Photo courtesy Planet Dance
Professional dancer and choreographer Missy Lay Zimmer was working shows on Broadway when she decided to move back to her hometown. Now she and her husband Andrew Hubbard work to put the Queen City on the map as a destination for professional talent in the world of dance.
You were dancing on Broadway in New York. What brought you back to Cincinnati?
At one point I was signing autographs at the stage door and doing things I never thought I could even dream of. It felt amazing, but very self-serving. My husband Andrew and I started teaching at the acclaimed Broadway Dance Center in New York City and fell in love with teaching, and with the idea of giving back. We took a cross-country road trip and decided we were going to find ourselves because what we thought had fulfilled us for so long was falling short. We landed in Cincinnati because a lot of work had opened up here. We choreographed for the Cincinnati Ballet and did 10 years with them, then we started building our own brand, Planet Dance and the Exhale Dance Tribe, both celebrating 20 years.
What does Planet Dance offer Cincinnati?
We created Planet Dance, a mini Broadway Dance Center of the Midwest. We bring in choreographers from all over the world to teach our kids—Andy Blankenbueler, who choreographed Hamilton; Ebony Williams, from Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies.” We have students who have graduated and they’re now associate Broadway choreographers. They’re coming back and looking for talent and performers from our dance studio. This bridge that we’ve created to the professional world is unmatched.
What about the Exhale Dance Tribe?
Exhale is our nonprofit organization, a place for adult professional dancers and educators in the region to land if they still want to perform, but don’t want to take that big leap to New York or L.A.
What do you love about dance?
It chose me, and it still chooses me 50 years later. It’s such a blessing to have movement and dance in anyone’s life, I think. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without [my parents’] constant support and love.
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