We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Gabriela Espinoza. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Gabriela below.

Gabriela, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

It started with two sisters just wanting to dance like what they were used to back home in Cochabamba, Bolivia. In our search for places to dance at and people to dance with, we found ourselves creating our own fitness company based on our unique style of workout choreographies. This led to opening our own brick and mortar studio where we connected with people’s stories on a daily basis. We found out that our classes empowered them and helped them modify their lifestyle towards a healthier path. My sister and I had no idea that by challenging their minds and bodies through a fun workout, they would get stronger in other ways too. So our mission became clear: we need to empower women and feminine presenting people (plus anyone who wants to join in), and help them see how magical we are.

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.

My dance story started as far back as I can remember attending family gatherings and school performances. But I most connected to dance by attending gym classes when the influence of Brazilian pop culture surged through Latin America’s dance scene. This style of dance had an element of choreography linked to the lyrics of the song. It was sort of instructional in some ways and was mixed with Samba footwork and fun hip isolations. My sister and I were naturally inclined to this style and started leading classes at various gyms and dance studios in Bolivia.

Fast forward to us moving to the United States and being unable to find anything similar to what we had discovered, we decided to bring it to the gyms of the DMV (DC Maryland Virginia) area ourselves by customizing the class into a high-energy cardio dance class injected with elements of the dance styles we loved back home.

And that’s how Sensazao (sen-suh-zow) was born. My sister Jazmin and I co-taught and spread our love for dance and well-being. Our brand grew to the point we opened our own Sensazao Studio and our classes’ popularity grew enormously over the years.

As we spent our days dancing we saw the powerful effects of our Sensazao classes in people’s lives and that gave us the drive to make people happier by expanding our small team. So we certified instructors to teach our classes in the DMV, and created an online studio so people could dance from home or from far away outside of the physical studio. In fact, years later we eventually closed our brick and mortar studio so we could spread our brand further online and in person in other cities. Our instructors still teach at gyms and studios in both America and other countries around the world.

So a few years back I moved to LA where I currently teach twice a week at LA DanceFit Studio in Westwood. This class is quickly growing and I have started certifying Sensazao instructors who love and believe in Sensazao as much as we do. Everyone is welcome and your first class is free. So come check us out!

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

We started our online studio years before the pandemic hit. So when we closed our brick and mortar studio we had nowhere to keep teaching in-person classes or to film classes. So our amazing community followed us to at least two different locations we decided to rent to keep the momentum going. Unfortunately, one of these locations also closed abruptly so we had to go back to the gyms where many of our followers had a hard time due to the gym’s money-driven culture. Gladly, our online presence was still strong and this kept many of our people still connected. Currently, our amazing certified instructors offer classes on a weekly basis and are keeping our DC, MD, and VA community strong.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

It was a difficult time when we had to close our brick and mortar studio because we had such a great connection with the people that walked in everyday. My sister and I already planned to expand and our online studio was getting stronger. However, there was a new renter next door to us that operated during our same business hours and their clients completely overtook the limited parking we had. So our customers would drive 40-60 minutes to get to our classes but they had to miss part of it due to limited parking. It was no help that the landlord did not cooperate in any way. So we decided to close the studio and strengthen our online presence.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sensazao.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sensazao/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SensazaoDanceFitness
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Sensazao
• Other: Online Studio: https://sensazaoonline.vhx.tv/