Top Honours
Road to Contentment Gema Zamprogna Boich ’95 helps develop performing artists
FOR GEMA BOICH ’95 (NÉE ZAMPROGNA), performing
is something that comes as naturally as breathing, and she is passing that passion on to the next generation of performing artists. Gema, one of three Zamprogna siblings who attended HSC, grew up in a household that deeply valued the performing arts. Her actor/ dancer parents, Lou and Pauline, met in the early 1970s on a movie set, and after moving to Hamilton opened The Dance Centre, which still teaches everyone from toddlers to late bloomers the art of ballet, jazz and tap. In addition to creating the studio, Lou worked with Theatre Aquarius in Hamilton for close to 40 years. “My family has been involved in the arts my entire life,” says Gema. “At a certain point in my childhood I decided I wanted to get an agent and wanted to start acting. My dad took me to get an agent and shortly after I was lucky enough to get my role on 42 | HSC REVIEW
Road to Avonlea.” For six years, she played teenager Felicity King on the Emmy-winning CBC/Disney series. Having begun acting when she was in middle school, the transition to HSC in Grade 9 involved a lot of moving pieces. From administration to tutors, it was a team effort to keep her current on her academics while still filming the show. “The teachers at HSC really made you feel like your education was a collaborative effort,” says Gema. “As I was filming while attending school, it often meant that I was missing days of class. HSC worked with me and a tutor so that I was always up to speed, which meant that I could succeed not only in my acting but in my classes, despite a busy schedule.” After finishing Road to Avonlea and attending Queen’s University, Gema resumed acting for a few years before transitioning to the next phase of her life—entrepreneurship. In 2014, she opened a Grimsby location of The Dance Centre in addition to operating a Pilates studio out of her home. As if that wasn’t enough, Gema also manages the Hamilton family dance studio with her sister Amanda ’98, and recently started up a new initiative with Amanda called Zamprogna Arts, a performing arts program for kids as young as seven through to adult performers. “I love what I do,” says Gema. “I didn’t find that right away. When I was 20 and out of university, I thought I wanted to continue acting. But it came full circle back to dance when suddenly I had a daughter who was three years old and starting ballet, and then she was six and starting jazz. I kept thinking that I could be teaching it.” So, “sort of organically” dance became the centre of her business, she says. “I found it a bit later in life, but I really think that now I am doing what I was meant to do.”
Photo by Wandering Eye Photography
Gema Zamprogna Boich ’95