Emilia GrillascaBrand Strategy · Marketing · Creative Direction

002 · The Gentle Barre Project · Part II

Building thegentlebarreproject.com

A fast, quiet site, built to be found and to convert. It answers a parent’s questions in the order they ask them: what is this, what does a class feel like, where is it, can we afford it, who teaches.

The Gentle Barre Project homepage on desktop: the headline More room to move, a Find a class button, and a photo of a young dancer with arms raised in front of the studio mirror
The Gentle Barre homepage on a phone: the slipper logo, Find a class, a dancer with arms raised at the mirror, and the headline More room to move
Homepage
The class finder on a phone: the two partner locations listed above a map, with the Adrenaline Dance Company address and a Get directions link
Class finder
How it was made
Designed and directed by me, built with AI-assisted development
Built on
A static site on Netlify, with a custom domain
Class finder
Search by ZIP code or city, with a Mapbox map of partner locations
Forms
Site forms through Formspree

The brief

Built for one anxious question.

Audience

Parents of children of all abilities, many of them disabled or neurodivergent, finding Gentle Barre on a phone and quietly asking: will my child be welcome here?

Goal

Turn that first visit into trust, and trust into a registration with a partner studio, while giving partners and future teaching artists their own clear path in.

Approach

Pages ordered the way a parent thinks: what is this, what does a class feel like, where is it, can we afford it, who teaches. One action throughout: find a class.

The Gentle Barre partners page: Bring Gentle Barre to your community, with a Become a partner link beside a photo of young dancers on pastel balance stones

The partner path: its own page, its own call to action

Designed for every family

Calm by design.

Many Gentle Barre dancers are sensitive to sound, light, and change, and their parents arrive carrying that too. The site was designed to feel like a quiet room: nothing loud, nothing sudden, nothing to decode.

Color

A low-stimulation palette of cream, cocoa, and soft muted tones, with no bright or flashing color. Body text sits at 9.5:1 contrast, more than double the 4.5:1 accessibility standard.

Photography

Real dancers from real classes, in soft light and unposed moments, chosen to show what a class actually feels like, so a family knows what to expect before they walk in.

Wording

Plain, warm language, gender-neutral throughout, and welcoming by name: “Autistic and neurodivergent children are warmly welcome.” Clear about what the program is, and isn’t: an arts program, not therapy.

Motion & access

Gentle fades only, switched off for anyone whose device asks for reduced motion. Descriptions on every photograph for screen readers, visible keyboard focus, and a skip-to-content link.

Marketing, built in

A website that works as a marketing channel.

  • Search

    Keyword-led page titles and descriptions (“Adaptive Dance in Miami”), one clear headline per page with a logical heading structure, canonical URLs, and descriptive alt text on photography.

  • Local discovery

    A ZIP-code and city class finder with a map of partner locations, so families searching nearby find a class in one step. A Google Business Profile is in progress.

  • Conversion

    Every page leads to one action: “Find a class,” in the header and the hero, then straight to registration at each location. Separate paths for partners and new team members.

  • Social sharing

    Custom 1200 × 630 share images with Open Graph and X card tags, so every link shared in a group chat or on social looks considered.

  • Trust

    Partner logos, scholarship access, the team, and a clear statement of what the program is, and isn’t. The questions a parent asks before they enroll, answered.

  • Speed & mobile

    A lightweight static site, designed mobile-first for parents who find it on their phones.

Measurement

Every goal has a number.

I set up Google Analytics and Google Search Console, with the newsletter signup tracked as its own conversion, so the site reports on the questions that matter to the business.

GoalWhat I trackTool
Be foundSearch impressions, clicks, and the terms families useSearch Console
Reach the right familiesVisitors and where they come from: Instagram, search, directGoogle Analytics
Drive enrollmentClicks out to each partner’s registration pageGoogle Analytics
Build the communityNewsletter signups, tracked as a conversionGoogle Analytics · Mailchimp
Keep families closeEmail open and click ratesMailchimp

In marketing terms

What this proves.

  • SEO & local search

    Keyword-led pages, clean structure, and a ZIP-code class finder.

  • Analytics & measurement

    Google Analytics and Search Console, with every goal tied to a number.

  • Email marketing

    A branded signup, a welcome email, and an owned channel for launches.

  • Conversion & UX

    One clear action on every page, ordered the way a parent thinks.

  • Accessible, inclusive design

    Low-stimulation design, high contrast, and screen-reader support.

← Part I: The Gentle Barre Project