We were lucky to catch up with Brittney Jones-Wiley recently and have shared our conversation below.

Brittney, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Parents play a huge role in our development as youngsters and sometimes that impact follows us into adulthood and into our lives and careers. Looking back, what’s something you think you parents did right?

One thing my parents did right was instill in me that I should see things through to the end. Since I can remember, I’ve always been active in some kind of extra curricular activities. I played all kinds of sports including volleyball, wrestling, track and field, cross country and marching band. The first sport I participated in that I was taught to see things through to the end was track and field. My dad and I were stationed in Florida at the time and I attended Escambia High School. The track team was having try outs and I’d always wanted to do track because my older sister did track. I tried out and made the team for long jump, triple jump, 4×4, and the mile. My dad and I went to Dick’s Sporting Goods to pick out my spikes. The shoes, from what I can remember, were not cheap. I remember finally picking my shoes and my dad saying, “ once I buy these shoes you can’t quit. You gotta finish the whole season. I’m investing in you and I want you to get my money’s worth.” Ever since then, anything I’ve participated in I saw through to the end, whether I liked it out not. The one thing I ask myself every time I want to try something new is “am I gonna get my money’s worth?”

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Brittney Jones-Wiley. I was born and raised in California, that’s where I started my dance journey with traditional Caribbean dance with Sistas-Wit-Style at the age of 9 and still reigns as the Princess of San Francisco Carnival, in 2006. I have experience in hip-hop, jazz, and HBCU majorette style dancing. I started HBCU Style Majorette dancing in 2014 when I moved to Hampton, Va and attended Phoebus High School where I was first introduced to the genre of dance participating on the Sweet Essence danceline. I later danced at Elizabeth City State University with the Marching Sound of Class as a member of Royal Blaze from 2015 to 2019, serving as captain for 3 years. ECSU is also where she became a member of the Iota Phi chapter of Tau Beta Sigma National Honorary Band Sorority Inc. in 2016. I also participated with the Va All-Star Band and have worked with other collegiate VA dance lines such as Ebony Fire, Essence of Troy and Devine Elegance. I am also an active member of Synergy Dance Team and Dēl Soul Dance Theatre located in the Hampton Roads area. I have performed with local VA artists at the 2022 420 festival, opened up for Monica at Chrysler Hall dancing behind Shuntell Diverse, and danced on the 2022 Millennium Tour with TrillVille and Lil Scrappy.

As a Kinesiologist, I offer dance strength and conditioning, flexibility training, and technique services to help others live and participate in a healthy dance lifestyle. I also offer private dance sessions, group sessions and choreography for dancers and artists.

I teach hip-hop one and two at Libre Dance in Newport News, Va for the fall season of 2023 and coach the Jazettez of P-Town in Portsmouth, Va.

In April of 2023 I started my business The Kidd Inc, LLC and opened my dance studio, Dance Domain, in Portsmouth, Va where we offer community dance classes, lessons, and host events for the community.

Something that sets me apart from others is that I am determined to do what I say I am. For years, I’ve said I wanted my own dance studio and May 2023, I finally got it. I consider myself a recreational dancer but when opportunity presents itself I go for it and give in 100% until the end. This is how I got my opportunity to dance on the 2022 Millennium tour.

One thing I’m most proud of is that I am able to bring Artists songs to life with my choreography. I want people to know that dance is not just dance. It’s an art form that can bring you to tears or make you feel amazing. That is what The Kidd Inc, LLC is about. Bring emotion out of you and bringing the kid back out. To immerse yourself into something great, to lose yourself, to pay that kid that’s inside your heart a visit.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

A time I had to pivot in my life was when I stepped down from an all female dance group. I have been dancing with all female dance teams for 6 consecutive years and anyone has danced on an all girls team or even a sport, knows, it is not easy. Things at that point in my life felt like it was going down hill. I needed something new and exciting. That’s when I saw Set Synergy Dance Team was having auditions. I really wanted to audition but I was going to be on a cruise that day. So, I reached out and asked if I could audition virtually and that’s what I did. I made the team and decided I did not want to do both teams at once. When I stepped down from the original team I was on, they did not take it well but from that point on, everything seemed to be brighter and my rough path was finally smooth. Shortly after leaving the original team, I was invited to dance on the 2022 Millennium tour and the ball kept rolling from there.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I’ve been building my social media presence since Instagram came out. I had an iPhone 3 then and the IG logo was a tan-ish camera. As for today, I build my presence by showing up and networking with my community. The dance community that I am apart of is predominately black and a good handful of them are black business owners. I genuinely support them and I get the same support in return. I post their flyers on my story or page to get the word out to a different group of people then may not be targeting and it’s helps push their events out and vice versus.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://visibook.com/thekiddincllc?pp=calintro
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/kiddbritt?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
• Other: https://instagram.com/thedancedomain?igshid=MjEwN2IyYWYwYw==

Image Credits
Slime Time Exculusive Trevor Pierre Studios