We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Fiona Fox Ryan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Fiona, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Alright – so having the idea is one thing, but going from idea to execution is where countless people drop the ball. Can you talk to us about your journey from idea to execution?

I started out as XclusivelyDanceSD, a local dance blog where I covered local talent but then I felt like I wasn’t able to reach further and connect more dancers to one another, including myself. I started Xclusively in 2019 and when the pandemic hit in 2020, I got pregnant! I was so afraid that I was done dancing but then I got to talking to other dance mamas and receiving advice from mom dancers and realized this is not it for me, it’s only the beginning.

I began making a list of blog name change ideas and landed on one: thefoxydancingmama. This time I would do it with more wisdom, like the voice of a mother to give the reader foundation, support and guidance for the dancer to stay rooted through dance lifestyle topics of mind, body, spirit, current dance events, and dance history. This industry has beautiful people, but it is *not* easy. To keep the glamour and edge I thrive on, I kept the dancer interview aspect but this time, I cover all of California and hope to bring Texas dancers on here as well.

WordPress is what really helped me become more official while taking a blog education course. I am a Communication major and Dance Studies minor so I bring that journalist aspect from what I’m learning at University and I am a dance team member at Play Hard Heels so I am an experienced dancer that is on the scene- I am going through this with my readers.

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?

I got into blogging because I was an injured dancer and realized how much I love to write! I see my visions and ideas come to life when I write and also understand this human experience at a higher level with this medium. My dance blog is designed to be a place where people can know they are not alone, that the dance industry takes a lot of work, and that the best thing these dancers can do is get as educated in their craft as possible while connecting with other dancers as much as they can! We can all learn from each other whether it’s negative or positive.

Now that I am healed from the injury, I have moved forward to motherhood and that voice is very prominent in my writing. What sets my blog apart from the information overload of our time is that I have a lot of wisdom; I have a huge amount of life experience and dance experience.

Behind my brand is someone who is silently strong. My dancing is powerful but my personality is kind and people get confused by that. I want my writings to help the reader to know how strong they are and what they bring to the table. I want the reader to really think critically about who they are and what they want as artists. I also want the reader to be educated in dance because without that, the dancer is a dime-a-dozen. Social media is a jungle and those that really stand out are scholars in this field.

I am most proud of how I make the dance interviews look like featured magazine articles: I put my heart and soul into this. I will be moving the interview portion of my business to podcast because my audience is ready to hear the authenticity of the dancers I interview and that is exciting! I will definitely keep topics on mind-body-spirit, dance uncensored (current events/pop culture) and dance history in writing.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

A lot of non-creatives think dance is girly and easy: it is not. Dance takes an immense amount of time, energy, fitness, nutrition, sleep, research, learning, choreographing, practicing, training, flexibility, learning music, the list goes on. Blogging is fun and sounds easy but it takes hours upon hours of research on the topic at hand: marketing, branding, networking, and learning how to become a better writer. Blogging is also lonely in ways. I want the non-creative to stop thinking dancers and bloggers just show up- there’s a lot of integrity involved.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I am a trained hip hop and jazz dancer who has recently taken on heels dance! Last year, I began taking burlesque dance classes under a very experienced burlesque dancer. I fell in love with this genre so hard and fast: I downloaded podcast upon podcast and rented about 50 burlesque books from the library along with researching burlesque journal websites and a few audiobooks (I know, I am obsessed).

I decided I wanted to begin diving into the burlesque world with my journalist dreams and covering my main categories while interviewing burlesque dancers here in San Diego. Well, I messed up. I listened to what a few of the burlesquers wanted, but I didn’t hear where they were at and I went too far with my marketing. I was definitely put me in my place with feedback and it was not easy to hear to be honest. I put all of this time and energy, 8 months of research and field work to hear certain jargon used was not appropriate.

I was in tears about this but I got right back up. I am excited to be informed of my ignorance (informed that I “have barely scratched the surface”) and was it fun to hear? Not particularly. But now I know what I need to know to show up with a higher level of respect and integrity.

Contact Info:

• Website: foxydancingmama.wordpress.com
• Instagram: @thefoxydancingmama

Image Credits
Ben Delmundo. Instagram handle is @ben.imagine