Famed American dancer and choreographer Martha Graham once said, “Dance is the hidden language of the soul of the body.” Those who have stepped foot on a dance floor will attest to this sentiment. Ballet, ballroom, hip-hop, contemporary, jazz, and tap; if you can think of it, you can find a class in Fayetteville. The traditional forms of dance are not the only options.
Heel dance is a more modern dance form that has recently increased in popularity as social media highlights videos and reels of students and instructors enjoying an end-of-class choreographed dance.
Bettania “Bethany” Young is the owner of Heels Headquarters, Fayetteville’s only Heels dance studio. Young, a Hawaii native, has been active duty for 10 years and was stationed at Fort Liberty a year and a half ago. She started Heels Headquarters last September, growing every month and adding new classes and instructors.
Heel dancing incorporates several types of dance: heels, and high-energy movement and music. Young was introduced to heel dancing five years ago in San Antonio, Texas. She fell in love with the dance style and unexpectedly with herself again. Heels danced into Young’s life when she was not feeling the best about herself, especially as a new mother. This has been the driving force behind her offering heel dancing to the Fayetteville and Fort Liberty area.
“Heels Headquarters intent is to promote confidence. The whole intent was just to provide a space for people who were interested in exploring a new art form of dance,” she said. “If they think that dance is just something they can enjoy and have fun with, then I would be providing that space and half of it would be a fun experience, half of it would be a training experience.”
Those who have seen the various heel dancing videos online, know that it can be a little intimidating. Young doesn’t want that to deter people from coming in and trying at least one class. In San Antonio, Young is a popular heel dancer.
“I trained really hard for the past two years, where I just constantly took classes, and I spent so much money on classes [it’s] ridiculous. I went to a minimum of two classes a week. Then I started dancing a lot. I started getting recognized in San Antonio, so people started asking me to be a part of their showcases, their dance visual concepts, and some videos. So I was just like wow, I never thought that people would look at me that way, but they did. I finally produced my own video,” Young explained.
Bringing heel dancing to Fayetteville has been a great choice, as the women and men in the city have been filing into classes.
“Most women do like the atmosphere that we provide so I’ve been really happy about how it’s been going. The whole intention is just to build your confidence and that can do a lot for a military spouse. If you want to learn more about dance, and how to move your body and get retention going on with your mind, and retaining that choreo that we teach you, then that also helps in other beneficial ways [outside of dance]. In heels, you could use any style and make it into a heel style. So that’s the beauty [of] exploring heels. Just because you can do whatever is you feel, your niche,” Young said.
You can follow Heels Headquarters on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/byoungheelshq. For class schedule and to register visit the website at Heels Headquarters. Classes are held at 2700 Breezewood Avenue.