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Unknown
Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. Today I have on Denise, and she is here to tell us the story today, too.

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Unknown
my story is how I found dance.

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Unknown
I got a job when I was 15, my first job.

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Unknown
And, when I realized that I had some money and that I was able to invest it into something I would hopefully enjoy. The only hobby that I really knew about at that time that was in my world was ballet.

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Unknown
When I was in Trinidad, I took ballet, my parents put me in ballet. And, so when we moved to Oakville, I thought, well, now that I'm working.

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Unknown
Let me just go in and find a ballet class and just plop myself in there, not realizing the level of experience you would need at the age of 16 to even just go into a ballet class. There's auditions and there's. Yeah, you had to prove yourself. And, so at the time of registration, I went in and I said, I'm here for registration for ballet.

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Unknown
And the, director looked at me and she said, oh, no,

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Unknown
she's a, that's not how our programs work, but I can offer you Latin dance classes. And I thought, okay, well, if that's the only offering, then I'll go in. And, she said, you know, you might you might end up liking it, especially if you have a background in ballet.

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Unknown
It might, you might have some skill, transferable skills. So I took my first salsa class when I was 16, with a lot of grown ups, because there was no, like, teen program or anything like that.

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Unknown
And that's where I met my coach, my dance coach, and that was it. The rest was just kind of

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Unknown
like it just kind of opened my eyes into this whole world of Latin dancing, social dancing, the social dancing, dance, families, everything.

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Unknown
And I saw my coach and I watched her life and how she was able to live her passion, and and surround herself with so many warm and loving people. And I thought, that's kind of what I want for my life. So, she took me under her wing and she showed me everything. She helped. She let me work at her studio so that I could afford more dance classes.

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Unknown
Took me into performance, and then when I was ready, she was the one that got me certified so that I can start teaching ballroom. And then she's semi-retired and she moved out to Barre.

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Unknown
So she gave me her client list in Oakville, which is very generous of her. And I created a studio there. Then Covid hit

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Unknown
and I had to close the studio, decided to move to Windsor, and I realized that, yeah, I'm I think I'm ready to open up again.

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Unknown
So I opened up a studio here and that's it. Then the rest is history. Here we are.

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Unknown
so when you were working with your coach and you started to learn dance,

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Unknown
did you know you wanted to do it competitively, professionally, or were you just kind of having fun at the time?

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Unknown
I knew that in some capacity.

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Unknown
I wanted her life.

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Unknown
And I asked her what the roots were, and she, she was really open with sharing with me. What? Like what? What it meant to go down a competitive route, what it meant to go down a performance or a teaching route. And she really laid out the groundwork for each path. One thing was just really clear.

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Unknown
Was that I needed to really stay honed in on my values and not not get pulled away. Obviously, I was very young, a teenager and then into my 20s. So she really emphasize the fact that, you know, people want to work with someone that they can trust, that they can admire. That has good values, good morals.

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Unknown
So to never really try to to always try to stay down that path and and not get mixed up into things that, you know, I shouldn't be getting mixed up into. I maybe it was her way of keeping me.

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Unknown
Keeping me grounded, keeping me good. But it worked because, yeah, I, I through university, I continued to dance and learn and train and study.

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Unknown
And watching her, I realized that I wanted to teach, more than anything else. I saw the longevity in that career as opposed to just competitive or just performance. So I chose the teaching route.

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Unknown
that's awesome that she was such a good mentor to you. I think that's so rare to find.

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Unknown
she is my dad's mom. She's what got me to this point in my career. Obviously, I have, another coach now, but Deb, my original coach, was the one that really just paved all that foundation for me.

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Unknown
I still talk to her to this day. I still check in with her. And vice versa. Our, like, my dad's family that I met through her, we're all still friends, so she really did create a legacy for herself that went so far beyond just the studio. And just like the dance floor. And that's something I've always wanted to emulate.

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Unknown
And what I have, but absolutely. Like, I like my whole life really has been shaped around this one woman.

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Unknown
That's incredible.

