Chinyere Aretha Minott, the talented and former beauty and carnival queen from the paradise island of Jamaica is the brain child behind Island Groove™!

Undoubtedly, Chinyere was made for the entertainment world. She has had a passion for the performing arts, from she was a child, which is evident in the many gold medals she has won in numerous competitions—speech, dance, drama—in her island home.

Not only has she won medals, but she has also won a few national titles as well. Titles such as Miss Jamaica Festival Queen 1992, Miss Jamaica World Finalist 1993, and also Runner-up in the Miss California-Caribbean Pageant 1999. From the pageants, Chinyere gained increasing exposure and became involved in modeling, television ads, television drama mini-series and music videos, in which she has worked with internationally-known artistes, like Shaggy, Everlast, Heavy D.

After completing her Bachelor’s Degree in English and Social Sciences at the University of the West Indies where she also taught reggae and soca aerobics, Chinyere came to California in the winter of 1995. In no time she was back in the swing of things in the entertainment world. She choreographed a reggae dance production for a major reggae festival in Long Beach in 1996, and in the meantime was working musically with singers such as Christopher Williams, Jermaine Jackson, doing something she discovered to her own amazement that she could do quite well—“reggae rap” or what Jamaicans refer to as “DJing”.

In 1997, Chinyere went back to school to study Print and Broadcast Journalism along with acting at UCLA, in Los Angeles. At the same time she became increasingly involved in the fitness industry in LA and became a certified aerobics instructor. Chinyere, then created a new-kind of dance work-out which she named and trade marked “Island Groove™” --that allows you to set your spirit free to the different rhythmic music from the Caribbean and South America e.g., punta, zouk, soca, meringue, samba—where the vibe in the class is like that of a carnival.

Chinyere has always had an ardent passion for the rich diversified musical culture of her Caribbean roots which eventually propelled her to explore and study professionally all the various dances associated with the different rhythms- not just in the West Indies but also in South America. The more Chinyere learnt, the more her passion grew. And it is this undying love for the Caribbean and South American dance culture that led to the creation of the afore-mentioned Island Groove™. She is presently teaching this at different dance studios in Los Angeles , California , where it is becoming increasingly popular. Her Island Groove™ class was recently featured on Good Day LA on Channel 11 and was described to be "the latest craze to sweep the nation." As a result of this popularity, Chinyere has been invited to present her class at different fitness workshops including the prestigious World Fitness Convention in Anaheim , California .

Along with teaching Island Groove™, Chinyere also performs quite frequently. She dances with two well established Caribbean dance companies in Los Angeles, namely, Caribbean Heat and Caribbean Spectacular. She also performs with several different Brazilian and Latin dance troupes.