Today we’d like to introduce you to Jalisa Saint-Fort.
Jalisa, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
While I was working at a charter school, I noticed that girls were so into Tik-Tok. They created their own dances and filmed it confidently. They even taught me their moves and it became a thing we did during our free days. But what made me even more happy with it was I was in a school with kids that were considered “troubled” or just had rough backgrounds. You could see when they came to school how their taking in their current situation. I finally left the school to pursue a dream I had longed to do for years but just didn’t know how and didn’t think I was qualified to do yet. I had danced for 6/7 and trained hard for two. I morphed my degree and my dance skills to help girls walk through life in a healthy way.
Has it been a smooth road?
It has not been a smooth process at all. I’m a perfectionist and extremely considerate to the minds of everyone. What’s really been hard for me is to stick with a curriculum that will ensure that the youth’s mind and heart will be fed properly. The last thing I want is for girls to take classes and they leave confused and stressed.
We’d love to hear more about your organization.
We are a nonprofit organization that provides mentorship through dance for elementary to high school girls. We cultivate positive youth development that will promote leadership, interpersonal and life skills. We are proud of our students, girls to women, that Push themselves. It’s very weird to talk about our feelings and our thoughts sometimes because maybe we were told to keep our feelings to ourself or maybe we say too much of how we feel. Our goal is to have our students become bold with who they are and accept that they are different from everybody else but also realize that we are the same in some ways. We want our students to know they aren’t alone.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
In 5-10 years, we plan to have a building for our female creatives. We are building our partnerships with schools around the east coast as the years go on. We want to teach as many girls as we can.
Contact Info:
- Website: Confidancebyjalisa.com
- Phone: 786-558-3473
- Email: confidancebyjalisa@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/confidancebyjalisa?igshid=xiq40qby4jxi
Image Credit:
Photography: St. clerv Photo, Denim Jacket outfit: Ms. Phay’s Closet
Suggest a story: VoyageMIA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
