ZZ DANCE

When Meredith Ziemba and Sammy Zweben first became friends, opening a dance studio was the last thing on their minds; they were in preschool. 

“When we were two and three years old, we started carpooling to the nursery school at the JCC in Cherry Hill. Our brothers met there too, and they became close friends as well. Our moms and dads and aunts and uncles… they all fell in love with each other. They are all friends.”

Carpools to Pre-K eventually evolved into carpools to dance class. Both Sammy and Meredith joined their studio’s competition team, and their talent stood out. If one of them didn’t get the featured role in a dance number, it was often the other who did. While this could have triggered jealousy and competition between the two, it never did. “Our parents never would have allowed it. No one pitted us against one another. We have been each other’s biggest cheerleader and fiercest defender from the get go.”

Both Sammy and Meredith participated in their college dance teams - Meredith at the University of Illinois, Sammy at Towson University. Meredith studied accounting while Sammy pursued a film degree. Eventually, they both found themselves teaching classes at their childhood dance studio. For Meredith, who had moved to Philadelphia after her husband was accepted into UPenn’s medical school, the opportunity to teach dance classes was a break from her corporate day job. For Sammy, who was training in acting and dance in NYC, teaching dance classes on the weekends allowed her to support her city lifestyle. “Every weekend for those five years, I would take the greyhound bus to New Jersey to teach on the weekends, just so I could live in New York.” Eventually, Sammy and her wife, Amy, found apartments in both Philly and Los Angeles, and they began living bicoastally. Sammy would choreograph dance pieces for the kids in the studio when she was on the east coast and then would fly back for auditions in LA. “It was bananas. But it worked for us.”

Over time, Meredith and Sammy began daydreaming about what it would be like to open their own studio. Sammy, who had been passionate about working with children with special needs since childhood, started teaching occasional pop up dance classes for children with disabilities, but it was difficult to find the space to offer these lessons on a regular basis. Meredith, with her strong business mind and growing desire to be her own boss, would say, “You know, if we opened our own studio, you could teach these classes all the time…” When Sammy began hosting charity events, which she also felt extremely passionate about, Meredith would look at the numbers and say, “This could be double. We could do this on a bigger scale.” “Of course it’s not just about the amount of money raised. Every dollar raised is amazing, and we were so proud of that. But when we looked at how much more we could do, we thought, ‘Woah.’”

Eventually Meredith said, “I’m going to sit down and draw up a business plan.” She realized early on that their partnership was exactly what was needed to start up a new studio. “What I bring to the table, what she brings to the table, it is the perfect marriage. We also knew each other so well that we understood what each of us would need from this.”

Still, after two years of thinking and dreaming, Sammy wasn’t sure she was fully ready to commit. She was happy enough with the status quo, even though in her heart, she was being pulled to do more social justice work through dance. She also wasn't sure how living bicoastally would work with owning a studio. Additionally, many people had warned them that friendships and business partnerships don’t mesh well. “I remember telling my brother, ‘People don’t think we should go into business together.’ He said, ‘Why? Why wouldn’t you?’ My brother was all about honesty. He said, ‘If you’re always upfront, there’s never going to be an issue. You just talk it through.’” This was reflective of the response that Sammy and Meredith received from the rest of their family and the friends who knew them best. “The closest people to us weren’t worried. Those people said, ‘Do it.’” Finally, one Christmas break, before Sammy was due to fly back to LA, “Meredith demanded that we go out for sushi. And she said, ‘You’re going to talk it over with Amy, and you’re going to come back with an answer. We can’t keep going around like this. You are going to figure it out.” So I went home, and I said, ‘Amy, can we do this?’” The answer, ultimately, was yes.

Meredith and Sammy began creating ZZ DANCE from the ground up. “We would meet at a coffee shop with the most uncomfortable chairs and write out what we loved from our childhood dance experiences. We thought about what we liked as adults, as teachers, and as administrators. We built ZZ on that. We started reaching out to teachers from other studios to ask them what they like about where they teach. We would ask our college dance team friends how they got so good at dance at such a young age.” While it was easy to find positive elements of many dance studios, there were also many stories of unhealthy environments. “We were really fortunate, because we both had fantastic dance experiences growing up. That’s all we wanted to do, and we loved every second of being there - every second of all of it. But we saw a lot of friends experience toxic environments in other places. You hear about it all the time in the dance world and in kids sports, in general. We were aligned in the idea that we could make our studio healthy and safe and fun. The end result can be the same, whether you came from a toxic environment or a non-toxic environment.” 