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Unknown
I do think that you are following in her footsteps

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Unknown
creating this

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Unknown
gorgeous,

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Unknown
inclusive community

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Unknown
Yeah. My, my overall mission, my overall goal is always to create a safe space. My dance studio, Deb's studio, and Mississauga,

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Unknown
it was a refuge. Like, we would literally just go there to just decompress.

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Unknown
And we may not have had a class or a rehearsal or anything of that nature, but you just knew that if she was there running classes, that you could just come in, sit in her little nook and just vibe out. And she didn't ask questions. She didn't put pressure on you to do anything or, or, you know, she just didn't expect you to show up in any other way that than yourself.

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Unknown
And again, I saw the value and what that meant to me. So I wanted to make sure that I gave that back to, to my community when I, when I started to grow the community here. And thank goodness, that's actually, that's what's happening is people will show up and then they'll stay and they'll stay to just hang out.

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Unknown
And 2 or 3 hours will go by and you're like, oh, you're still here. And that's okay. And I'm really glad that you're here. And whether that's to study or to just catch up with friends or to just lay on the couch, yeah. No questions are asked. You're just you're just allowed to be whatever it is you need to be.

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Unknown
So can you can you describe the vision that you have for the Art of Dance studio?

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Unknown
Well, the main vision for me was simply to create a safe space. And so obviously, I would like to grow the physical space, into, maybe a third room or, I've thought about having a secondary location. But I think the underlying, like, the overall goal for me is to create a legacy like Deb has created for us, so that someone else can continue to do that, because I think it's so important in the dance community at large, globally that, students, teachers too, that everybody feels like they have a space

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Unknown
that they can go to that's truly, truly, accepting, loving and non-judgmental, very inclusive. And the only way to make sure that that continues to happen is to leave such a legacy. And it's hard work, but it's so rewarding. And I think it's very important, especially as a mom. I want my son to understand that whatever his space ends up being, it doesn't have to be a dance studio or whatever his chosen space is outside of his home,

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Unknown
that he is entitled to find that for himself.

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Unknown
And and that's only going to happen with examples like her studio and now, thankfully, like ours. So that's the overarching goal for me, is to maintain this so that it becomes a legacy.

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Unknown
Do you I don't know if you have experience with other studios, do you find that they are generally inclusive, or is there more of a air of competition in other studios?

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Unknown
I was lucky

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Unknown
my studio is not one of competition. We we really didn't have any sort of I mean, yes, there is, you know, people date and different things happen, right. And but it never caused any sort of uproar or there was never a competition between performers or. And it was so supportive, so, loving. And so that's, that's

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Unknown
my experience with the studios.

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Unknown
I've heard, though, from other students who have attended other studios that, yes, that they faced, judgment, for who they choose to love or who they choose to date. That they've, you know, felt, some competitive, and maybe some ego clashing, between performers. That was never my experience. So to me, when I hear it, I can appreciate that that may be somewhat of a norm.

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Unknown
But it's definitely not. That was.

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Unknown
A reminder and so be, thankfully, because it wasn't my norm. It's not the norm at Art of dance. So yeah

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Unknown
that's beautiful.

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Unknown
Are you considering

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Unknown
any more performances?

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Unknown
When did you start performing? When did I stop? Oh my gosh. I think my last performance was 2015

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Unknown
and that was when I just, I was yeah about two years into my, my personal studio in Oakville. And it was great and everything went really well and it was wonderful. And then I became a mom.

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Unknown
And so all the performing stopped. I was still teaching. I was still, getting other people ready for their own things. But

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Unknown
me personally, I took a hard stop. Physically, pregnancy was demanding. Physically, motherhood was demanding. So I really wanted to give my body a lot of time. And then off of performing, I just, you know, you start to get in your head a little bit about.

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Unknown
Oh, do I still have it? Is that still something I want to do? I love getting other people ready and putting them, and letting them shine, putting them in the spotlight.

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Unknown
But, yes, we we got back into performing and here I am, performer again. It's been really fun. I think, having the group that we have, it's been so, again, so supportive, so loving, so encouraging that there's no ego, there's no competition.

