That's Just Human
That’s Just Human, a podcast that explores all aspects of being human, living in a body, and dealing with life’s obstacles. We discuss people’s stories, learn practical tools for growth and healing that help you learn to step into your authentic self and aliveness.
That's Just Human
Episode 35: Beyond The Dance Studio w/ Santina Rigano Lesch
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The Heart of the Conversation:
In this episode, I sit down with Santina Rigano-Lesch, a lifelong dancer, educator, and the founder of the "Basic Bitch Boogie" movement app. We explore the profound journey of using dance not just as a performance art, but as a vital tool for nervous system regulation and processing trauma. Santina shares her transition from running an Australia-to-Seattle dance studio to creating a community-focused digital space where movement is used to reconnect with the body without the pressure of "perfection".
The transmission we explore:
- The Evolutionary Path of a Teacher: How external obstacles—like global shifts and local infrastructure changes—can force us into new, more aligned ways of sharing our gifts.
- Somatic Release vs. Technical Dance: Understanding that the healing power of movement doesn't require "good" coordination; it’s about the frequency of the expression.
- Holding Sacred Containers: The delicate balance of facilitating a community space while maintaining personal emotional boundaries.
- The Grieving Process in Business: A candid look at the emotional weight of closing one chapter to make room for the next.
The Invitation from Elisha
"We often think we need to be 'taught' how to move, but as Santina’s journey shows, our bodies already know the rhythms they need to heal. Whether it’s an ecstatic dance in a sacred container or a five-minute boogie in your living room, I invite you to find a way to stomp out the anger, dance through the sadness, and celebrate the joy that lives in your cells. Your movement is your own unique medicine. How can you let your body speak for you today?"
Time Stamps:
00:19 Introduction
02:05 Santina's life growing up in dance.
06:45 Santina’s experience as a teacher.
09:05 Running a dance studio.
11:13 The post-COVID transition.
28:31 Creation of “Basic Bitch Boogie”.
31:09 About the app.
49:59 Selfishness vs self-care.
55:38 Santina’s special offer for the app.
57:08 Santina’s wisdom.
58:13 Conclusion
Links to find guests on the internet or other resources they provide:
Website: www.santinarigano.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/basicbitchboogie/
Dance with Her: https://www.skool.com/basic-bitch-boogie-7163/about
Link to Transcript of Show:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HoypbZd2_Mg5FUpyeBpAXzYoKOWXwxBb/view?usp=sharing
Apply to be on the Show:
Find Elisha Elsewhere on the web:
https://linktr.ee/elishalightangel
And so the main bridge to where my studio was and where all my teaching work was was closing down for three years.
SPEAKER_01They just say we're closing down a bridge for three years? Hello, and welcome to That's Just Human, a podcast that explores all aspects of being human, living in a human body, and dealing with life's obstacles. I am your host, Elisha Light Angel, and by day I'm a licensed massage therapist. Right now I'm a podcaster, and like you, I also happen to live in a human body and have a plethora of human experiences. This is the place that I get to talk about them, not only my own, but other people's as well. And today I am interviewing a really awesome person I found via the interwebs, and we connected, and I'm really excited to get to hear her story and um let her explain what she does. So please join me in welcoming Santina Regano Lesch. She is a dancer, an educator, and the founder of an app that we're gonna talk about called The Basic Bitch Boogie. And it's a movement app, it's community focused, it helps people to connect with their bodies, their joy, rhythm, nervous system awareness, and movement. So um we'll be touching a lot about that, and I've gotten to experience a little bit so I can give you my two cents as well. So hi and welcome, Santina. Hi, Alicia. I'm so happy to be here.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for having me today.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, I'm so excited to have you on the show and talk about everything. So we know you have this app, but I want to go into some of your life before you ever even conceived of this app. Um so have you always been into movement or is it something that came in later in your life?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's a great question. I've actually always been into movement. My mom, um, the story starts when I was four years old, and my mom's put me in dance classes at a very young age. Um, and primarily her reasoning was, well, I don't want any of my kids on the streets doing things they're not supposed to be doing. So if I find them a hobby that they love, then that eliminates that, doesn't it? And and really she was right because she found dance for me and that was it. That was my whole life moving forward from then on. I was that that studio kid who was at the studio six days a week doing all the classes, as many as I could. And so it really starts way back when, because I just fell in love with dance, how it made me feel, um, how it felt in my body, and the ability to express myself through movement. And so that's kind of where it really, really gets going.
