First City School of Dance Inc.

First City School of Dance Inc. Dance education in foundation and artistry. All styles. All levels. Two locations, Saint John and Quispamsis. Classes for ages 18 months - adult.

09/27/2026

First Young Company rehearsal of the season ❤️ And what a beautiful way to begin—with visiting artist, Fatima Lopez, creating a brand-new work on our dancers.

09/26/2026

Toddler Moves & Grooves is back! 🐢🐇
This week, our youngest dancers are exploring fast and slow through music, imagination, and movement. Let’s hide and move slow like a 🐢 and hop like a 🐇!

First City was born from a lifelong love of dance and education. After decades as a professional dancer, choreographer a...
09/25/2026

First City was born from a lifelong love of dance and education. After decades as a professional dancer, choreographer and educator, Ms. Marcia dreamed of creating a school where dance was accessible to everyone, where every dancer received the same quality dance education. She wanted to build a school that valued both educators and artists, and that placed the integrity of dance at the heart of everything it does. This vision continues to shape First City today.

Marcia Dysart is a dancer, choreographer, collaborator, and educator. She works across ballet, contemporary, and musical theatre, collaborating with musicians, filmmakers, visual artists, and dancers.

Recognized as a senior dance artist in New Brunswick, Marcia has received multiple creation grants from artsnb. Her dance film We Walk Invisible, created with Michael Mohan, was showcased at the Atlantic Dance Film Festival and featured by the Canadian Dance Assembly. She is currently developing The Self in Shadow, a multidisciplinary collaboration supported by artsnb with Deanna Musgrave, Michael Mohan, and Inuk soprano Deantha Edmunds.

Marcia has choreographed for the Saint John Theatre Company, Saint John High School, dance schools, and community organizations, with theatre credits including Annie, 9 to 5, Mary Poppins, Hadestown and others. As a performer, she continues to work with Connection Dance Works performing in multidisciplinary contemporary works. Most recently she performed in Liam Caines’ new work, Come All Ye and.. Dance!

A passionate arts educator and advocate for accessibility, Marcia co-founded Youth Dance Fest East and is currently undergoing training with Dancing with Parkinson’s. She has developed dance curricula for schools and works extensively with students and educators across the Maritimes.

Marcia holds degrees in Education and Science and is trained in Horton Technique, Progressing Ballet Technique, and Boston Ballet’s Adaptive Dance program. She is a certified teacher of the American Ballet Theatre National Training Curriculum ( Pre-Primary to Level 5) as well as Kaeja Elevations. She is a graduate of Dance Education Canada’s Virtuoso Program.

09/23/2026

First City Dance Company is back in the studio, training and preparing for an exciting season ahead.

Part of preserving the integrity of dance as an art form is recognizing the important relationship between dance and mus...
09/22/2026

Part of preserving the integrity of dance as an art form is recognizing the important relationship between dance and music—and including musicians as an integral part of the training.

Ian accompanies our Contemporary and Horton Technique classes, bringing live music into the studio and giving dancers the opportunity to truly experience the connection between movement and music.

He has also been a collaborator in our Contemporary Dance Project, working alongside our dancers to create new music for new choreography. We’ve brought his teaching into our summer intensives as well, where dancers spend time learning more about music and developing a deeper understanding of the art form that accompanies their movement.

We’re incredibly grateful to have Ian as part of the First City community and for everything he brings to our dancers, our teachers, and our artistic practice.

Ian Gibson is a percussionist and educator based in Rothesay, New Brunswick. He holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Percussion Performance from the University of Toronto and previously served as Head of Percussion at Cambrian College while teaching at Laurentian University for twelve years. Ian currently works as Centre Director and Percussion Teaching Artist with Sistema New Brunswick in Oromocto, leading an after-school orchestral program for more than fifty elementary students. He is proud to be an Innovative Percussion, SABIAN Cymbals, Pearl Drums, and Adams Musical Instruments Artist.
Ian Gibson is a percussionist and educator based in Rothesay, New Brunswick. He holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Percussion Performance from the University of Toronto and previously served as Head of Percussion at Cambrian College while teaching at Laurentian University for twelve years. Ian currently works as Centre Director and Percussion Teaching Artist with Sistema New Brunswick in Oromocto, leading an after-school orchestral program for more than fifty elementary students. He is proud to be an Innovative Percussion, SABIAN Cymbals, Pearl Drums, and Adams Musical Instruments Artist.

