Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Toni Manar. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Toni, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

I definitely wish I had started sooner ! It’s like I wish I could do absolutely anything in the world to go back in time and just start taking dance classes when I had the chance because I would be SO good by now. I am already great and just stated training at 24…what if I started as a kid or teenager! At the same time, I’m happy I didn’t because my journey is so impactful that its not only helping me develop and learn but its helping others also. I am standing out because I started when I did. I started dancing four years ago- when I was 24. This was after I went to college for five years and got my degree and then served tables and bartended for two years while not even looking for a job in my field. When I think back about my life when I was doing this, I have a moment where I want to say I just wasted so much time….and then I have a moment where I say if I didn’t let the void in me grow so big I wouldn’t have worked so hard to fill it once I realized what it was that I was missing.
Career-wise I was. nowhere when I started. I was just existing. When I made a lot of money I went out and spent a lot of money, when I didn’t make any money I stayed in the house so I wouldn’t spend any. I was just paying bills and existing. I’ll say it was a good-quality life because I was in a relationship and so happy with it but I wasn’t doing anything with my life other than being happy in the moment which was great because you never know when your life will end but I wasn’t thinking about the long run, like where I would be in my 30’s or how I would be living once I didn’t have things like health and dental insurance under my parents’ name. I call this a broke life style because I wasn’t putting money away for the future or for emergencies and I was living day to day so-to-speak. I was young though, that’s what young people do, they do what they want to do. You can’t make someone prepare themselves for their future and you cant make someone follow their dreams and see where they end up, they just have to do it when they are ready. I was ready when I realized I had a dream that could actually be followed.

Here is how it all came about:

A dance video of a particular dancer was resurfacing on my social media and I started to follow her so hard that I was trying to learn her dances at home even though I knew I could not do them. Then, I grew obsessed. I was watching her posts and her stories and her lives so much that the man I was with wouldnt even talk to me when I was watching her content because he knew I wasn’t paying attention. One day he finally saw that she was teaching a dance class in Chicago where he knew I had family and he literally suggested that I just go there and give it a try. He said I was getting further and further away from him just being in the house watching her all day long anyway. I took his advice and BOY am I glad that I did.

I took this class and I did not kill it, I was actually a little uncomfortable because I felt like I was the biggest one in the room and I was definitely the most insecure one. I was all covered up because I didnt want anyone to see my shape. I also didn’t want to be dancing and trying to make sure none of my rolls were coming out of my clothes. These were actual thoughts racing through my head. This is crazy to me because once I got to the actual function I actually got pretty comfortable and didn’t think about these things once I got into it. I was just focused on the dance and listening to her inspirational words as she taught. The meet and greet was what really got me.

In the meet and greet I actually got to sit and talk about what I wish I was and what I low key always wanted from myself, which was a dancer like the one she was, making videos, choreographing videos, posting on instagram daily : an Influencer. I broke down crying and everything saying I don’t know who I am or what Im capable of, but at least I have a marine biology degree that my family wanted me to have so bad. I DON’T know how she did it but this girl convinced the hell out of me: it wasn’t too late. I could start dancing right here and right now. I could start taking dance classes like hers when I got home and I could start watching my talent grow everyday. This is exactly what I did but I had to make up a class like hers because there weren’t any. So I started off my dance journey teaching a class and learning to dance at the same damn time.

Because of the struggle I had with trying to get motivated to start and the discouragement I faced with started at age 24, I think if I started any later it would have just been too late. For me anyway. I do understand now that time is an illusion but I didn’t understand that back then. Now that I have laid it all out, I wouldn’t have started sooner or later because I think for the kind of brand I have created and the way I have impacted lives has nothing to do with my skill level that could be even higher if I had started dancing sooner, it has to do with the fact that I had no skill Level at all when I started and just made it happen. Because this is how my story started, my story doesn’t just include me, it includes everyone I invited to start with me and everyone that I brought with me on the way. There are a lot of people dancing today that weren’t before because they were inspired to start dancing with a teach who had barely even started dancing yet. The comfort Level in the room that is created when the teacher and the student are on the same level is very different and encouraging.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My class has always been called a class because you have always come to learn something but it started off at the very beginning as more of a session . With a maximum of nine girls we were just learning choreographies of other people together. there were no heels classes anywhere so we made our own. When I wasn’t teaching my own Choreo I was not making money but people were paying the studio so we could use it. Once I was ready to start making my own choreography I made an announcement and I actually had my first real, and big class of 25 people. I could not believe it. Once I saw this big class happen and then I kept teaching one dance after another, posting one video after another, each one being better than the one before, my class actually grew to be sold out every week. It was so consistent and my potential and my dreams were growing so big, I put a name on that shit. I called it Heels & Hype because word was getting around the city and people were recognizing me from “that dance class” they be seeing on instagram, I had to name it ! After I named it I made some merchandise. Two small orders to start of 60 shirts and 60 pairs of sweat pants. When all those sold out I did another one of each, Now I had a lot of people taking class but I also had people rocking my merch around the city. This is how I got started with my brand. I just followed my heart and tried new things and the more people I saw come together, the more motivated I was to keep going and to keep growing.

