Founder, Julia Grace danced before she could walk…
Starting at 4 years old, Julia would put on improvisational dance shows for her parents and their friends and In long car rides, would close her eyes and find herself dancing in her imagination.
Through middle school, while experience bullying and family turmoil, Julia resorted to dance to express her sadness, frequently dancing to Celine Dion’s “all by myself” in her bedroom.
Julia continued to find refuge in dancing in times of challenge in her life. Discovering an expressive movement modality called JourneyDance while grieving the sudden loss of her father in 2010 was her saving grace and she immersed herself in studying with Toni Bergins, the founder of this healing modality. Julia became a certified JourneyDance teacher in 2010. The life changing and healing experience with this expressive movement modality led to Julia pursuing deeper study in somatic healing and professional training in Dance/Movement Therapy, receiving a Masters in Clinical Counseling and Dance Movement Therapy from Lesley University, Cambridge, MA.
In 2011, Julia Grace, was initiated into beach dancing by one of her teachers, Rochelle Schieck while training in a movement modality called QOYA .
The transformational power and magic of beach dancing became a staple of Julia’s self care routine and a place of respite. Dancing by the waves in solitude with her music (set on shuffle), Julia Grace was able to express and honor the ocean of her emotions and connect more deeply to herself, to spirit, and noticed that each time she had danced, even if for one song, she was re-enlivened and re-inspired in a really unique and potent way.
During the period of her grandmother in hospice and placing her grandfather in a nursing home due to his advanced dementia, Julia used beach dance to grieve and seek solace, once again.
When she moved to Venice, CA in 2016, beach dancing became a regular self care practice, which she would share on social media ever so often. After having a profound experience beach dancing with Julia, April pfender, one of Julia’s friends suggested she share this with the community. Julia began to share the time and location when she beach danced and a few of her friends and social media followers started to join her weekly. Julia would create an intention setting circle and closing sharing, and everyone would dance with their own headsets and music, Donations were gathered in benefit of Julia’s nonprofit ALMA (called PlantPals at the time), which brings dance to lonely seniors living in nursing homes.
In May 2018, a participant of the beach dance introduced her to Murray Hidary of Mind Travel Music. Intrigued by her work, particularly that with seniors, Murray offered Julia his foundation’s support and provided silent disco headsets for the Beach dance experience. The headset technology allowed everyone to listen to the same music, and for Julia to now guide the experience through a microphone creating a unique collective and simultaneously individual experience. Quickly 7-10 ppl a week dancing on the beach, grew to 30-100 people, with many often stumbling upon the magical experience while watching the sunset at the Venice Pier or taking a casual stroll on beach. Many people would return and share that it’s the most free they have ever felt in their life.
The Wave Silent Disco was born.
More than 1500 people have now danced at the Wave, reaching San Diego, and now going on a 2020 tour to Mexico, Costa Rica, and Bali.
Julia Grace is currently developing a training program which will allow others inspired by the power of dance to get formal training and certification to share The Wave with their communities. If you are interested in training with Julia Grace, you can reach out to her here.