Today we’d like to introduce you to Fiona Fox Ryan.
Fiona, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’ve always encouraged other people to go after their dreams. I love to people watch and I thrive off of helping people to see the beauty and unique gifts they have to offer. I was standing at the Belly Up Tavern watching BellaLux Entertainment perform one night in July of 2019 and I decided to myself that it was time to be my support, my own cheerleader, and use my special gifts of amplifying people’s images and my creativity and passion of dance, leadership, and writing to begin my BLOG.
I am on the slow growth track being a full time student and having personal/work life I get to balance, but I look forward to keep growing for and with these dancers.
Has it been a smooth road?
Gosh no. I cry a lot, haha! It is a passion project, it is a creative outlet for me, but there is so much more to it that will take time to learn on the business side of things. I have always dreamed of owning my own thing, but I hope to build a team around this in the future. A team I can trust. My style of leadership is collaborative- Steve Aoki is my inspiration around collaboration and how creativity goes so much further with it on your side. It was tough for me to let go of control at first, but once I realized we are all a team in this world through the good and bad, we all need each other to be better versions of ourselves.
I have my husband by my side who helps me with photography and some video recording. He is also an extra set of eyes for me and reads my works to make sure everything looks good to go. I am not the most grammatically correct person, but I love expressing myself through writing. I could not be where I am without him.
I struggle with the technology side of this business. All I want to do is run into my work and create. It takes hours to do a single post. It is legit a part-time to full-time job with the researching, writing, attending shows, going to classes, digital art, and social media involved.
Please tell us about your work.
I know that L.A. is the place to be when it comes to being a dancer. I am from Texas and I always dreamed of becoming an L.A. dancer. The many times I went out to L.A. to be in the mix and see if it was a good fit for me, my heart didn’t feel invested. My heart belonged to San Diego. I love San Diego. It has such a great dance community that not a lot of people know about it. I had no idea that this community existed until I performed with a fellow dancer and she led me to the team I danced and served as co-captain with for a season.
Today, I am putting myself out there, connecting with these talented human beings, and creating a space for San Diego dancers to have. I want these dancers to know each other, support one another, and I want their stories to be known. There are so many layers to these talented individuals their fellow dancers don’t get to see and know in class. I am working right now to give them EXPERIENCES of dance classes, what to expect from the instructor and format of the class, the objective and mission statement of the classroom. I want to give them a look into dance shows they went to or missed. I want to give them tips and advice on their training and dance life they live with theme weeks to make sure we stay in alignment with the fundamentals.
I also highlight #teacherthursdays so San Diego dancers know who their mentors and teachers are, how they shape and influence growth in our craft, and what they stand for both professionally and on a personal level.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I believe this will go toward a podcast direction or Vlog direction. I am not completely sure because I love to write, but with social media and Netflix being such a huge part of our culture, people do not have the time or take the time to read as they did in the past. The thing I am seeing from these performance groups that I have featured or reviewed or are beginning to form out here is that there is extreme potential for more professional teams besides the Sirens. I think the Sirens residing as a professional team in San Diego is huge.
I can see the people who went to L.A. or New York to live out their dreams ever so bravely coming back to San Diego after the exhaustion of living that lifestyle, coming back home to create a creative outlet that becomes PROFESSIONAL. The talent here is bomb, we need more people to see this to understand L.A. doesn’t always have to be the option. And honestly, L.A. is so impacted, I think it needs a break and is wanting this to happen for us in San Diego.
Contact Info:
- Website: XclusivelyDanceSD.com
- Email: Fionafox10@gmail.com, Fionasdanceblog@gmail.com
- Instagram: @xclusivelydance_sd
Image Credit:
Trevor Ryan at trevorryanimages.com
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