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Unknown
And so when we get on stage, we really just build each other up and just like, there's a good vibe, a good energy. And, so yes, we're going to be,

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Unknown
launching a ladies bachata team. That'll probably happen in the fall. And, we're also going to be, probably performing, the Canada Salsa and Bachata congress in 2026, which is going to be super exciting.

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Unknown
That could be a few of our teams, but definitely our team. And then the ladies bachata team will likely perform at that Congress. So yeah, there's more to come.

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Unknown
I have never been to that, Congress. Is that, like,

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Unknown
international? So it's the. Yeah. So it is international in the sense that people come from all over the world to attend this.

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Unknown
And artists come from all over the world are brought in from Spain, from Paris, you name it. There's probably been an artist that's come from that country. I've been going to this Congress for, this will be my 14th year. Okay. Yeah. So, this was this is the one Congress I attend to. Make sure that I'm the best at what I do as a teacher.

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Unknown
Also, when I was growing up as a student, it was just so inspiring. And, and now that I feel like I've, I guess reached a level in my career. I'm excited to now showcase that to our performers and give them the opportunity to get on that stage. It's one of the biggest stages in Canada.

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Unknown
And, we, Yeah, this is going to be a big, a big milestone. I think, for the studio and I think for the Windsor dance community in general, just to know that dancers from Windsor still like they have every right to be on a stage of that caliber. They've worked really hard, and they deserve that.

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Unknown
So but yes, it is an international, and it's one of the biggest in Canada, but definitely an international draw comes through. Yeah.

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Unknown
So you teach stance and you dance a lot yourself. Who is Denise when she's not dancing?

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Unknown
She's tired.

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Unknown
Oh, and I'm not dancing. Llama. Mama. So first and foremost, I'm I'm I'm in the studio to. But at the same time, when I'm home, and my son is with me, we really try to just be around each other, be present with each other. So that's the first and foremost is that, Yeah, I, I love hanging out with my son and regaining our connection when he's back with me.

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Unknown
Obviously, I'm a dog mom, too, so, you know, gotta give him all the snuggles.

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Unknown
I I'm still an artist, and I've realized that over the last, I'd say five, maybe seven years. Is that even when I'm not in the studio, I still need to somehow do something creative. So whether that's paint by number,

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Unknown
So I always do like the by numbers so that I just zone out. But it is still creating. So it's still on the path to creating something.

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Unknown
I found that even when I have some downtime. But that's my preferred way to to just decompress and just to keep the creative juices flowing.

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Unknown
as an entrepreneur, I can, I can fill any time with something to do with work. There's always back end stuff at the studio that I could be doing.

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Unknown
Need to be doing. But there are days where I know that I have to shut off, and that's probably the best way to do it.

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Unknown
How do you know when you need to start turning off and bringing it back? Because as an entrepreneur,

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Unknown
the hustle is celebrated and the rest really is it.

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Unknown
But

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Unknown
without the rest, you can't hustle.

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Unknown
It's so true. I'm still learning.

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Unknown
I haven't perfected that balance yet. And on top of that, as an entrepreneur,

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Unknown
the hustle doesn't always feel stressful. Some of it does, but some of it's like. But I just love doing it, so I'm just going to keep doing it right.

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Unknown
And that will then justify you just continuing on. And all of a sudden it's 9:00 at night and you've worked since 8 a.m..

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Unknown
I've learned the hard way that when you get sick, you get snappy, you get anxious, you get overwhelmed. All of those feelings pop up. So I'm learning. But it's it's a

00:15:03:00 - 00:15:07:14
Unknown
it's a learning process. I'm not a perfection. I'm not perfect at it by any means.

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Unknown
I'm so grateful to, like Laura and Yana because those to really have helped me take breaks. So Laura are now handling a lot of our admin and yarn in support. It's just been, it's been night and day, honestly, the last 3 to 4 months, and it's just allowed me to have those days where if I'm, if I have a migraine or if I am not feeling well, that I can say, can you guys handle this stuff?

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Unknown
Or take this on.

