adult dancer herself, Jessica has performed in amateur ballet productions in France. She also contributes lectures and workshops on ballet musicality, music interpretation, and the relationship between dancer and music within training programs and intensives in the United Kingdom and France. Her background as a professional musician gives her a distinctive perspective in the studio: encouraging dancers not simply to move to music, but to listen, breathe, phrase, and communicate through it.
Jessica is also undertaking 200-hour yoga teacher training, further developing her understanding of body awareness, alignment, mobility, breath, and the connection between movement and physical well-being. She enjoys collaborating with adult ballet enthusiasts and fellow ballet, barre, dance, and yoga educators in developing interdisciplinary programs within the academy.
At the heart of Jessica's teaching is a simple belief: dance is both a discipline and an artistic experience, and meaningful artistry can be discovered at every stage of life. Whether working with a young child discovering performing arts for the first time or an adult dancer returning to a long-held dream of ballet, she strives to create an environment where music, movement, imagination, and personal expression can come together.