Dancer, Dreamer and Wanderer: Jannelle Cortes Founder of GrooveTrips and GrooveFit

Dancer, Dreamer and a Wanderer: Jannelle Cortes Founder of GrooveTrips and GrooveFit

I can barely sit still as I listen to this episode! BEYOND excited to share someone that I personally know and love very much!  Please welcome, a multi-passionate, multi-talented entrepreneur, dancer, creative and leader, Jannelle Cortes. I’ve known this creative powerhouse since 2005, have studied various styles of dance with her and have traveled with her to Egypt and the Dominican Republic!

We met in 2005, when I was manifesting the best belly dance teacher at New York Sports Club in NYC and we (all the shimmy sisters) followed her everywhere, borough to borough just to dance with her! We’ve traveled from borough to borough and country to country as she expanded GrooveFit to GrooveTrips guiding people to trips such as Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Egypt and more! Many of us, including yours truly, were in her Middle Eastern cardio dance workout video, “ The Belly Dance Workout for Every Body!” She's a passionate, generous and beautiful being whose soul has guided to so many spaces, places and countries to support community, create community and share the magic of dance, culture and connection. 

 

• Early beginnings, from Baile del Perrito to Ballet, she shares “Ballet was my Yoga.”

 

• Dance was not something anyone thought she would pursue full-time and she entered her Fordham University Masters program.

 

• Grad school/Corporate World to Full-time dancer and teacher: The moment she realized that The Universe was opening a door to living a life with more passion.

 

• Her first belly dance class with Amira Mor filled her with joy and admiration, “I don’t know that I have ever felt that kind of exuberance and joy.”

 

• The term, “crazy belly dancer” and what it means- I went through that as a student!

 

• How Jannelle began taking belly dance students to Turkey, Egypt and Morocco so her students could learn from the land and the people where the music and dance was born.

 

• Jannelle shares how creating space for folks to express themselves makes her joyful because she recognizes it may be the only place where we can be other aspects of ourselves.

 

• “It provided all types of women, all ages, all bodies to come into class and be celebrated, Jannelle on her dance class teaching.

 

• Teaching dance class for Eddie Palmieri at the Savannah Hotel

 

• “When you’re born with something, you have to feed it. It’s you, this is a part of you,” Jannelle Cortes

 

• Supporting local artists and small businesses when she travels and why it’s important.

 

• How Cuba gave her the opportunity to meet organizations and people and feel called to give back through each trip. 

 

• Exploring her identity as a Dominican woman who comes from an island that has been impacted by colonization, oppression and colorism. How do I heal myself and help others heal? How have my people come about? 

 

• Her experience of coming home to Ghana and a sense of completion.

 

• Ancestral patterns and ancestral gifts that Jannelle has tapped into.

 

• Shout out to Ivonne Velasquez and to my Mom and Johanna Olivas and Vanessa Villaverde- same message, “ It is our responsibility to seek happiness for ourselves.”

 

• Jannelle closes with some advice for creative entrepreneurs:

There is no blueprint for entrepreneurship, most Latinx didn’t grow up talking about money so much of the business acumen we have, we’ve had to earn and learn.

You’re allowed to recreate yourself, over and over and over again.”

BIO:

 

Jannelle Cortes is a choreographer, travel professional, and entrepreneur that grew up in the Maryland area and now resides in New York City and Havana, Cuba. She is the Founder of  the Groovefit Dance Company and Groove Trips LLC, both intergenerational companies that  promote community, accessibility, and sustainability.  

Find Jannelle Cortes for updated info on her upcoming trips and masterminds: https://groove-trips.com/

Follow on IG: GROOVETRIPS