In 1959, the President of the Moose Jaw Festival of Music, Matt Shepperd, suggested adding a ballet component to the music festival. Frank Godley was assigned the position of chairman of the ballet portion of the festival and Helen Tait and Betty Godley were in charge of outreach to dance studios. On April 9, 1960, with the help of Mrs. T. T. Whittet, a Saskatoon dance teacher, and Mr. Arnold Spohr, a ballet dancer and artistic director of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the first ballet competition was held. The competition was considered a success and later other forms of dance were added to the competition, such as tap and jazz.
In 1977, the festival organizers decided to separate the music and dance portions of the competitions. That same year the Moose Jaw Festival of Dance was incorporated. Both the Moose Jaw Festival of Music and Festival of Dance, now called Dance Inspirations, are successful competitions in Moose Jaw.