Robin Sykes (Founder of Jillian Rian’s Dance School and Instructor of Tap, Acrobatics, and Pre-Dance Classes) is celebrating 20 years of business that began in the Grafton area in November of 1997. The studio opened with 40 students and has grown to 150 students today. Robin has been married for 34 years and her family of 4 children grew up in the dance studio.

​Robin started dancing at the age of 2 1/2 at the Dusti O’Conner Dance Studio in Parma, OH. Mentored by Dusti, Robin became a student teacher at the age of 9 years old and by the age of 12, she was working with the mentally handicapped students at the studio.

Jillian Rian’s Dance School is a family-oriented dance studio just like the studio I grew up in over 55 years ago. We are still teaching kids the love of dance as I was taught by my mentor Dusti O’Conner.

After graduating with a degree in restaurant management, getting married, and having two children of her own, Robin was approached by her former dance teacher to return to the studio in Parma to teach. She taught there for the next 4 years before moving to Grafton to open Jillian Rian’s Dance School.

Ten years ago, Jillian Rian’s Dance School moved to North Ridgeville and has been serving that community ever since.