April 19, 2025 • 13 mins
In this episode of The Rest of the Story on Hey, Dancer!, I’m diving into the story behind one of the most iconic dance fitness empires in history.
Before it was a global brand…
Before the neon, the VHS tapes, the Jane Fonda comparisons…
It was just a dancer named Judi Sheppard Missett, trying to keep her students from quitting class.
What happened next? A bold flyer, a missing mirror, and a pivot that turned into a worldwide movement.
We’ll start with her childhood in Iowa, where she first fell in love with dance — and trace how that passion led her to train under (jazz dance giant) Gus Giordano, perform professionally, and eventually teach.
This episode follows how one woman’s artistic instincts sparked a shift that outlived trends and reshaped fitness forever.
You might think you know Jazzercise.
But this is the story of the dancer who started it all.
And it begins in a nearly empty studio.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey there, Dance Fam!
(00:03):
What is up?
Welcome to "Hey Dancer" and another episode of "The Rest of the Story."
The series where, as I always say, is dedicated to a dance legend or a moment in dance history.
But let's be honest, aside from that rare exception, I almost always cover dance legends
(00:24):
exclusively.
Today, though, I'll arguably be covering both — a dance icon and a moment.
The phenomenon she created became a full-on cultural wave, a true moment in dance history.
But what gets talked about way less is her own journey as a dancer.
(00:46):
Most interviews, articles, and features I could find on this woman focus on her brand
to building, and her business success, the entrepreneurial side of things.
And yes, that is part of the story and it's amazingly impressive, but I wanted to dig
into her dance routes.
So that is exactly what we're gonna do today.
(01:07):
But first, make sure you subscribe or follow wherever you're watching or listening from
because it tells the platforms, "You like this!
You like dance stuff, and you want to see more of it, and it just helps me out."
Thank you in advance, truly.
Now, let's get into it.
Before Jane Fonda, Richard Simmons, before fitness on VHS, before the boom of group classes
(01:31):
and branded workout wear, there was one — one dancer, one idea, one unexpected empire.
Her first encounter with dance?
It wasn't planned.
She was just two and a half years old, walking with her mom in Coronado, California.
When they passed a dance studio.
Kids were in class and she wandered in, watching, then mimicking the other dancers trying to
(01:58):
copy what they were doing.
The teacher noticed, came over to her mom and said, "This little girl has a gift.
You need to find her a class."
Her mom replied, "Well, we're moving to Iowa."
And the teacher told her, "Well then find someone in Iowa."
She grew up in Red Oak, Iowa, where her mom would drive her 50 miles each way to reach
(02:21):
better training.
As local interest in dance classes grew, her family helped organize guest teachers to
come into town, bringing real dance instruction to a small community that had limited access.
Her mom ran the schedule, handled costumes, produced recitals, doing everything but officially
(02:42):
owning the studio.
She essentially was the studio.
And the girl?
She wasn't just taking class.
She was leading them.
At 13, she opened her own studio in the basement of her home, teaching ballet, tap, jazz,
and acro to about 100 students total, not all at once, of course, but on a rotating schedule.
(03:06):
That spark of entrepreneurship was already there, long before she'd ever call herself
a businesswoman.
By her teens, she was performing professionally, touring with productions of West Side Story,
Funny Girl, and Hello Dolly across the Midwest and beyond.
These were paid gigs, real contracts, and she was learning the grind firsthand.
(03:30):
Then came a turning point.
At a dance seminar in Omaha, Nebraska, she met jazz dance legend Gus Giordano.
If you know jazz, you know Gus.
The first and only dance master to codify his own jazz technique in his book, Anthology
of American Jazz Dance, and the creator of the first American Jazz Dance World Congress.
(03:54):
In other words, a giant.
She was still in high school at the time, just a kid in a crowded seminar, but Gus saw
something.
He picked her out of the group, and that one moment stuck with her, the way she's told
it, there was such genuine surprise and gratitude in her voice.
(04:14):
Being seen by someone like that, it lit something in her.
After class, he encouraged her to pursue dance more seriously, and when he found out she was
college bound, he told her point blank, "Choose Northwestern, not Stanford."
Northwestern meant proximity to his studio in Chicago, where he could personally train,
(04:37):
mentor, and invest in her.