They hired a PR person to help them think of the name of their studio. Ultimately, they rejected all of the names she came up with. “We thought, ‘Why did we even do that? We have the best last names!’” Sammy says she was the only person she knew growing up with a Z last name, “and then Meredith married a Z. Z is so rare, and so we landed on ZZ DANCE. I don’t think at the time we had any concept of how good ZZ was in terms of how much we could do with the letters themselves.” (Their social media posts are often sprinkled with hashtags like “#BeAmaZZing” and “#SeaZZon6”.) “The name ZZ DANCE also felt very gender-free. We wanted a name that wouldn’t be off-putting for boys. We wanted to create a place for everybody with any body and any ability, along with a focus on social justice. This is what we wrote about in our mission statement.”

ZZ DANCE opened its doors for the first time in June of 2020. Sammy’s brother, Evan, a real estate broker, helped them find the perfect home for their vision in Cherry Hill. Amy designed the graphically striking wall art that greets you as you walk through the heart of the studio. When they officially opened, Meredith was in New Jersey, and Sammy was in California. As soon as Sammy came back to the east coast in August, they started classes. Opening during the height of a pandemic was horrible in many ways, “but it was also wonderful, because many kids couldn’t go to school, but in masks, they could come to dance.”

Sammy started teaching the program she dreamed of - a class for children with special needs - and called it “ZZ Jams.” Seven children joined, ranging in ages from 7 to 16. Although she had significant experience working with this population, she still wanted to pursue a formal training program. She completed her certificate in “Rhythm Works Integrative Dance”, which is a clinically-based hip-hop program geared towards teaching children with developmental differences. It requires a yearly continuing education commitment to maintain certification. The ZZ Jams class was taught by Sammy and assisted by other dance students. At the end of the year, the students in the class had the option to perform their dance in the recital. It wasn’t long before word about ZZ Jams spread.

“We are bridging a gap with this program. There are still more gaps to bridge, but starting Jams was the first major step. Our one class turned into six classes, and now we started a ZZ Jams adult program. We also go out into the community. If you saw the radius that our Jams dancers come from, you would realize quickly that classes like this aren’t easy to find. Our furthest dancer comes from Trenton. We have people driving over 45 minutes for a 30 minute class. There is such a need.” The relationship between the ZZ Jams dance assistants and the ZZ Jams kids is deeply special and meaningful. The helpers frequently share how impacted they are by their participation in the program, and their parents notice it as well.

Sammy and Meredith also began an Ambassadors program, which is open to all students 10 and older. The only requirement is that they are enrolled in one class at ZZ. “We call them our community liaisons. They learn a dance, and we offer them a variety of performance opportunities. They visit a lot of senior homes in the area and other community organizations. The goal is to spread the love and joy of dance. Everything in the program is optional; you get out of it what you put into it. When we opened, we knew we wanted to become a chapter of the National Honor Society for Dance Arts. We wanted our kids to be acknowledged for all of the time they put into dance and community service. This means that our Ambassadors, if they participate in enough events, can get inducted into the National Honor Society. Most of our graduates then get a cord they can wear at graduation if they graduated with honors. When we were younger, dance was just something we could put on our ‘activities’ section of our college applications. So this is pretty cool.”

While Meredith had predicted that their charity fundraising efforts could double by opening their own studio, the degree to which this has been true has been unimaginable. Sammy and Meredith landed on Make-A-Wish NJ as their charity of choice, as it has an excellent charity rating, with the vast majority of money raised going directly to granting the wishes of critically ill children. “It is great because it’s local; it’s NJ-based. The fact that we are helping children around the corner is really nice for our kids to relate to. Each year, Make-A-Wish lets us know the specific wishes that we helped grant. There’s a direct connection where our kids can see exactly how their hard work is paying off.” Throughout the year, ZZ dancers and their families can participate in a wide variety of fundraising efforts. From community partnerships to sports game outings to bake sales, ZZ students and parents work non-stop to raise money for this worthy cause. A few weeks after the end-of-year recital, the studio hosts ZZ Gives - an entire day at JCC Camps at Medford that is focused on fun, dance, and one last fundraising push. The end of the ZZ Gives day marks the end of the dance season - but not before a final reveal of the grand total raised for Make-A-Wish that year. The 2026 total topped the charts at $85,157. Over the last six years, the amount raised has surpassed $435,000. “We end our year with a charity event instead of the recital on purpose. It’s important. It has taken some getting used to for some people. But we set it up this way for a reason.”

