Retrace Your Steps

This could not be a more perfect episode to close out Season 3, y'all! Happy New Year! Today's guest is none other than Professor Bernard Brown. Step in to this warm, thoughtful space and we discuss many common threads between us including the Los Angeles native experience. It's going to get honest, intimate, vulnerable...and maybe even naked as we Retrace the steps of this beautiful Black and Queer Dance maker and educator. So, take a deep breath and let's step back into time, starting in South Central LA...

Bernard Brown: IG - @bb.moves @renaissancebrown Email - [email protected]

Ariana Toriz: IG - @hernameis.ari @saltcircle.dance Email - [email protected]

We are nearing the end of the season, and we have another amazingly talented Queer Black Woman to uplift...trumpet sounds...Britta Grant. Britta has had an upward slope in her career and has worked with the likes of Zendaya, Cher, and even muvva, herself...Beyonce! We dive into those experiences and stories on this episode, as well as her humble beginnings in the nightclub scene. This incredible young artist has a lot to say, especially as an advocate. The gurls are gonna gab...so find your seat. The show is starting!

Britta Grant: IG - @Britta_grant email - [email protected]

Ariana Toriz: IG - @hernameis.ari @saltcircle.dance email: [email protected]

This has been a season of a lot of firsts, and this episode is no exception! This week we have our first double-guest session with the 2 creators of the CRay Project. Try to keep up because this 3-way dialogue moves fast! Chatiera and LaRonica share stories of growing up in Ohio, their separate challenges in their undergrad program at Kent State, and how they cultivate an inclusive, welcoming space in their burlesque group PINS. The gloves are definitely off, and it gets brutally honest...so brace yourself for this raw and uncensored conversation.

Chatiera Ray: IG - @1dancing_cookie Email - [email protected]

LaRonica Southerland: IG - @lalawearsprada Email - [email protected]

The CRay Project: IG - @crayproject Email - [email protected]

Ariana Toriz: IG - @hernameis.ari Email - [email protected] [email protected]

It's our 2nd Re-Retrace, and we're throwing it back again to an artist from yesteryear! True to form...we're keeping it Black! In 2021, we recorded this conversation where Gia Calhoun opened up about her struggles with finding her place in the dance world as a young light-skinned Black girl. She is poised, well-spoken, and elegant...but this chick has a silly side, too. She, also, has a perspective to share on implicit discrimination. Let's throw it back on this Thursday and practice some of those BAD dance moves!

Gia Calhoun: IG - @giaelizabeth

Ariana Toriz: IG - @hermameis.ari @saltcircle.dance

It's our first Re-Retrace episode! We're throwing is back on this Thursday to Season 1, but staying on theme and keeping it Black! Travel back to the year 2020 with Ariana as she goes on location to the San Fernando Valley to visit Zantino Bustos during the height of the COVID-19 Shutdown. These two alumni of CSU Dominguez Hills discuss topics like Male Privilege in the Dance industry, the concept of "Fake It Til You Make It," and their shared experiences with leaving 9-5 jobs to pursue their Dance careers full-time. Zantino talks (when Ari is not interrupting him) about the optimism and hope of a future in the Dance community and about taking his time to reach for his dreams. So, in his words "Let's gooo!"