And she listened.
She packed her college schedule with dance classes and started commuting into the city to study
with Giordano.
He sharpened her technique, gave her performance opportunities, and introduced her to the
rigors of professional dance life.
His wife, Peg, brought warmth and family into the mix.
(05:00):
They lived just two blocks apart in Evanston.
He became part of each other's circle.
She danced under his direction and stepped into gigs he helped facilitate, and was in his
studio under his encouragement that she taught her first professional jazz classes.
In those early teaching experiences, something started to click.
(05:24):
The very first sparks of a new idea began to form.
It didn't have a name yet, but it had energy and momentum.
She loved jazz.
She knew how expressive, athletic, and transformative it could be.
So when she began teaching her own classes at the studio in Evanston, she thought she knew
(05:44):
what her students were after.
Turns out, she didn't.
The women in her class weren't trying to become professional dancers.
They didn't want to tour, audition, or hit the perfect arabesque.
They just wanted to look like dancers.
Tone up their bodies, get healthier, have fun.
But the classes were too hard, too focused on technique, and week after week, students
(06:10):
stopped showing up.
So she did something, not every teacher is willing to do.
She paid attention and pivoted.
She realized she needed to try something different.
So she went to Gus and asked if she could use an empty studio to test a new idea.
She said, "Sure, take the one downstairs, whatever you want to do."
(06:31):
She put up flyers and called it, "Jazz dance for fun and fitness."
She took down the mirror, literally.
She didn't want women comparing themselves to anyone else.
She changed the format, made the movement more accessible, shifted the focus from training
to joy.
She kept the dance roots, but stripped away the pressure.
(06:55):
And that is when everything changed.
The women came back, and they started to bring their friends, too.
A few years later, she moved to Southern California and began teaching her signature fusion style
at local rec centers.
Word of mouth spread fast.
Military wives took it to new towns and bases.
(07:16):
She couldn't keep up with the demand, so she created a training manual, then a training
program, then she began franchising.
By the early 80s, she was shipping VHS tapes nationwide, certifying instructors by mail,
building a full-blown empire before most people even had answering machines.
(07:37):
The brand exploded.
She was everywhere.
TV shows, Morning Segment's National Ads, Leotards, Leg Warmer's Big Hair, it wasn't just
a workout.
It was a cultural moment.
They are the first dance fitness organization to perform in large-scale public events,
including the opening ceremonies of the 1984 Olympics and the Super Bowl halftime show.
(08:03):
But here's what's wild.
It didn't fade like so many other trends.
While others came and went, she adapted.
She brought in hit, resistance, strength training, modernized the music, hired experts, updated
the choreography.
She went digital.
Yeah, there was one rough year in the 90s when the company didn't turn a profit, and for
(08:25):
a minute it looked like they may not make it, but they pushed through.
And today, she says, "Now is their peak."
Over 50 years later, she is still leading it.
Still the CEO.
Her program has over 8,300 franchises across 25 countries and generates more than $93 million
(08:48):
in revenue annually.
What started as just a jazz class in a local studio became the world's first global dance
fitness brand, one of the first major fitness empires, which just so happened to be built
by a woman.
Her name, Judy Shepherd Miss it, and the phenomenon she created, "Jazzercise."
(09:11):
And now you know the rest of the story.
Alright, dance fam, before I get into the outro, if you enjoyed this episode and learned
a little something about Judy, Jazzercise, hey, do me a favor, give the video a like, share
it with your people, tell me in the comments, you know, like I need to know, have you ever
(09:33):
taken a Jazzercise class?
I don't know about you, but I'm mortified that I haven't yet.
I mean, I'm a dancer, and Jazz Dance is one of my favorites, and the fact that I have
never attempted a Jazzercise class is blasphemy.
I must.
Oh my gosh, I cannot wait to jump in there.
And also, subscribe and follow wherever you're watching or listening.
(09:56):
Now, let's get to a couple of more things here, just a couple of thoughts.
First of all, one of my favorite quotes by Judy is Jazz Dance is at the very root of what
we do.
It's our legacy, our history, our heart.
And I just love that quote, her almost paying homage to the art of Jazz Dance and how it
(10:16):
truly impacted, you know, her entire life, her brand, her soul, reflected in her business.