There are smaller ways that Sammy and Meredith further their social justice mission throughout the year as well. Every month, they focus on “ZZ Words of Wisdom” (ZZ WOWs). This year, in each class, they tied these words, such as grace, passion, and precision, to different traditional dances from cultures around the world. Another year, dancers focused on learning words in American Sign Language, and they incorporated those ASL signs in their final dances at ZZ Gives. They share “Caught Being Kind” moments, when instructors notice students going out of their way to do acts of kindness for other dancers. This is in addition to events such as their MLK Day of Giving, in which they close for dance classes but open for acts of service to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. through activities such as an American Red Cross blood drive and preparing food and water deliveries for local residents in need. “What we are really doing is using dance as our vehicle for giving back. A lot of our kids go on to do philanthropy work in their colleges and in their sororities and fraternities. Some have become the heads of their programs, and they say it started with us. It’s really lovely.”

With all of the time focused on charitable giving, and classes that are structured to ensure every child has a positive experience with low stress for parents, it might seem like there is less of a focus on dance skill and technique. But this is not the case. “I think some people are surprised when they come to our show. Our studio seems so low-key all year, but then at our performance, they are like, ‘Wow.’” The ZZ Team competes in dance competitions throughout the year. Recital weekend means ten different professional-quality shows in two days. Each performance begins and ends with an enormous production by the Team kids, whose jumps, turns, and flips are punctuated with fire shooting up from the floor and confetti flying from the ceiling. Kids at all different skill levels shine on stage. ZZ Jams kids are called up to perform with their dance assistants. The skill level of the instructors is evident to everyone as each of them dances for a few moments before taking a bow to close the show. “Our teachers are incredible. We try to only hire people who want to further our mission. We love them. Some of these people have been with us for years and have become our close friends. We’ve been guests at their weddings. They live in our neighborhood. They pop over for wine. We want everyone who works with us to love our studio as much as we do.”

Coordinating everything is a monumental task. While Sammy will happily take credit for choreographing the showstopping creative pieces and organizing all of the social media elements for ZZ, the behind-the-scenes organization is thanks to Meredith. “It’s all Meredith. Spreadsheets scare me. Meredith loves a good puzzle. We each are really good at what we are good at.” Meredith says, “It’s easy to look at us and think that I am the brain of the studio and Sammy is the heart. I’m sure that’s how many people perceive it. But we are both of those things. Neither of us has a deficit in either area. It often works out that Sammy has the dreams, and I put the dreams into motion.”

In the years since opening their doors, ZZ DANCE has grown tremendously. By the end of season 5, while Sammy was content with the size of the studio, “Meredith literally brought me to lunch with a slideshow and said, ‘This is why we have to expand.’ It was a little scary, but we were bursting at the seams. We considered moving. We looked at options. It would have felt really sad to have just built a brand new studio and not be able to take any of it with us.” Once again, Evan, Sammy’s brother, came through for them. He saw the opportunity for them to expand at their current location, and he fought for it. “He went to town. He fought very hard for us. He didn’t mind the challenge. He was always our cheerleader. Always.” Ultimately, ZZ was able to expand to six studios this year without having to move locations.

Tragically, in January of 2026, Evan was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer. He passed away two months later. Both Sammy and Meredith and their families have been reeling from an immeasurable amount of sadness. “This has been the most horrible year. We are all grieving.” At the same time, in the deepest way, they experienced the power of the loving community they built. “This community showed up. We were blown away by what everybody has done and continues to do for us in a year that was so horrible. We realize in a new way that if you put out good, good comes back.”

“Despite everything, we still had to show up - and really show up.” A month after Evan’s passing, they had to put on the Season 6 recital. Losing Evan has helped Sammy and Meredith stay focused on what is most important. “We only have one life, and it’s short.”

They feel more aligned than ever with the mission of their studio. “When parents of seniors talk about what they have seen their children gain from this experience, it often has nothing to do with dance. Their kids are walking away with something more: a realization that they are part of a community, and a genuine understanding of what giving back means. Ultimately, we are all ending up in the same place, right? We are all ending up as citizens of the world. By the time you turn 18, you are out in the world. Let’s have a nice ride together.”