Meet Samantha

Samantha McLoughlin is originally from Edmonton, Alberta, in western Canada.She was born dancing. She took her first dance class at age three. It was a creative movement/ballet class for toddlers. And now that she is a dance teacher herself, creative movement is her favorite style of dance to teach, and the little ones are her favorite age group. Samantha continued dance classes throughout her childhood and teenage years, enrolling in every style of dance offered. She progressed from competition dancer to professional dance career following high school graduation. She went to Italy to study dance with Bella Vita Arts. It was there Samantha met Sarisa Figueroa who auditioned her for Decidedly Jazz Dance Works (DJD), a professional jazz dance company and school in Calgary, Alberta. 

Samantha trained at DJD for two years, completing the professional dance program. Upon completion of the DJD program, she danced professionally for Ballet Creole Dance Company in Toronto, Ontario. 

A friend who danced with Samantha at Ballet Creole, and who always wanted to train at the world renowned  Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, suggested Samantha come to New York and audition with her. Samantha passed the audition, beginning the New York phase of her career. She has now lived in New York for nine years, performing and working for Shadowbox Theater, ARIM Dance, and Mare Nostrum Elements. She also has her own teaching and performance company SammyJDance.

Samantha has been teaching dance since she was 18. She discovered she has a particular affinity for young children, and feels she learns as much from them as they do from her. She began teaching pre-kindergarten (pre-k) dance in 2011 at the Rose Academy of Ballet in Queens, where she fell in love with the littlest dancers. She is currently one of the lead teachers for the ballet program, head teacher of the tap program, and choreographer/teacher for the competitive dance teams. Her choreography has won first place and top first place in competition. Samantha also works at the Mark Morris Dance Centre and Blooming BeBe in Brooklyn teaching Parent Toddler classes and creative movement. She is also a teacher for Dance Theatre of Harlem.  Her classes are highly requested by parents, have full enrollment and a waiting list to get in. While dancing at Shadowbox Theater (2012-2019),  Samantha left Shadowbox to run her program for Instages. She is now working to further develop pre-k dance education under her own company SammyJDance. Her goal is to provide specialized pre-k dance to city schools at an affordable cost, so all children, regardless of family income, can know the joy of dancing. 

To date, Samantha has been teaching her unique program in Bronx House, La Peninsula and Greek American Institute. Her program combines dance with eight New York Department of Education mandated requirements for school readiness. The schools that have bought her program have seen noticeable improvements in their pre-k students, with higher test scores in the mandated requirements. And every year, her program is renewed. Samantha has completed special pre-k training, attended workshops and classes in early childhood development, music and movement, anxiety and dance, and dance in early childhood development. She has been teaching for the past 12 years. She currently has 3 teachers working for her, all trained by her to teach her curriculum. Her teachers all assist her for one year before being given classes of their own. Samantha’s goal is to continue helping young children grow in a nurturing and supportive environment, passing on her love of dance, hopefully in your school.