A studio built on family, discipline, and joy.
Bodies In Motion isn't a franchise, a chain, or a passion project. It's a neighborhood institution — thirty years in the same corner of North Philadelphia, taught by the same family, grounded in the same belief that movement changes lives.
It started with one floor in 1995.
When Candy Sneed opened the doors of Bodies In Motion Performing Arts & Dance School, Philadelphia's dance landscape didn't have many places where a Black ballerina and a hip-hop dancer could train under the same roof, taught with the same seriousness, by teachers who looked like them.
"We're not preparing kids for a recital. We're preparing them for their lives."
So she built one. Thirty years, three generations of students, and one award-winning dance company later, that floor is still here — and so is the mission. Students who started in Creative Movement at age three have grown up to teach classes at the studio themselves. Parents who drove their kids to ballet in 1998 now drive their grandkids to hip-hop on Saturday mornings.
The building has seen recitals, auditions, first pointe shoes, last performances, pandemic pivots, and anniversary parties. What it hasn't seen is the original mission change — not once in thirty years.
Three decades on one floor.
Bodies In Motion opens its doors in North Philadelphia with ballet, tap, and jazz on the schedule.
The BIM Dance Company is founded, bringing Philly street funk to the competition circuit.
The first graduating class of BIM students goes on to professional dance programs across the country.
Twenty-year anniversary celebration draws three generations of alumni back to the studio floor.
The studio pivots to virtual classes through the pandemic without losing a single family.
Thirty years strong, and still adding new classes, styles, and stories every single season.
Our mission, in plain words.
To foster in children and adults a lifelong appreciation for the performing arts, and a clear-eyed understanding of how movement supports physical and emotional well-being. We are a family-centered program committed to helping families and communities raise young people with confidence, self-awareness, and civic responsibility.
Candy Sneed — founder, teacher, lifer.
Candy Sneed has taught dance in Philadelphia for more than thirty years. She is the founder, owner, and artistic director of Bodies In Motion Performing Arts & Dance School, and the choreographer behind the award-winning BIM Dance Company. Her students have gone on to professional companies, Broadway stages, and college dance programs across the country — but the ones she's proudest of are the ones who come back to teach the next generation.
— Candy SneedOwner & Director · Since 1995
Our students end up everywhere.
Careers
Professional dance companies, touring musical theater, music video choreography, fitness instruction, and dance education across the Mid-Atlantic and beyond.
Companies
Philadelphia-area companies, regional touring groups, and the BIM Dance Company itself — many of our instructors started as students on this floor.
Colleges
BFA programs across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, plus liberal arts schools where BIM alumni keep dancing as a life practice, not a profession.
