Founder & Executive Artistic Director

Joy French is a dancer, choreographer, videographer and producer. Her creative journey started on the stages of mid-Missouri. Inspired to continue performing, she traveled for a year post-high-school with Up With People before landing in Missoula for undergrad. Joy debuted on the professional stage with MoTrans Dance Company, under the direction of Amy Ragsdale. Joy would go on to dance with MoTrans’ next incarnation as Headwaters Dance Co (Missoula) as well as The CoMotion Dance Project (Missoula), Evolving Doors Dance (Boulder, CO), Impact Dance Company (Ft. Collins, CO), and with various choreographers and groups throughout the west.

Continuing her scholastic interests, Joy earned her Masters in Fine Arts with an emphasis in choreography and performance from the University of Colorado Boulder. CU reinforced her passion for dance and film and led her to create original screendance shorts, many selected for screenings at Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema (Boulder, CO). Joy later worked as Property Master for a feature dance film, Leading Ladies, directed by Erika Randall, which premiered at the Sonoma International Film Festival in 2010. Joy and Erika collaborated again on a tour through Costa Rica, performing and teaching, sponsored by Centro Cultural Costarricense Norteamericano which selected Joy as a “Promising Artist of the 21st Century.”

Feeling the pull back to Montana, Joy returned to Missoula and in 2011 founded Bare Bait Dance. Joy created BBD to be a home for dancers in the region and to produce nationally and internationally acclaimed artists. In recognition of her devotion to her art and the state, Joy has received a 2017 Artist's Innovation Award from the Montana Arts Council and was Arts Missoula’s Individual Artist awardee in 2022. Beyond Montana, Joy has taught and creatively collaborated with Bellingham Repertory Dance, Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School, Ursinus College, and the University of Colorado-Boulder. Joy is also a Peak Pilates Certified instructor and teaches clients at Main Street Pilates Studio.