I teach weekly group classes that are open to the public, I do private lessons and I do shows, performances, music videos, music promo … I literally do everything. I have had artists reach out to me because they have a show coming up and they want to be stage ready, I have directed music videos, I have done concept videos. When I say I can do anything, I literally mean exactly that !

The problems that I solve for my clients make up a long list! I can teach people how to dance from square one…the people with zero experience can literally learn from me and at their own pace become experienced enough to keep up in class with people further ahead than them in their dance career. I help build confidence over everything, I just do it through dance. Being able to do something you never thought you would be able to. or just thought you were too old to or too out of shape to do is a serious confidence boost. Then when you get good at it, or if you don’t get good at it but are provided a space where you feel like you are good enough to keep going, like you are good enough to deserve to dance comfortably…it can change your life. Dance is a serious release ! Not everyone wants to be a professional dancer. Some people just think dancing is cool and sexy but its actually a sport. Dancing your ass off can relieve stress, it can take you away from all of your troubles for just a little while. It can help you refocus, let go and it teaches you a lesson : practice makes perfect Experiencing practice makes perfect first hand as an adult reminds you that you can do anything if you put your mind to it. When you’re in your 30’s or 40’s or even younger and have kids, its easy to say practice makes perfect and to encourage them while they’re young to “go for it” whatever it is, but I have seen parents forget that that goes for them too. If you really think dancing in heels is so sexy, why aren’t you even giving it a try? If you finally try it and you just feel so out-of-tune that you just don’t belong, why won’t you do it ten to one hundred times a day until you get it right? We are talking about dance moves here, nothing complex…do you really think if you tried a dance move 20 times a day, everyday, you would NEVER GET IT? Thats practically impossible. This way of explaining dance is another service I provide. Through dance I am actually exercising a way of thinking…a way to live a good-quality life.

I am different from other dance teachers because my story is different. I started learning how to dance and teaching a class at the same time! Me and the people who take my class have much more in common and I can relate to them even more because the feelings they have when trying to get a choreo, struggling with it, getting through it, I have actually been there… hell I still end up there sometimes today. My story is unique but my passion is too. I know for the most part, everyone that dances, does it because they love to dance but my love for dance is so deep I just don’t know if anyone else’s love for dance could match.
Dance gave me something to live for, literally. I didn’t know what I was going to be or how I was going to get all the way on my feet and be like a real adult that has their own everything and lives on their own…I didnt want much of anything before dance because there wasn’t much to want. Im different from other teachers because I don’t just want to teach the world how to dance, I want to show them what it did for me so they can see dance for more than the moves, a way out of a confused life of not knowing what you want, a quest for self love and confidence and also a campaign against violence.
I think by having women in a room together working on themselves and cheering on everyone in the room that is doing the same thing, we are minimizing the illusions of competition and jealousy that ultimately lead to malevolence and hate and violence. We are stronger together. With people finding themselves and learning themselves after they have already reached adulthood, there’s no time to hate or worry about someone else; what they’re doing or what they have or can do that you don’t or cant. We have to make up for lost time with ourselves. Ive had people tell me they didn’t do things that could have landed them in jail because if they go to jail they cant come to class every week. Dance creates a type of love and reform that can really put an end to violence and hate, but like everything else it’ll take what feels like a million years and a day…which Is okay, At least it is in motion and happening.

