Dancers' Paradise: Shorty makes dancing her life

Janell 'Shorty' Stephenson has tried her hand at numerous things in life, but the only thing that has remained constant is dancing. Shorty said she started dancing at an early age, although she has no idea where her passion for gyrating her body came from.

"I have been dancing all my life from primary school, then high school. My mother didn't want me to do dancing and would beat me whenever I came home late from school," she told THE WEEKEND STAR.

Shorty said that she participated in the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission's Dance Competition with the Tarrant High School's dance group, where the school won two gold medals. After leaving Tarrant High school, she enrolled at the Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts but was forced to drop out.

The 27-year-old says she did a lot of other things, such as food preparation and teaching at the early-childhood level, but it is dancing that has stolen her heart.

Through dancing, Shorty says she is able to earn enough for her family to live comfortably.

"I do private classes with persons from overseas, being a part-time [dance] teacher at Tarrant, and I choreographed for a company, I shall not call the name. I teach them all, from traditional folk, modern, as well as other types of dances," Shorty told THE WEEKEND STAR.

But she still has a strong desire to return to school to get her certification.

"I would like to finish college because I dropped out of college, I would like to get my degree in performing arts and choreography, and then I would do a small major in teaching because I love teaching," she said.

"I am planning to open a dance studio in Kingston for all ages to teach them not only dancehall, but traditional folk, ballet, modern, and all those stuff."