Small Business Shout Out: Jazzercise of Dexter

The following answers were provided by Juli Huddleston, owner and Jazzercise instructor at Jazzercise of Dexter. If you have a business and want to participate in Patch's Small Business Shout Out you can fill out the form here.

When was the business founded?: I've been teaching since 1987 (just celebrated my 26th anniversary on Feb. 27). I first started teaching in North Carolina, then Novi and I've had classes in Dexter since 1993.

How did your business come to be?: I started Jazzercising with a friend in Georgia and when I moved to North Carolina I found another Jazzercise location so I could continue to take classes. It was so much fun I didn't want to stop going! I started attending classes in North Carolina and they asked if I had ever considered becoming a Jazzercise instructor. I decided to give it a try and trained with them for several months, learning routines (that are choreographed by our CEO Judi Shepard Missett) and material so I could pass our required Exercise & Physiology Exam and audition. We moved back to Michigan and began classes here, first starting them in Novi but eventually moving to Dexter where we had decided to live with our family.

Why did you choose to locate to Dexter?: I'm originally from Ann Arbor and my dad had started a company, Dexter Gear and Spline, that moved from Dexter to Plymouth and then back to Dexter. We had moved back to Dexter so my husband could help him with his computer systems. We thought about moving to the Plymouth area but my great Aunt and Uncle owned a cottage on Portage Lake that we'd been coming to since we were young (it now belongs to my family) and we loved spending time on the lake so we wanted to be close to that.  Dexter has a fabulous school system which was important to us because of our young children, and you can't beat the people!  There were morning Jazzercise classes in Dexter that were owned by someone else.  I started evening and weekend classes and when the other owner moved I added morning classes.  Now we have 24 classes, 7 days a week.

What kind of services do you offer?: Jazzercise classes including Body Sculpting (all strengthening and toning classes), Cardio Kickboxing, Cardio Core, Circuit and a 30 minute Express class.

What's a fact about your business that most customers probably don't know?: I once taught a Junior Jazzercise class at one of our International Conventions in San Diego, CA.

What do you want your business to be best known for?: Making people feel welcome and helping them meet their fitness goals. If you haven't exercised in a while (or maybe you've never been a regular exerciser) it can be very intimidating to come to an exercise place. We want to make it a comfortable experience for everyone. Some people think we're all super coordinated, skinny, and young. Some of our customers are but most of us look much more like your friends and neighbors and are people that you'd really like to get to know!

What's your most popular product or service?: Our regular Jazzercise classes are our most popular and the ones that you'll see on our schedule most of the time. Because it works your whole body in one workout and makes you feel so great people are very happy with just our basic class, with a little extra fun thrown in once in a while.

For more information, or for a class schedule, visit the center's website.