Ms. Amanda had such a wonderful morning with her sweet tots in Toddler Moves & Grooves! 💕Her Sunday class is now full, b...
09/20/2026

Ms. Amanda had such a wonderful morning with her sweet tots in Toddler Moves & Grooves! 💕

Her Sunday class is now full, but we still have a few spots available in Ms. Rebecca’s Saturday class at 10:00 a.m. at our Quispamsis location and a couple of spots in Ms. Sarah’s 9:30 am class in Saint John.

Winter Solstice rehearsals began yesterday, and all three of our Saint John studios were brimming with dancers collabora...
09/20/2026

Winter Solstice rehearsals began yesterday, and all three of our Saint John studios were brimming with dancers collaborating, creating, and bringing choreography to life.

Here, Ms. Sarah works with our dancers to help shape their ideas and turn their creativity into movement. We love watching their artistic voices emerge throughout the process.

If your dancer is interested and you missed yesterday’s rehearsal, there’s still time to join this magical experience! ✨ We have a few spots remaining.

Requirements: Ages 5+ and currently enrolled in at least one ballet class. Enrol through the parent portal.

Since the very beginning of First City, we’ve had the enormous pleasure of working with the incomparable Darryl Tracy. A...
09/19/2026

Since the very beginning of First City, we’ve had the enormous pleasure of working with the incomparable Darryl Tracy. An exceptional choreographer, artist, and teacher, Darryl is our Artist in Residence and an incredible mentor to our dancers and faculty.

He is truly a national treasure within Canada’s contemporary dance community, and we are so grateful to have his artistry at First City.

Darryl Tracy is a Toronto-based independent dance artist (interpreter, choreographer, teacher and producer). He was a senior faculty member and resident choreographer at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre (now Dance Arts Institute) from 1996-2021 under the artistic direction of Patricia Fraser. He has created roles in works by many of Canada’s leading choreographers, including: Darcey Callison, Marie-Josee Chartier, Lesandra Dodson, Michael DuMaresq, Jenn Goodwin, Patti Powell, Julia Sasso, Michelle Silagy, Holly Small, Heidi Strauss, Michael Trent, and Gerry Trentham. He and Heidi Strauss were co-artistic directors of four chambers Dance Projects from 1998-2006, commissioning duets from choreographers Conrad Alexandrowicz, Sarah Chase, Marie-Josée Chartier, Yvonne Coutts, Lesandra Dodson, Sylvain Émard, and Julia Sasso. Their duet created by Italian-based company Deja Donne garnered them a nomination in Outstanding Performance in Dance for the prestigious Dora Mavor Moore Award. Darryl was also part of the company Sylvain Émard Danse in Montreal for 4+ years dancing and touring in Émard’s Temps de chien. As a choreographer, Darryl has created over 42 of his own works through commissions and self-produced productions. Most recently, he created new works at The School of Contemporary Dancers (Winnipeg) and 2 short films which toured the contemporary film festivals.He has staged a new solo he and collaborator Marie-Josée Chartier co created. It is a solo Tracy performs entittled ‘six ways to peel an orange” which will tour in 2027. He was nominated for the K.M. Hunter award in 2013. Darryl has a dual career as a neuro rehabilitation physiotherapist.

Photo by Shawn Bracke

Address

156 Union St. , Saint John And 80 Millennium Drive , Quispamsis
Saint John, NB
E2L1A8

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when First City School of Dance Inc. posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to First City School of Dance Inc.:

Shortcuts

Share

Category