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Unknown
Divide and conquer. And that's been truly supportive. And it's allowed me to not get as depleted as fast.

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Unknown
I don't I mean, I don't know if it is actually undervalued, but

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Unknown
sometimes people don't appreciate the people around them. When

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Unknown
to me, that's really all life is.

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Unknown
It's just the people around you and the experiences you have with them. 1,000%. I always tell the team, like without the love and the trust, I think the trust more than anything of the community. We don't have community.

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Unknown
And if we don't have a community.

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Unknown
Then what are what are we doing? Just teaching people how to move feet right? And their bodies right. What makes this work? What makes the dance community work is the community. And if you're not going to invest in those people and and it has to be authentic to you, you can't just, you know, pretend like you care about these people.

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Unknown
You like you you truly will want to, to take care of them because they give back so much. Right? The community gives back so much, and you want them to be okay. And you and again, I always come back to my studio was such a safe space.

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Unknown
that was created for me. Right. And I want to create that for, for our community.

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Unknown
And when you do and they realize that you're authentically caring about them, then they realize, like they're a part of something and I think you're right. We all want to be a part of something.

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Unknown
And that's what the dance community brings. But from the top down, it has to feel like they are valued and that they're loved. And it's because they truly are, because we wouldn't be able to do what we do without them.

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Unknown
And I think that shows especially how you take care of the beginner dancers. And you have the ambassadors and you make them feel so welcomed because as a beginner dancer it is terrifying, especially to maybe walk into a room where you probably don't know anybody.

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Unknown
Yes. They're my babies. I love my beginners. My beginners are like, I will advocate for beginner dancers. As an empath myself, I also like I not only feel what they're feeling, but I remember vividly walking in at 16 and walking to a grown up class with older people and, you know, not knowing a thing and you just have to fumble your way through.

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Unknown
I didn't have a dance partner. I didn't have, you know, I didn't have any Latin dance experience.

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Unknown
And I thought, oh my gosh, like, this is so overwhelming. This is scary. And I'll always remember that. And and that's why I'm really glad that our ambassadors are now kind of emulating that same message of we were there one day and look at us now, and also we're here to help you get there, faster.

00:18:26:00 - 00:18:58:06
Unknown
they're they're my heart because it is so rewarding. It's rewarding any time I teach. But for the beginners who really in their head because it was my thought too. I'm never going to get this. Like, what am I doing here? All right, that these thoughts come in. And by the end of eight weeks, you proved to them that everything they've done in the last seven weeks, by week eight, that they are actually putting everything together and they're they've actually created something cool, fun, inspiring.

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Unknown
And then they get the bug and then they want to do it more and more and more and they're like, oh my gosh, this was amazing. Like, I need to sign up for the next one, which is always great. And sometimes they don't, but a lot of times they'll walk away with that was cool rather than that was really scary.

00:19:12:19 - 00:19:32:21
Unknown
And that's what we want, right? Dance may not be your journey and that's okay, but at least you gave your body a chance to do something different. You've proved to your body that it can move in different ways that you're probably not used to. And you got out of the house for eight weeks, and probably didn't think about your phone or social media or the stress of your day for an hour a week.

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Unknown
And if I could bring that to somebody then, like, then get like that, you know, I'm, I'm a happy camper after that. Yeah.

00:19:39:22 - 00:19:47:01
Unknown
Can you talk about your body styling class and what it means and what it means for you?

00:19:47:01 - 00:19:49:10
Unknown
My body styling class. Yeah.

00:19:49:10 - 00:19:54:00
Unknown
I've tried styling classes in the past, and I think

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Unknown
It wasn't authentic enough to me. And that's why it always would get to a certain point. And then I would step away from it, or it would taper off.

00:20:02:13 - 00:20:11:11
Unknown
And but inevitably people would say like, how do I get this type of flow? How do I get this movement in the hips that you have or this shoulder and that?

00:20:11:13 - 00:20:19:18
Unknown
And so I realized that body movement. So just the mechanics of moving your body, the range of moving your body

00:20:19:18 - 00:20:38:07
Unknown
was more important than the actual styling that goes on top of it. So you really have to open up your frame, your, your like the range of your chest muscles, the range of your back muscles. You have to do those things first, mechanically and fundamentally before any of the other fluidity can come in.