I just love it.
It makes me very happy to prove that her moment has never passed.
Jazzercise is referenced all the time.
It was in Stranger Things.
It was in Glee, Rick and Morty, the Goldbergs.
(10:39):
It's always popping up on TikTok.
I mean, these are just a couple of examples, how it's popped up, you know, in pop culture,
popped up in pop culture.
Did you know, by the way, that they were the first company to open a boutique fitness franchise
to train and certify instructors to produce Dance Exercise albums that went gold and platinum
(11:01):
to successfully market and sell brand name apparel to use instructor microphones, but through
all those accomplishments again, she stuck to the root of her love of Jazz Dance.
It was always the thing that fueled her to keep going.
And it's that joy of Dance that I feel like is so often lost today and it's something
(11:24):
that I talk about a lot in my return to Dance journey.
If you don't know, I'm a professional teenage dancer, well, I'm not now.
I was a pro teen dancer who quit and then came back three decades later and I often talk about
how the world of Dance has changed so much.
And this is one of the ways.
I just remember, Dance is always having so much joy and passion behind their dance and
(11:49):
not that they don't do now, but a lot of that has been stripped away in class now, in
competitions now.
There's so much about the camera, about footage, about winning trophies.
This wasn't a thing decades ago.
I think that Judy Story reminds us what Dance should be ultimately.
It is about the joy, the passion, the artistry, having a good time, feeling the beaten, just
(12:15):
grooving.
I'm often speaking again in my social media, two dancers about remembering your why.
You know, why is it that you started Dance in the first place?
Don't lose sight of that.
And I feel like Judy, she never did.
It was always the thing that fueled her to keep on going.
It's a beautiful thing.
(12:36):
I love it so much.
And I think ultimately that is the theme of this episode, if there is one.
And that is never lose the joy, never lose the spark.
And if you're blessed enough, take it with you in your business and use it every single
day.
And she does.
She is 81 years old.
And as I mentioned, still the CEO, still teaching classes from what I know looks amazing.
(13:00):
This is what they say about dancers.
Always looking and being so youthful, not that I'm all about, by the way, like needing to
look young, but Dance, it just keeps you youthful.
It just does.
And I've had podcasts if you haven't listened about the power of dance with regard to your
brain and your body.
(13:20):
It keeps your brain young very specifically.
Dance is one of the very, very few workouts, if you will, and art forms that actually keeps
your brain young and your body.
And Judy epitomizes that.
All right.
Until next time.
[MUSIC]
(13:46):
(upbeat music)
Hey there, Dance Fam!
(00:03):
What is up?
Welcome to "Hey Dancer" and another episode of "The Rest of the Story."
The series where, as I always say, is dedicated to a dance legend or a moment in dance history.
But let's be honest, aside from that rare exception, I almost always cover dance legends
(00:24):
exclusively.
Today, though, I'll arguably be covering both — a dance icon and a moment.
The phenomenon she created became a full-on cultural wave, a true moment in dance history.
But what gets talked about way less is her own journey as a dancer.
(00:46):
Most interviews, articles, and features I could find on this woman focus on her brand
to building, and her business success, the entrepreneurial side of things.
And yes, that is part of the story and it's amazingly impressive, but I wanted to dig
into her dance routes.
So that is exactly what we're gonna do today.
(01:07):
But first, make sure you subscribe or follow wherever you're watching or listening from
because it tells the platforms, "You like this!
You like dance stuff, and you want to see more of it, and it just helps me out."
Thank you in advance, truly.
Now, let's get into it.
Before Jane Fonda, Richard Simmons, before fitness on VHS, before the boom of group classes
(01:31):
and branded workout wear, there was one — one dancer, one idea, one unexpected empire.
Her first encounter with dance?
It wasn't planned.
She was just two and a half years old, walking with her mom in Coronado, California.
When they passed a dance studio.
Kids were in class and she wandered in, watching, then mimicking the other dancers trying to
(01:58):
copy what they were doing.
The teacher noticed, came over to her mom and said, "This little girl has a gift.
You need to find her a class."
Her mom replied, "Well, we're moving to Iowa."
And the teacher told her, "Well then find someone in Iowa."
