Today we’d like to introduce you to Brielle Friedman.
Brielle, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
As a kid, I always loved to dance. I would twirl down grocery store aisles and dance in the living room to Kylie Minogue when no one was home. I took dance classes here and there throughout elementary, middle, and high school, but never seriously enough to consider dancing professionally in some way. For years, being a dancer in the way I think of myself as today seemed too far out of reach for me.
Still, dance continued to play a bigger and bigger role in my life. As a freshman at Brown University, I joined a student dance company on campus and then discovered Salsa while traveling abroad in Guatemala the following year.
Salsa hooked me. Even now all these years later there is something about the dance style I find so magical and mesmerizing. Right away I knew it was going to play a crucial role in my life.
After I graduated from college, I moved to San Francisco and began more formal training in Latin dance outside of my 9 – 5 marketing job. A few years later I moved to New York City to continue my training and eventually started dancing at a professional level traveling internationally to perform, compete, and teach. Around this time I started exploring other creative interests, like writing, that had been lingering in the background for years. I began writing for a (now defunct) online dance site and launched my own editorial site. A lot of what I wrote about (and still write about) was my own personal journey through dance, dating, and life at large, topics I had always loved talking about, but a younger version of myself worried weren’t highbrow enough to share with the world.
In 2020, after the pandemic hit and turned my dance world upside down, my creative dreams brought me to LA. I have always resonated with the culture and lifestyle of California and after collaborating with a couple of videographers on some dance videos, the idea of exploring on-camera production seemed fascinating to me.
Earlier this year, I started my dance company, Siempre Sol, to share the gift of dance, movement, and creativity with others. We are just getting started but I am so excited to see what we create here in Los Angeles and in collaboration with other artists around the world!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I think giving myself permission to call myself an artist and pursue a creative path has been one of the more challenging struggles for me. Of course, there have been other moments when it felt like the path I was choosing wasn’t going to work out––times when my bank account was dangerously low and my credit card incredibly high, or times when I felt othered from a community I love so much for being different—but re-writing my own view of what’s possible and then finding the courage to bring my ideas to life and explore different ways of doing things is what stands out the most after all these years.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
What I’m most proud of is always changing as I continue to grow and take on more and more ambitious projects. I hope it’s always that way! Sometimes I’ll feel both incredibly proud and incredibly cringy about something I’ve created and shared with the world. Both are true and both are valuable, and I’ve learned to embrace their coexistence.
Over the years, I’ve also learned how to enjoy the process of creating something so much that I don’t feel so attached to the final outcome. It’s not that I don’t want the final piece to be good (of course I do!) but more that I’m now able to appreciate the end result for all its imperfections and what I learned by bringing it into the world. I see it as a foundation for the next thing I do instead of my one and only chance to share something with others.
As a dancer, my expertise lies in Latin social dance styles (Salsa, Bachata, and Cha Cha Cha), movement/body mechanics, weight transfer, and the dynamics of lead and follow. I also facilitate intuitive movement workshops that support individuals in reconnecting with their physical selves, releasing tension and fear in the body, and finding inner guidance.
As a producer and creative strategist, I pull a lot from my brand, marketing, and business strategy experience. I really enjoy business and I think the ways in which I am analytical help me see new ideas and possibilities. I always see a solution forward and can figure out how to get anything done. Clients often tell me those are the qualities that stand out during our work together.
More than anything, I’ve come to learn that I’m a creative and my creativity shifts forms depending on the context and circumstance. Sometimes it comes through as a choreography for my dance company or a music video concept for an artist. Other times it reveals itself as a messaging campaign for a company’s new product launch or an editorial piece for a brand.
I also always make sure to prioritize working on something for myself as an artist. It helps me stay inspired and excited about everything else and keeps resentment, restlessness, and irritability away. Right now I’m really into mixed media performance art and have been really enjoying playing with different mediums in my work.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
Ah, there have been so many! It sounds cliché, but learning to enjoy the journey and trust my inner voice have been two of the biggest, most important ones.
I’ve also learned that your dreams -– whatever they may be –– are possible. Even the really big ones that seem like they might be too much for this lifetime. They are all possible for you.
Everything you desire doesn’t come immediately or all at once, and it rarely comes in the order or the way you wanted or expected, but it all happens for you. When it does come, sometimes that big moment is everything you imagined it would be. Sometimes it’s more, and sometimes it falls flat and feels less magical than you expected. All you can really do is embrace the twists and turns and redirections along the way and enjoy all the little, everyday moments that happen in between.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.helloitsbrielle.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/helloitsbrielle
- Other: www.siempresoldance.com
Image Credits
– Noriko Horii
– Brent James Driscoll
– Salsamania Saturdays