00:20:38:07 - 00:21:06:13
Unknown
And so I decided I'm going to rebrand it. Body movement and styling. I'm going to focus far more on that, on exercises that will open that range up. And then from there layer on the styling, and that not only catapulted everyone else's experience, but it really opened up my my own experience to dance because I always shied away from body movement

00:21:06:13 - 00:21:14:04
Unknown
styling I can do but body movement, I didn't give it enough credit because I thought, oh, you know, it's not, it's it's not for me.

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Unknown
It's scary. It's scary to open your body up and do things that may feel awkward at first.

00:21:19:03 - 00:21:30:09
Unknown
But I, once I started training and getting my body ready for it, to offer it to the students, I realized how freeing it felt and how much

00:21:30:09 - 00:21:40:18
Unknown
I just. It was like a euphoric feeling. Every time I would train, I felt like, wow, my body is doing some really cool things that I never thought it could do.

00:21:40:20 - 00:22:03:14
Unknown
And once I started bringing it in studio, the students felt the same. They would finish class and feel like, oh wow, that was exactly what I needed. I had a really hard day that like, let the energy flow through and and they connected with the music. And that was the other difference too. I completely yeah. I don't prioritize salsa bachata in that class.

00:22:03:14 - 00:22:24:18
Unknown
I play Afrobeats, I play reggaeton, I play anything that touches our heart and our soul. And so you're now connecting your body to a song that you may not even recognize at first, but it's just the way your body's moving on top of the music that, creates this synergy. And, and that class is now my most healing class.

00:22:24:18 - 00:22:26:06
Unknown
That class heals me,

00:22:26:06 - 00:22:31:10
Unknown
and I'm so glad that it also is healing the students who are taking that class, too. Yeah,

00:22:31:10 - 00:22:33:10
Unknown
I am a member of that class.

00:22:33:10 - 00:22:42:05
Unknown
And I love it. It's, like you said, you can't style things nicely if you just don't know how to do it. And

00:22:42:05 - 00:22:55:09
Unknown
if it's an awkward moment or awkward movement that you've never done before, then you have to stop, slow down and go through the movement slowly and build up muscle and range of motion in order to eventually get it.

00:22:55:09 - 00:22:59:03
Unknown
Styling to look pretty. Yeah, you can't start looking pretty, you know?

00:22:59:03 - 00:23:20:15
Unknown
And I think that was even my misconception. I was a trained ballroom dancer, and so I was told where to place my hands, how to place them. Right. Not considering, the fact that there were foundations behind that. And so, but then I would go to Congress and take body movement and styling classes and feel like a floppy fish, right?

00:23:20:15 - 00:23:51:16
Unknown
Like so there was always a disconnect, and I could never put my finger on it until, I realized exactly what was missing. Was the body movement part of it, getting that range of motion, as you said, getting the muscles prepared. And I'm just really glad that you guys, the students are trusting the process because, again, I think that there's a misconception among intermediate level dancers like, oh, well, if I just put my hand here, that's styling, it'll look good.

00:23:51:18 - 00:24:18:11
Unknown
Maybe. But if you put your hand here while activating the proper muscles and muscle groups and understanding the, the chain of movement, then it's actually going to look amazing and impeccable, and you're going to feel it. And it's the feeling that comes with it. It's a feeling that comes from I know I'm moving things properly, and therefore the movement now means something to me other than saying I'm just gonna put my hand here, right.

00:24:18:13 - 00:24:29:01
Unknown
And I think that's the biggest gift is now you walk away as a dancer, feeling more confident in your styling and in what you what you choose to do with your body as a styling function.

00:24:29:01 - 00:24:36:11
Unknown
I like what you said about, the euphoric feeling afterwards. And also you get that when you're dancing,

00:24:36:11 - 00:24:39:22
Unknown
when you finally achieve flow and like you just do something and it worked out.