She grew up in Red Oak, Iowa, where her mom would drive her 50 miles each way to reach
(02:21):
better training.
As local interest in dance classes grew, her family helped organize guest teachers to
come into town, bringing real dance instruction to a small community that had limited access.
Her mom ran the schedule, handled costumes, produced recitals, doing everything but officially
(02:42):
owning the studio.
She essentially was the studio.
And the girl?
She wasn't just taking class.
She was leading them.
At 13, she opened her own studio in the basement of her home, teaching ballet, tap, jazz,
and acro to about 100 students total, not all at once, of course, but on a rotating schedule.
(03:06):
That spark of entrepreneurship was already there, long before she'd ever call herself
a businesswoman.
By her teens, she was performing professionally, touring with productions of West Side Story,
Funny Girl, and Hello Dolly across the Midwest and beyond.
These were paid gigs, real contracts, and she was learning the grind firsthand.
(03:30):
Then came a turning point.
At a dance seminar in Omaha, Nebraska, she met jazz dance legend Gus Giordano.
If you know jazz, you know Gus.
The first and only dance master to codify his own jazz technique in his book, Anthology
of American Jazz Dance, and the creator of the first American Jazz Dance World Congress.
(03:54):
In other words, a giant.
She was still in high school at the time, just a kid in a crowded seminar, but Gus saw
something.
He picked her out of the group, and that one moment stuck with her, the way she's told
it, there was such genuine surprise and gratitude in her voice.
(04:14):
Being seen by someone like that, it lit something in her.
After class, he encouraged her to pursue dance more seriously, and when he found out she was
college bound, he told her point blank, "Choose Northwestern, not Stanford."
Northwestern meant proximity to his studio in Chicago, where he could personally train,
(04:37):
mentor, and invest in her.
And she listened.
She packed her college schedule with dance classes and started commuting into the city to study
with Giordano.
He sharpened her technique, gave her performance opportunities, and introduced her to the
rigors of professional dance life.
His wife, Peg, brought warmth and family into the mix.
(05:00):
They lived just two blocks apart in Evanston.
He became part of each other's circle.
She danced under his direction and stepped into gigs he helped facilitate, and was in his
studio under his encouragement that she taught her first professional jazz classes.
In those early teaching experiences, something started to click.
(05:24):
The very first sparks of a new idea began to form.
It didn't have a name yet, but it had energy and momentum.
She loved jazz.
She knew how expressive, athletic, and transformative it could be.
So when she began teaching her own classes at the studio in Evanston, she thought she knew
(05:44):
what her students were after.
Turns out, she didn't.
The women in her class weren't trying to become professional dancers.
They didn't want to tour, audition, or hit the perfect arabesque.
They just wanted to look like dancers.
Tone up their bodies, get healthier, have fun.
But the classes were too hard, too focused on technique, and week after week, students
(06:10):
stopped showing up.
So she did something, not every teacher is willing to do.
She paid attention and pivoted.
She realized she needed to try something different.
So she went to Gus and asked if she could use an empty studio to test a new idea.
She said, "Sure, take the one downstairs, whatever you want to do."
(06:31):
She put up flyers and called it, "Jazz dance for fun and fitness."
She took down the mirror, literally.
She didn't want women comparing themselves to anyone else.
She changed the format, made the movement more accessible, shifted the focus from training
to joy.
She kept the dance roots, but stripped away the pressure.
(06:55):
And that is when everything changed.
The women came back, and they started to bring their friends, too.
A few years later, she moved to Southern California and began teaching her signature fusion style
at local rec centers.
Word of mouth spread fast.
Military wives took it to new towns and bases.
(07:16):
She couldn't keep up with the demand, so she created a training manual, then a training
program, then she began franchising.
By the early 80s, she was shipping VHS tapes nationwide, certifying instructors by mail,
building a full-blown empire before most people even had answering machines.
(07:37):
The brand exploded.
She was everywhere.
TV shows, Morning Segment's National Ads, Leotards, Leg Warmer's Big Hair, it wasn't just
a workout.
It was a cultural moment.
They are the first dance fitness organization to perform in large-scale public events,
including the opening ceremonies of the 1984 Olympics and the Super Bowl halftime show.
(08:03):
But here's what's wild.
It didn't fade like so many other trends.
