Welcome to YMM Dance Company! I cannot wait to start dancing with all of you and kick off our inaugural season.  At YMM Dance Company, we take the time to recognize every dancer. It doesn’t matter if you take one class or twenty classes, everyone is a member of YMM Dance. It is our goal to make every dancer feel apart of our YMM Dance family.

“Make a difference. Create a better world by being kind. Kindness is enduring. Kindness is Contagious. Kindness makes everyone feel good”- Elsie Yanik .

That is one of my favourite quotes and it is very fitting. I want our studio to be a place of kindness. So, when you first step into our dance studio you will notice the Elsie Yanik Children’s Creative Corner.  Our children’s corner is named after the late Mrs Elise Yanik and is a place for our younger dancers to use before or after class to create art or play. Mrs Yanik believed in a world where kindness makes a difference.  We hope that every time a parent, student, and staff member look at the corner they are reminded that kindness is what makes YMM Dance so amazing; and sets us apart from the rest.  We treat each other with kindness and with the power of kindness every dancer can succeed.

~Melinda 

Melinda started dancing at the age of eight years old and since then she hasn’t stopped. At the age of fifteen, Melinda was one of two Canadians chosen out hundreds of dancers from the United States to take part in a six week US National Tour with Hoctor’s Dance Caravan. At seventeen Melinda moved to Vancouver where she became a member of The Source Dance
Company under the direction of Joanne Pesusich. Performing in such shows as: Zig or Zag, The Choice is yours, Scratch That, Grease, Fashion Music Arts Awards and For the love of it. She has won and received numerous awards and scholarships for her dance and choreography abilities. At only 18 years old she won the Young Choreographer award at the Edmonton’s American Dance Awards for her contemporary group number called “Walk the Line,” and most recently receiving an outburst of accolades for her piece “Come Home” a tribute to the Murdered & Missing Aboriginal Women. Melinda will return to The Source Dance Company this year to choreograph a piece for their upcoming show. Melinda has extensive training in many genres of dance that includes Jazz, Tap, Ballet, Hip Hop, Lyrical, Modern, Contemporary, Musical Theatre and Acro. She is an affiliate member of The Society of Russian Ballet and a module one certified teacher with Acrobatic Arts. Melinda is also a graduate of the Toronto Media and Film College with a Film Arts and Production Diploma and has worked two seasons as a producer trainee on the APTN show Blackstone.