00:24:39:22 - 00:24:40:07
Unknown
Yeah.

00:24:40:07 - 00:25:13:01
Unknown
After having it had not work for months as all of a sudden it's like oh I did it. Yes. We talk about flow a lot and getting into a flow state. It's so important. And I was just recently listening to, another podcast. And it was about, dancers, social dancers, that the, the fact that we're advanced does not mean that we get to skip simplicity because it's all about connection.

00:25:13:03 - 00:25:34:09
Unknown
If you are not connected to your partner and if you don't, as a lead, if we're not, looking toward making the connection, priority. And that part of that is getting into a flow state, then all you're really doing is just performing. And at that point, you're not connected. And if you're not connected, then the dance feels very different.

00:25:34:10 - 00:25:50:07
Unknown
So you want to have that flow state. You want to be in a state where you just your body relaxes and it eases into the song. As I always talk about, there is yourself, your dance partner and the music. There are three people in,

00:25:50:07 - 00:25:55:17
Unknown
in your dance moment that you're having on the social scene, and you need to be connected to those three.

00:25:55:23 - 00:26:02:11
Unknown
And if you're not, then you're really just performing or you're you've lost the connection and you're just executing moves at that point.

00:26:02:11 - 00:26:14:02
Unknown
So the euphoric feeling comes from simple movements staying connected and appreciating and staying in that flow state, which requires mindful presence.

00:26:14:02 - 00:26:22:04
Unknown
this has been a really insightful conversation. And, and I think we've touched on a lot of different aspects of you and dance in general.

00:26:22:04 - 00:26:24:21
Unknown
Are there any other thoughts or.

00:26:24:21 - 00:26:25:16
Unknown
Things

00:26:25:16 - 00:26:28:13
Unknown
on your heart that you really feel called to share?

00:26:28:13 - 00:26:36:02
Unknown
I think just an overall sense of gratitude for the life that I've been able to create here in Windsor.

00:26:36:04 - 00:26:39:10
Unknown
You know, I never lived away from my own family.

00:26:39:10 - 00:26:40:11
Unknown
My entire life

00:26:40:11 - 00:26:41:21
Unknown
until I moved here.

00:26:41:21 - 00:26:53:05
Unknown
And then after separating from my ex, and then having to recreate an entire life and an entire ecosystem of friends and network and

00:26:53:05 - 00:26:58:06
Unknown
business relationships. It it was so overwhelming.

00:26:58:06 - 00:27:11:08
Unknown
I took that journey on at the same time, I opened the studio and it was just really beautiful to see that not only was I creating a community, I was also receiving a community

00:27:11:08 - 00:27:20:07
Unknown
and building one up for me and my son, and to see everybody rally around the both of us in times of need, and help

00:27:20:07 - 00:27:41:17
Unknown
out whenever I needed some support. That's really just been the greatest gift. I didn't I couldn't have even of dreamed of that happening, because I was so focused on creating a safe space for others. But at the same time, while that was happening, you guys were also giving and creating a safe home for us here in Windsor.

00:27:41:17 - 00:27:57:20
Unknown
Which is why when people say, well, you know, your family's all the way back in the GTA, like, would you ever consider moving back there? And I said, no, here is my home. This is my home. This is where I'm I'm I've built my life here now. I've put roots down. It's where Xavier. His whole network is here, too.

00:27:57:22 - 00:28:12:10
Unknown
And so there. So I'm just. I'm always filled with gratitude. When I think of my journey to Windsor and then seeing what has been created and what's been given to myself and Xavier as a result.

00:28:12:10 - 00:28:19:22
Unknown
Where can people find you if they want to learn more about you or your dance studio, or even take dance lessons?

00:28:20:00 - 00:28:37:16
Unknown
So see us on socials. Art of dance Windsor. That's our Instagram and Facebook. You can always come to show studios in Walker ville, and our studio is located inside of show. And, at any social, you will find our dance dancers in

00:28:37:16 - 00:28:46:12
Unknown
and instructors. And so if you just say you're looking for a OD, then yeah, there are quite a few people that can point you in the right direction.