• The studio has hosted more than one hundred guest artists, teacher and choreographers, including Bob Fosse, Gwen Verdon, Chita Rivera, Desmond Richardson, Carmen de Lavellade, Savion Glover, Wayne Cilento, Lynn Simonson, and Chet Walker.


• The JNDS has been home to more than seventy-five local dance companies and touring Broadway or pre-Broadway shows, including the workshops of Bob Fosse's Big Deal, and rehearsals for the musicals Fosse, Pal Joey, Guys and Dolls, Mama Mia, Sweet Charity and Chicago among others.


• The studio routinely hosts auditions for major cruise lines and theme parks, as well as for the Alvin Ailey Summer Dance and Certificate Programs and the New York City Rockettes.


• In 1988, the studio produced Rhythms of Hope, a dance concert benefiting Boston's AIDS Action Committee. The concert featured more than seventy local dancers from more than thirty dance companies. The concert, sponsored by John Hancock Financial Services, raised more than $50,000 to help fund AIDS care and research.


• In 1990, Jim Viera and Jeannette Neill founded Boston Youth Moves, a pre-professional dance training program that has touched the lives of more than four hundred young teens, and has produced dancers that are appearing on Broadway and dancing with the companies of Donald Byrd, Alvin Ailey and the Radio City Rockettes.


• ACE Entertainment, a theatrical production company based out of the studio, was formed by a collaborative of choreographers and designers, and for more than twenty years, has written or produced corporate and business theatre productions both nationally and internationally


• In 1996, the studio moved to its current location in the North Station area of Boston. It occupies two floors of a renovated turn-of-the-century building, and features four studios, offices and a costume shop.


• To celebrate the studio's move to its new location, studio director, J. Allen Collier, created the first annual Boston Summer Dance Festival, the only festival in the world whose mission it is to preserve the history and traditions of the uniquely American art forms of jazz, tap and musical theatre dance. The festival attracted a faculty of international renown, including Matt Mattox, Donald McKayle, Donna McKechnie, Eva von Gencsy and Lynne Taylor-Corbett.


• The studio has been named Best of Boston by Boston Magazine for three years, a 2004 A-List Award by WBZ-TV, and the Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs named October 26, 1991, Jeannette Neill Day in the city of Boston to celebrate the studio's opening of an annex location. In January of 2002, Jeannette Neill was the featured cover story in Dance Teacher magazine, an international dance publication, and was honored with a lifetime achievement award by the Big Sister Association of Boston.

Directions to the Studio

Taking public transportation to the Studio
Take the Green Line (B or E Train) or the Orange Line subway trains to North Station. Take a left onto Causeway Street (the street in front of the TD Garden) and your second left onto Friend Street at Halftime Pizza.

Driving to the Studio
Follow signs to the TD Garden/North Station

From Storrow Drive
At end of Storrow Drive, turn RIGHT onto MARTHA RD. - 0.1 miles
MARTHA RD becomes LOMASNEY WAY. - 0.1 miles
Turn LEFT onto CAUSEWAY ST. - 0.1 miles
Turn RIGHT onto FRIEND ST. - 0.1 miles
261 FRIEND STREET is second door on left

From the North
Take the I-93 N exit toward SOMERVILLE/CHARLESTOWN. - 0.4 miles
Merge onto MA-99 S toward BOSTON. - 0.5 miles
Turn RIGHT onto CAUSEWAY ST. - 0.2 miles
Turn LEFT onto FRIEND ST. - 0.1 miles
261 FRIEND STREET is second door on left

From the South
Take EXIT 23 toward GOVERNMENT CENTER. - 0.4 miles
Turn SLIGHT RIGHT onto NORTH ST. - 0.1 miles
Turn RIGHT onto CONGRESS ST. - 0.1 miles
Stay straight to go onto MERRIMAC ST. - 0.1 miles
Turn SLIGHT RIGHT onto PORTLAND ST. - 0.1 miles
Turn RIGHT onto CAUSEWAY ST. - 0.1 miles Turn RIGHT onto FRIEND ST. - 0.1 miles
261 FRIEND STREET is second door on left

Parking
Validated parking ($3.00 for 3 hours) is offered at Parcel 7 Garage at Haymarket on Sudbury Street (at the far end of Friend Street) and is a short three-minute walk from the studio. Have your ticket validated in the convenience store in the garage. Otherwise, there is on-the-street parking and several lots and garages nearby.


View Larger Map