SPEAKER_01Wow. So are you trained in lots of different styles of dance?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I originally trained in um ballet, so a Royal Academy of Dance syllabus, which for those that don't know, there are a couple of different types of syllabus you can do in the ballet world, and that kind of like steers your path a little bit. And so that was just the one that I happen to do. So I'm trained in ballet, um, but also in jazz, hip-hop, uh, what they call as hills dancing, like in the high hills, right? Uh, musical theater, uh, Latina styles. Um I feel like I'm missing some commercial dance. I'm trained in quite a bit of different ones, but just because I love dance and movement and I love to explore and I love to learn because I feel like as humans we're constantly learning and we're always putting ourselves in places where we can learn. So for me, it's like, oh, what's this I can learn? Oh, can I learn this? Oh, can I try this? So that's kind of where it's at for me. That's so cool.
SPEAKER_01So, did you start teaching um dance like early on in your career?
SPEAKER_00Um, I would say really, I studied dance um like a lot of people do. When they when they dive into the dance world, they're kind of typical stories, typical like stereotypical stories, where they dive into dance and they're there like you know, from a young age till 18. And then typically at 18, unless you go to university or college, dance starts to taper off a little bit because dance is so prevalent for young kids, teenagers, youth, but not as much for adults, and that's definitely something that has to change, right? Um, in the way of like there's just no place for you to go unless you're doing this in a university standard. So I really didn't start teaching until I was about 18, 19, and I kind of like dived into it accidentally. It wasn't even really something, not that I didn't want to do, but it wasn't something that I saw as a pathway for me. I always thought that dance would be like my way to tour the world and choreograph for the most famous artists like Christina Aguilera and Beyonce. That's like what I wanted to do, right? And so teaching just didn't really um come into my scope of things. And it wasn't until um I had a really cool studio owner mentor who was like, hey, I think you'd be really good as a teacher. Like, I'll teach you how to teach. Let's do this. And I was like, all right, I'll I'll give this a try. Why not? And so I started teaching and I fell in love with it immediately. It's just it's it's a different way of learning your art form, it's a different way of really understanding how things move in the body because you now have to explain it to everybody else. And so now you have to explain it, you have to learn it in a different way than you would as a dancer. Um, and so I started teaching around about that age, um, the 18, 19 age, and it and really I was dabbling, like I enjoyed it, I loved it. I was managing a performing arts company. It was great. I had a lot of great fun. I was coaching national hip-hop championship teams in Australia. I was performing a lot, I was teaching lots of classes, I was managing a performing arts company. It was great, it was awesome. Um, and then a lot of people started to say, like, have you ever thought about being an elementary school teacher? And I was like, no, come on, we're not doing this again. We already went through this, right? We we already went through this space of like you'd be a great dance teacher, let's do this. And now they hit me up with, oh, you'd be a great um elementary school teacher, which in Australia is called a primary school teacher. And I was like, nah, nah, nah, nah. So I kind of you know pushed it off for quite some time. Came to America as an all-pair, went back to Australia waiting for my permanent residency. And in that time, I happened to take a job which was like a um uh it was called a it's called Osh. I was trying to think of how to say it in like American terms because it's a little different, but it's kind of like school-age childcare director. And so essentially you work with like before and after school care kids, and I was like the director of that program, but to be the director, I had to be studying something with teaching. So I was like, okay, well, people have been telling me this. This is where my job's at. I guess I'm gonna go start studying to be an elementary teacher, and so that's where that kind of started. And so I've been dabbling in teaching in lots of different areas for such a long time. But 18 to 19 years old is where it kind of really, really got me going.
SPEAKER_01That is really amazing. So, did you end up teaching kids or did you just learn how to do it and then sidetrack elsewhere?
