Tracy Straus
Tracy Straus is a dance instructor and choreographer, and the artistic and creative director behind Bija Beat. She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, performed off-Broadway, and served as Associate Producer on the Tony Award–winning productions Spring Awakening and American Idiot. She served as the Associate Artistic Director of National Dance Institute and remains an Artistic Associate.
Twenty-six years ago she founded Celebrate the Beat, bringing free, professional dance education to children in Colorado schools — 55,000 children and counting.
The year Tracy turned 14, scoliosis put her in a full back brace, and dance became the one place she felt free. It has been her temple ever since. That is the belief underneath everything she has built: that movement heals, that dance isn't reserved for the few who look like dancers, and that every room should welcome whatever body walks into it. Every Bija Beat class starts there.
Where creativity meets cardio.
Bija Beat is high-energy, all-levels dance built on 30 years of professional teaching and choreography, set to live music, in rooms designed so that everyone leads. Bija is the Sanskrit word for seed — and every class plants one: a portion of every session supports Celebrate the Beat.
26 years. 55,000 children.
Celebrate the Beat brings free, professional dance education to children in Colorado schools. It's a fully independent nonprofit that Bija Beat proudly supports — the two are separate legal entities.