Fifteen years ago at the age of 35, Ofelia de La Valette, a highly successful entrepreneur with her own insurance brokerage firm in Atlanta, decided her professional life was not what she wanted it to be. Despite her accomplishments, awards and respect within the business community in Atlanta, she decided to take a leap -literally- to direct her energy and passion fulltime to something she had longed to do since she was a little girl: dance.

Ofelia, who was born in Cuba and came with her family to New York when she was 3 years old, had always dreamt of being a dancer. Because of her family's financial strains, having fled persecution in Cuba with nothing more than one suitcase each, they could not afford to send her to dance classes in the States. Exhibiting independence and resourcefulness that she would carry with her throughout her life, Ofelia spent hours dancing salsa, jazz, ballet in her parent's living room, choreographing her own routines with friends and putting on neighborhood performances. In middle and high school she joined dance troupes, and later, living in Spain, she put herself through Flamenco school.

But she had to put those dreams aside when she married after moving back from Europe, and began a family. For the next fifteen years she dedicated herself to raising her two children and becoming a successful businesswoman in Atlanta. In 1994 she was recognized by the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce as Businesswoman of the Year for the success of her insurance agency, de La Valette & Associates.

And yet despite incredible success, Ofelia, like so many who work hard in fields that don't fulfill emotional desires, longed for passion in her nine-to-five. It was time to make that leap.

It was through these classes and the loyalty of her students that Dance 101 was born. After almost 2 years of teaching at Emory, Ofelia, decided to meld her entrepreneurial drive with her passion for dance. With her life savings and support from her students and family, in 2004, Ofelia opened Dance 101 in a small space that once housed an Art Gallery in the Design District of Atlanta, Miami Circle. Her studio would not only bring unique and accessible dance classes to Atlanta, classes inspired by ones she had taken in LA and NYC, but she deliberately sought out a hip location and a stylish space to appeal to an increasingly urbane and sophisticated exercise clientele.

With it's beautiful paintings, chic furnishings and elegant aesthetic, Dance 101 distinguished itself from the bare bones dance studios and generic fitness gyms available in any city. And the formula worked: At only 2400sq feet and a rapidly growing client base, Ofelia had to relocate a year after opening as demand for her classes was forcing the studio to turn away students. In 2006 Dance 101 moved into it's current 10,000sq foot location, making it the largest dance studio of it's kind in the country.

Barely 4 years old, with 12,500 registered students (as compared to 35 students at opening) and 33 teachers and more than 120 different classes a week, ranging from Vintage Ballet to Clubbin 101, two sold out performances a year, and a celebrity artistic director Bubba Carr at the helm, Dance 101 has redefined what an all adult dance studio is in Atlanta and nationally. Dance 101 is a place where beauty surrounds and beauty is expressed, a safe and welcoming environment for the novice and the initiated, where students are radically transformed by motion and movement - just like Ofelia was and continues to be.

Ofelia, who is now 50 and in the best shape of her life, manages all aspects of Dance 101, teaches weekly classes at the studio and is currently unrolling expansion plans for the studio locally and nationally. Pioneering a path never before traveled in the dance industry, Ofelia is changing the landscape of dance as both a form of fitness and a form of expression in this country. She is providing the public with the opportunity to do for themselves what, up until now, they could only watch others do on TV: to make their own leap, from their living room to a class room, from audience to the stage. Stay tuned and prepare to be transformed by the power of dance, Dance 101.