Orlando Dance Conservatory held its grand opening earlier this month at a new 3,500-square-foot facility at 751 Business Park Blvd., Suite 102, in Winter Garden, marking a major upgrade for the not-for-profit studio after outgrowing its original space. Founder Aretuza Garner says she assembled the new studio in just two months, but getting there took far longer than that.
The conservatory first opened in June 2021 at 3554 West Orange Country Club Drive, according to reporting from the West Orange Times & Observer, which detailed how the studio outgrew that space after gaining hundreds of students. Garner told the paper she was denied permitting approval three times before finally receiving an approval notice five months later, a delay that pushed back the opening of the new location near State Road 429. The wait, she said, was worth it: the new space includes a changing room, a kitchen, private instruction rooms and larger studio areas for both dancers and parents.
A Studio Built on Decades of International Training
Garner began dancing at age 3 and started teaching ballet at 16, according to the same report. She moved to Orlando from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and has since worked with Orlando Ballet, appeared as a guest teacher at studios across the region, and judged dance competitions. Her early training under masters including Eugenia Feodorova and Tatiana Leskova, followed by a scholarship to study at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln in Cologne, Germany, gave her the pedigree behind the conservatory's classical curriculum, which is based on Vaganova and French techniques, according to Orlando Voyager.
Before Central Florida, Garner opened a dance studio in Turks and Caicos in 2003, where she also founded an Adopt-a-Dancer program that paid for children's dance lessons before she eventually closed the school. That same scholarship framework now underpins Orlando Dance Conservatory's own Adopt-a-Dancer program, which continues to cover tuition for local children whose families can't otherwise afford classes. The studio, incorporated as an active Florida non-profit in October 2020 with Garner as president, per Florida Division of Corporations records, now employs certified teachers with years of experience dancing in Brazil and Europe.
New Floors, New Open-Enrollment Program
The new facility's marley floors were a deliberate investment, Garner said, describing floating floors as an investment in dancers' health. That claim lines up with biomechanical research showing purpose-built sprung floors can reduce landing force by 60% to 70%, easing joint stress that unforgiving concrete or standard wood subfloors otherwise direct straight into dancers' lower limbs, according to research compiled by Harlequin Floors. Garner had previously said the old space was too small for dance workshops and grand allegro, the sweeping traveling jumps that demand more room than a cramped studio can offer.
Alongside the move, the conservatory launched a new program called Open Dance on August 11, aimed at widening access to dance instruction beyond its competitive pre-professional track. Open Dance is open to anyone above age 7 and, unlike the conservatory's core programs, does not require weekly classes, performances or competitions. It offers Pilates, contemporary, ballet, jazz and tap, while the conservatory's traditional track continues to offer ballet, jazz, contemporary, pointe and tap for dancers serving Central Florida, with classes starting at $90 per month.
Timing Meets a Growing Community
The expansion lands as the surrounding Horizon West area has exploded in population, growing from about 14,000 residents in 2010 to 58,101 by 2020, with projections reaching 73,264 this year, according to World Population Review. That growth has fueled demand for youth arts programming in a corridor that borders Winter Garden directly. It also comes roughly two years after Winter Garden lost its historic Garden Theatre, which closed permanently in October 2024 due to financial difficulties, a blow to performing arts access in West Orange County that Hoodline covered at the time.
Nonprofit dance organizations remain a small slice of Central Florida's arts economy overall. Among the 802 arts and culture non-profits across the greater Orlando metro area, only 35 are dedicated dance organizations, together generating a combined $1.18 million in annual revenue, according to data from Cause IQ. Garner has said adults should have contact with the arts too, a philosophy reflected in Open Dance's broader age range and looser commitment structure. Orlando Dance Conservatory's office hours are 5 to 7 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, and the non-profit continues to accept donations and volunteers to help sustain its scholarship program.