SPEAKER_00Well, um, so I I was studying online, primarily because the university I wanted to go to was in um Melbourne in Australia, and I was living in a place called Adelaide. And so it's about an eight-hour drive, one-hour flight. But either way, that was like the school that had the program that I wanted. So I was studying online, and while I was studying online, I decided, because like you essentially have to do your what they call like placements or practicums where you go into a school, you're there for four to six weeks with a teacher, you're doing all the things, you're getting hands-on experience, um, as well as like feedback from a mentor and getting assessed and getting this and getting that. And um when I ended up getting getting my permanent residency and coming to America, I had a really hard time with, and I still do have a hard time with um just the way schools are here in a few ways. Um, and this is the same for Australia, very much teaching to a standardized test. So that's an issue for me across both places. But really, the safety is a huge issue for me here. And it it does sound selfish for me to say this, but it was something I decided after being in schools here that I just wasn't willing to put myself in that position where uh you just don't know what could happen. And it sounds horrible, but it was kind of my choice that I had to own up to and own. And so I did things like teaching in preschools, teaching in daycares, um, teaching in different elementary schools, but then like more so in different programming. So before and after school care programming, or things that allowed me to be in a space that felt safer than what I would be if I was teaching in a normal school environment. So I kind of ended up teaching in different uh realms, let's say, different ages, from about 18 months old, right? Like my little, little, little babies through to teenagers. And um, in all of that, when I came back to America, was working through all this, I actually decided at that time I wanted to open up my studio. And so I had an in-person studio um here in West Seattle in Washington State. And um that was really awesome. And I grew that from the ground to teach about 400 kids a week, uh, from ages like, yeah, it's a lot of kids, to about let's say 13 or 14. And that was all I ever thought I would do until COVID hit. And that's when things really start to shift and change for a lot of us, I suspect, definitely for me, but for a lot of us, and so to answer your question, I've been teaching in so many different areas that I really just try to take the experience, take what it's uh like teaching me as a teacher, and then go from there and continue on to find what it is I love doing.
SPEAKER_01So that's so awesome.
SPEAKER_00So are you still teaching right now? So right now I I don't have the studio because we closed because of COVID, unfortunately. Bittersweetly, we made the decision that um even though all the kids were transitioning to online learning, it just like really wasn't the best learning format for them. And I had a lot of little kids. So like their parents really had to be around for the whole class, which in studio we had taught them they didn't have to be, right? They could drop off, they would come back a few minutes early, so we could have a dance together, you know, kids, parents, everybody. But then essentially it was a very independent process. And so now we're online. Parents have to be around, that makes it hard for their schedules, they're trying to work. So all of those factors. Plus, at the time we didn't know the deal with COVID, how long it was gonna go, how long it wasn't. And in um Seattle, I don't know how much you know about Seattle, but everything is around bridges. So, like you get around by being on bridges. And so the main bridge to where my studio was and where all my teaching work was was closing down for three years for um renovations, whatever, new whatever they had to do.
SPEAKER_01They just say we're closing down a bridge for three years.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, it was crazy, and like I didn't live in that area anymore. My wife and I now live about 45 minutes to an hour out. It was already taking us sometimes two hours to get to classes one way, and so we just thought, you know what, this just there's just too many factors here that are so unknown that we're going to bittersweetly close. So, to answer your question, after that, I really wasn't sure what I was gonna do. I actually took some time away from teaching because I was kind of like heartbroken, honestly. Like it was really hard for me to close my studio. It was very bittersweet, very, very hard for me. Like I said, it was the only thing I thought I was ever gonna do for the rest of my life. Like, that was it, right? This is where we're at. There's nothing else. Um, and so from there I transitioned into teaching like an at-home preschool in my one-bedroom apartment, and that was fun. I had two five-year-old boys and I did that for about a year and a half, getting them ready so that when things came back to normal, they could kind of transition in a bit of a better way. So I did that in the teaching aspect, and then from there I created a um an online membership for women to dance live with me, but in their own home. So then I started teaching twice a week at home on the computer live, um, which was called Unstoppable Babes. And that was kind of the bridge into where we're at now. But in essence, I I went back to in-person teaching at a studio last season, and I was teaching there twice a week, about six hours a day, and it was really great, except the commute was really hard. It was like a long commute, and it just there was a lot of factors that didn't work out there. So, summer of last year, I decided I'm gonna stop that and I'm just gonna go into guest choreography, guest instruction, where you go out to different studios or different places and do workshops and teaching different aspects of that, which required me to not have like a set schedule, which I really like, the flexibility of that, right? And being able to just go and do my thing and then come back is a little different than having to teach regular classes where you're building upon skills and curriculum and things like that. So I kind of stepped into that. And um now actually in the next few weeks here, I'm gonna be launching some new in-person classes, but in a like drop-in model where there is no typically when you go to a studio, there is like recital fees, and then there's costume fees, and then there's annual fees, and then there's class fees, and there's all these different things you have to pay for. And so I decided I didn't want any of that for this next lot. I just want it to be drop-in only. So youth, adults, and teens, they can come in, do a class, vibe out, dance out, do the thing, and then go about their day and not worry about having to remember the choreography week to week. Not worry, and like there's different things to be said about different models. That's just the model I want to do now. So that's gonna be starting soon. I'm super excited about that. Just a little bit of a different avenue there.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's my kind of model. Go learn something for one class, don't have to remember it for the next class.