What I feel people need to know about me is I didn’t always love myself, I was supposed to because I grew up around eery loving people but there was something I always wanted to change and growing up next to a drop dead gorgeous sister was hard for me when it didn’t have to be because im cute too! It just wasn’t enough because I was so damn empty. I walk any hallway, any walk-way, up to any man I want to now because I found “HER” in me once I started dancing and growing. My sob stories about wanting to be someone else ended and the stories of triumph about me being able to be myself started. Im proud of my confidence in general today. Im proud of the worth I know I have, I am proud of the future I see for me now being so bright and colorful and I’m proud of me staying true to myself no matter what or who I lose out on because before I just did not see myself in this way that I can not let go of! I want everyone to know because of what dance did for me, I feel like its my duty to introduce it to everyone else: not just tell you about it but actually get you in a class with me so I can send you down the path I went down with growing into myself and wanting to only be myself! My work is MUCH deeper than the videos I post on my page. I can’t give it to you straight until you actually experience the celebration of “you” in my class.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Non-creatives won’t understand why I got my degree and didn’t pursue a job with benefits and paid time off …what they call financial stability. They don’t understand I chose mental stability first and then I found it financially another way:: bartending, I won’t lie it was harder , and it entailed a lot of stuff no one would want to go through like sleeping in the car and having to shower at the gym…but if I had a job in my field I wouldn’t have been able to pursue dance full speed. I wouldn’t have been able to get my shifts covered last minute when I heard about auditions or dance classes where artists were going to be present. Bartenders actually make great money as much as non-creators (people in my family living the American dream, I don’t know about their own dream) don’t want to believe it. On top of great money and ability to have my own everything, it allows me the freedom to pursue my dream. We are different from these people because my goal isn’t even to work for 40 years and get raises and have a high position… I done even want to work in my thirties, I want my dance company to cover everything and I want my dream to be the only thing I have to wake up and work on. I picked finding something to live for and living for that something over the respect from people who think the way I’m supposed to be living included a 9-5 and pension. I want non-creatives who think I’m doing life the wrong way to keep on watching.

How did you build your audience on social media?

There are a lot of ways I did this but of course networking is key. Sometimes I had days where I just went to an area where I knew a lot of people were walking around and gave out my card or flyers. I have followed random people on instagram and liked so many of their posts in a row, their notifications were full of me and they just had to click on me to see who I was. I say to this day when I first started the one thing that really helped me was being consistent. A new video every single week. I became the “Girl that does that heels class”. Everyone literally knew me from the videos I did in front of the same wall of the studio every week.. When you post a video every week and you’re new, some are good and some are bad, unfortunately its part of the journey but it is important to post all of them because viewers take note and that helps them remember you. some people reposted some of my videos that were not that great and then when people who came across a better video I posted after that, they took note of my growth and improvement and became interested in my journey. Not for nothing its alway inspiring to see people push through after getting trolled on the internet, which I have been plenty of times. Instagram ads are very helpful too, I didn’t start doing this until recently and I see the potential but there’s trial and error in getting the right audience. You will definably get followers but what I am dealing with now is trying to get my ads in front of people who want to follow me because they want to take a class one day as opposed to people who saw my ad and followed because Im sexy. Although this is flattering and a follower is a follower, im trying to grow a business and changed lives of people in real time.
Something else I have done was getting yourself out there.. I have done gigs and performances for low prices because I sw opportunity. This does not mean let people low ball you and rock you to sleep with bullshit when they want to incorporate your talent in something but don’t want to pay the price, this means recognize and stay woke. When you see opportunity, you give the situation a tune-up, not someone else who needs you for their own benefit,
Go to events where people who make up your target audience are present. I take other peoples dance classes because for one I have to train and get away from my own movement but also dancing in new rooms with new people yields opportunity and networking. Some people never knew I existed until I took a class alongside them, gave them my Instagram, and then they learned that I had. class to teach. The same with bartending or anything else: go where people like you go and introduce yourself. Get it done.
When I work the bar I alway give my card out, The best thing to do when its busy is when someone gives you a card to pay, when you give it back put your card right on top when you hand it back. They make keep it, they may leave it on the bar with the slip they signed, but they saw it and that counts for something.
the biggest thing is showing up and showing out in person. Don’t try to sell anything just let people know what they do (in y opinion)

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @Ladyy_Papa
• Facebook: Toni Manar or Heels & Hype
• Twitter: @Ladyy_papa
• Youtube: @Ladyy Papa