After a knee injury stalled a fast-rising basketball career, Montreal-born Jerome Junior Jean-Gilles arrived in Toronto in 1996, looking for a new channel for his compelling love for life and movement. Latin American dance not only became the source to physically inspire and challenge but also to rediscover a pleasure in rhythm and music that was a constant from his childhood. Raised upon the Haitian rhythms of Kompa, the Latin American dances rolled through the body like his native French language from his tongue. Planting this new creativity and direction into this solid foundation, Jerome was eager to apply his skills to other forms of dance. He quickly filled his plate with tap, hip-hop, lindy hopping and Afro-Cuban dance. Within four years, he was giving instruction and performances in Latin dance with Toronto’s popular latin dance studios. His skills as a dancer has taken him to performances around the world, including Japan, Thailand, Ireland, UK, US, and Bermuda. Currently, he is a director and instructor with City Dance Corps and continues to perform independently in tap and lindy-hopping. In his spare time, Jerome is currently completing his Accounting degree at Ryerson University. Dancing with the discipline of a professional athlete and the fluid sensuousness of his native rhythm, Jerome also has an acute understanding of dance as creative expression and communication with the music. When teaching dance instruction, Jerome aims to have each student discover his or her own relationship with the music, applying and reapplying his fundamental rule in dance: “Listen to the music.”