We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lexie Bristol. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lexie below.
Lexie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear how you think where to draw the line in terms of asking friends and family to support your business – what’s okay and what’s over the line?
When asking friends and family to support your business, it is essential to remember why you started. Connecting your circle to the why behind your brand is critical. If you keep your eyes focused on why you started your business in the first place, you can share why your friends and family would want to support you! Those closest to you want to be involved in your dreams when they flow from a genuine place of passion.
For Three Hearts Dance, we share our life journey through dance films and live performances. Telling our stories connects our audience members to the art of dance while encouraging them in their life walk. As we enter our 10th production season, Three Hearts Dance is honored to celebrate with the business partners, dancers, choreographers, collaborators, and followers who have made our company unique. This season, we are focusing on the optimism, artistry, and love found in our storytelling. Our family and friends join us in our celebration because they understand that storytelling matters.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I am the director and owner of Three Hearts Dance. For as long as I can remember, I have been choreographing, daydreaming events, and inviting friends to participate in creative adventures. I have always had a heart for my visions to be fully expressed by those bold enough to show life raw and innovatively. While studying dance at Florida State College at Jacksonville, I created “5 Hearts” based on Gary Chapman’s book, “The Five Love Languages.” Little did I know that this story would be the foundation of a storytelling journey through dance. After college, this desire to share continued. In 2013, I found myself alongside two dance companions as we pursued performance opportunities to present works such as “5 Hearts.” In a quick moment without a valid group name, we decided to call ourselves Three Hearts Dance with inspiration from my college work. In 2016, Three Hearts Dance officially began as a contemporary dance company focusing on dance films and live dance events focusing on the optimism, artistry, and love found in telling the stories of our lives through dance.
Three Hearts Dance is now in our 10th season. Our company holds our annual Rec, Professional, and Trainee Experiences in video and live productions leading up to our end-of-season concert. Our annual calendar photoshoots create our yearly calendar, which has become one of our top-selling merchandise items. We hold quarterly online pop-up shops selling merchandise that connects to our brand and season themes. We partner with Ballet Arts Centre to host “Evening with Friends,” a collaboration concert celebrating the strength and diversity of dance in Northeast Florida. The Three Hearts Dance annual end-of-season concert is our biggest event, where all our dancers and choreographers share their stories in a showcase that inspires all in attendance. Through all these offerings, our dance company provides a welcoming and creative space for those looking to embrace the beauty of art!
I am personally most proud of the numbers this season. 10 seasons. 5 states traveled. 14 organization collaborations. 41 events. 100s of merch items sold. 100s of dancers are involved in photoshoots, video shoots, live dance productions, workshops, and events. 1,400 hours watched on YouTube alone. Each one of these numbers show that Three Hearts Dance showed up consistently. We are a small contemporary per-project company powered by passionate creatives who hope that sharing their stories through dance will encourage all those involved! Those numbers matter and are something everyone who has been a part of THD should be proud of.
Have you ever had to pivot?
After a few seasons of Three Hearts Dance, I pivoted from the traditional company contract for dancers. Three Hearts Dance moved forward with a project-based model that allowed dancers from all walks of life to be a part of our projects without the commitment of a whole season. They could embrace the optimism, artistry, and love our productions had to offer while managing their career and personal obligations. Some still need to understand why THD doesn’t follow a traditional dance company model of set dancers and set season contracts. Ultimately, our project-based model works best for Three Hearts Dance, its staff, and its participants. Every business has its unique purpose in its industry. As business owners, we must listen to our clients and be in tune with what makes us unique. As our business grows, we must press into these findings and pivot if that is what the time calls for. In times of pivoting, our company can flourish and make its mark; I know that is the case for Three Hearts Dance!
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Many business owners have stories of learning lessons during COVID. Our company was in our final weeks of rehearsals leading up to our season 5 concert when the world shut down. We had several dance films that were supposed to be displayed; we had purchased new costumes for dancers to wear in fun live dances and sold tickets to our biggest concert yet. As the lockdown continued and restrictions limited many of our plans for the upcoming seasons, we were, like many dance companies, wondering how we could continue with our projects during such a difficult time. I am personally grateful and proud of how Three Hearts Dance embraced that time of life and how we thrived during a hard time. We were able to not only make all of our concerts available online but also create an incredible sense of community through live Instagram interviews, ZOOM bible studies, live YouTube events, and unique social media video launches. COVID was a time of resilience for many, especially for business owners. I am grateful for what Three Hearts Dance learned during this time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.threeheartsdance.com
- Instagram: @threeheartsdance
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThreeHeartsDance/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/threeheartsdance
Image Credits
Eriden Images