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Sophia Sabino

Sophia Sabino started dancing at 8 at a dance school in Waldwick, N.J. She realized the first year she started that dance was her passion. When she was the point of the pyramid and loved how it made her feel like she was really good at something. Sophia loved performing on stage the first time. Sophia has had a lot of ups and downs but dance has taught her to be strong and believe in herself. She wasn’t always the best but she knew she was good so if she worked at it, she could be great. It gave her a good work ethic. Sophia's teachers were not easy, she kinda feels like they prepared her for the real world. 

 

Sophia has learned so much from both sides of teaching and taking classes herself because they are so different.  She started teaching when she was 19 and now 39, Sophia can honestly say the most important thing is to be yourself when you teach. Let your personality come out and be true to who you are. People like and respect you if you are real and believe in yourself. As a dancer always stay humble but confident. 

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Sophia didn’t go to college for dance but did go for fine arts and took a year and a half off of college to dance professionally for the NBA which was such a great experience. She was really happy and decided to go back to college and finish her degree. Sophia loved her college experience and started the dance team/club at Ramapo College. She then went on to teach dance and still train and dance in NYC and LA. 

 

Traveling with the NBA was amazing. Sophia was 23, dancing with professional artists and traveling the world so it was great and she was being paid to do it. She loved the whole experience but when that job was over Sophia knew it was time to finish school as she liked teaching and making a steady paycheck. The professional dance world is not easy and she didn’t love the audition process. Sophia liked how being a teacher felt, she was in control of a classroom doing what she loved and making a career for herself. Being a dancer you just were not shown as much respect as a teacher, choreographer. Sophia's best experiences as a dancer have been performing with Justin Timberlake, Usher, and believe it or not Cool and the Gang. She even did the All-stars game in 2003 and it was amazing! It was awesome to work with those big-name artists and be apart of such a huge event. Also, the Japan Games was cool, going to Japan was amazing such a different world and they treated the dancers like celebrities. 

Sophia's best experiences as a dancer/teacher are when students tell her how much she has helped them in their lives. How her class helped them get through a hard time, or insecurities. As a dancer, Sohpia always just did it because she loved how it made her feel so as a teacher she wanted to make people feel that joy, confidence, and strength. 

 

Sophia did a piece for her father when he passed away to a Frank Sinatra song, which was his favorite. He was her biggest fan. He used to take Sophia to all her rehearsals and competitions. He was very proud that she made it as a dancer, now teacher, and was following her passion. He was a dancer as a young man. so that tribute was so important for Sophia. She felt him smiling down. 

 

COVID-19 has made Sophia appreciate teaching in a studio. She has been doing remote classes since the start of the quarantine and it’s a true testament of how important it is to connect with your students because they are such supporters. They give her just as much as she gives to them. 

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To remain productive during this time, Sophia has been teaching every day from her dining room, kids playroom, and dance studio. It’s been great and pushes her to stay motivated and sane.

 

It’s been amazing to see so many people dancing online. Doing free classes on Instagram and just spreading the love all around. It’s been awesome that she's had dancers from all over log onto her classes from California, Florida, Colorado you name it. Sophia is Just so grateful to be reaching people near and far through dance 

 

Sophia is close with some people she's mentored to be teachers and it’s been so awesome to see she's inspired them to do what they love. It’s made her realize that she can make a difference in people’s lives. Sophia had a lot of different influences in her life and taken pieces from all. Mainly she's learned to just work hard and put her best foot forward. 

 

She always tries to use real-life lessons in her classes. To help deal with stress, insecurity, depression. Dance has always been a form of therapy for Sophia growing up so she tries to use that. Dance can be used in so many ways for healing. Many people were also traumatized by dance experiences in their youth and Sophia tries to help them move past that and enjoy dance.

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To describe what dance and teaching mean to her in 3 words, they would be: Expression, Passion, Purpose.

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Sophia thinks the dance community is an amazingly supportive community. Everyone usually wants to help each other and lift each other up.

 

She thinks it’s wonderful how it’s come together and made the remote teaching work. 

Sophia is working on teaching more remote classes for Tribe Body and would love to connect the fitness and dance community more. However, she has a young family right now so teaching remote would be a great benefit. She would like to be a part of a big our door quarantine release festival of dance but is going to stay positive until that is a safe possibility. 

 

A goal for Sophia now as a dancer/teacher is just to get back to the studio.  Doing what she loves and feeling the energy of a packed class. She misses the feeling of connecting with her students in person, not through a computer screen. Sophia would love to do a benefit to help people and businesses that have fallen on hard times because of the pandemic. 

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