While others came and went, she adapted.
She brought in hit, resistance, strength training, modernized the music, hired experts, updated
the choreography.
She went digital.
Yeah, there was one rough year in the 90s when the company didn't turn a profit, and for
(08:25):
a minute it looked like they may not make it, but they pushed through.
And today, she says, "Now is their peak."
Over 50 years later, she is still leading it.
Still the CEO.
Her program has over 8,300 franchises across 25 countries and generates more than $93 million
(08:48):
in revenue annually.
What started as just a jazz class in a local studio became the world's first global dance
fitness brand, one of the first major fitness empires, which just so happened to be built
by a woman.
Her name, Judy Shepherd Miss it, and the phenomenon she created, "Jazzercise."
(09:11):
And now you know the rest of the story.
Alright, dance fam, before I get into the outro, if you enjoyed this episode and learned
a little something about Judy, Jazzercise, hey, do me a favor, give the video a like, share
it with your people, tell me in the comments, you know, like I need to know, have you ever
(09:33):
taken a Jazzercise class?
I don't know about you, but I'm mortified that I haven't yet.
I mean, I'm a dancer, and Jazz Dance is one of my favorites, and the fact that I have
never attempted a Jazzercise class is blasphemy.
I must.
Oh my gosh, I cannot wait to jump in there.
And also, subscribe and follow wherever you're watching or listening.
(09:56):
Now, let's get to a couple of more things here, just a couple of thoughts.
First of all, one of my favorite quotes by Judy is Jazz Dance is at the very root of what
we do.
It's our legacy, our history, our heart.
And I just love that quote, her almost paying homage to the art of Jazz Dance and how it
(10:16):
truly impacted, you know, her entire life, her brand, her soul, reflected in her business.
I just love it.
It makes me very happy to prove that her moment has never passed.
Jazzercise is referenced all the time.
It was in Stranger Things.
It was in Glee, Rick and Morty, the Goldbergs.
(10:39):
It's always popping up on TikTok.
I mean, these are just a couple of examples, how it's popped up, you know, in pop culture,
popped up in pop culture.
Did you know, by the way, that they were the first company to open a boutique fitness franchise
to train and certify instructors to produce Dance Exercise albums that went gold and platinum
(11:01):
to successfully market and sell brand name apparel to use instructor microphones, but through
all those accomplishments again, she stuck to the root of her love of Jazz Dance.
It was always the thing that fueled her to keep going.
And it's that joy of Dance that I feel like is so often lost today and it's something
(11:24):
that I talk about a lot in my return to Dance journey.
If you don't know, I'm a professional teenage dancer, well, I'm not now.
I was a pro teen dancer who quit and then came back three decades later and I often talk about
how the world of Dance has changed so much.
And this is one of the ways.
I just remember, Dance is always having so much joy and passion behind their dance and
(11:49):
not that they don't do now, but a lot of that has been stripped away in class now, in
competitions now.
There's so much about the camera, about footage, about winning trophies.
This wasn't a thing decades ago.
I think that Judy Story reminds us what Dance should be ultimately.
It is about the joy, the passion, the artistry, having a good time, feeling the beaten, just
(12:15):
grooving.
I'm often speaking again in my social media, two dancers about remembering your why.
You know, why is it that you started Dance in the first place?
Don't lose sight of that.
And I feel like Judy, she never did.
It was always the thing that fueled her to keep on going.
It's a beautiful thing.
(12:36):
I love it so much.
And I think ultimately that is the theme of this episode, if there is one.
And that is never lose the joy, never lose the spark.
And if you're blessed enough, take it with you in your business and use it every single
day.
And she does.
She is 81 years old.
And as I mentioned, still the CEO, still teaching classes from what I know looks amazing.
(13:00):
This is what they say about dancers.
Always looking and being so youthful, not that I'm all about, by the way, like needing to
look young, but Dance, it just keeps you youthful.
It just does.
And I've had podcasts if you haven't listened about the power of dance with regard to your
brain and your body.
(13:20):
It keeps your brain young very specifically.
Dance is one of the very, very few workouts, if you will, and art forms that actually keeps
your brain young and your body.
And Judy epitomizes that.
All right.
Until next time.
[MUSIC]
(13:46):
(upbeat music)
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