SPEAKER_00Well, let's be real. Like, we have so many things happening in our lives that, like, I mean, it is a good uh uh muscle to practice remembering things and being able to build upon it. Of course, there are places you could do that, but like really, I I mean I take classes myself, and when I go back to class the week after and they're like, hey, remember what we did? I'm like, fuck no. What I mean, that was a week ago. What do you mean? Remember what we did? No. So I kind of wanted to base it off of that, where it's not like, ah, I don't know. Or for example, say you don't come to one class um and the next class it's okay for you to come. I mean, you can come no matter what, but like you don't have that sort of expected pressure of knowing what was taught the the week before, right? You can just come in, dance your heart out, and go about your day.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, I I think it's cool. So I was not allowed to dance growing up. Um okay, that's interesting. Yeah, yeah. Can I hear more about this? Yeah. Uh I have a very religious upbringing is like fundamentalist assembly of God, lots of ideas. I don't know, whatever, but not everything's from the church, like some stuff I got from the church, but at home, uh, basically got the idea like that I wasn't allowed to dance. And that we didn't dance, there was no it and it was different though. If you were at church and you danced before the Lord, that's okay. But other kind of dancing, not so much. Not okay. Got it. Um I always wanted to dance, and even as I've had part of my life journey, like the breaking out of the inhibitions to actually move my body has been one of the most phenomenally freeing things that I have ever experienced. And for me, it was an ecstatic dance that brought that into play. I'm not sure if you're familiar with ecstatic dances.
SPEAKER_02If not, what is that?
SPEAKER_01So it's a very sacred container that brings people together. So the DJ will usually have um curated a set that of music that's uh typically around about 90 minutes or so, and it has like this whole arc, so it'll have like this nice beginning that kind of gets you like into the groove of the music, and then it like builds up, builds up. So, like by the middle of this time period, you're really getting into whatever the dance is, and then it'll have like you know, some ups and downs, so kind of let your body, you know, you have one really fast song, you get going, and then maybe they slow it down for the next one so you catch your breath, but the whole time you don't talk to anybody. Um, you can make eye contact or you can dance with them, but it's more about just dropping into the rhythms of the music into your own zone. And when you have danced for about 45 minutes, you actually get all of the endorphins and the chemicals in your body to feel the ecstasy that creates so by the time when you go through one of these, you experience so much joy expressed through your body and so much freedom, and there's no rules, there's no right way or wrong way to move your body, nobody is watching you. It it's really like you yourself being in tune with the body, the music, spirit, source, like whatever, whatever it is. And so that's it's just coming together for this sacred container. And that's the free each time I freed myself. Now I don't care if I'm at a bar and they're jamming out some music. I'm dancing like I'm at an ecstatic dance, and I don't care. I will get so into that. And yes. Um, and so it really has become one of the best movement therapies for me, especially if I'm if I'm angry, I can go stomp it out on the dance floor. If I'm sad, I can move it out on the dance floor. If I'm happy, I can dance it out. Like it doesn't matter what the emotion is, there is a way to dance it out and definitely get it to some music. So yeah, I love that you have this opposite experience where you have an entire life dedicated to dance. But for me, because I like theater and I do some musical theater, I'm great at acting, pretty good at singing, not so great at dancing, but I I like do my best. Yeah, absolutely. So going to a dance class for me is to have better coordination or to have practice moves in my body. So when they're like, hey, you should move your feet like this and your arms like this, and then my brain's freaking out, because never in my life have I tried to utilize these different coordination movements. Um, and then if there's a move I maybe have done before, then my body knows it, so it's easier to pick up on whatever that is. That's my own personal um motivations. So I would love to know more about how you birthed the idea and came made it into fruition, the basic bitch boogie app.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. First of all, I want to say I loved hearing more about your story, and thank you for sharing that with us because, like, all forms of dance are so important to the human body in general. It doesn't matter if it's in a class environment or not, or if you're freestyling or learning technique. Like, the point is movement within the body is just such a healing experience, and it also allows us to um not only tap into what we need to express, but for a lot of us, we're holding trauma in the body without sometimes even realizing it and knowing it. Trauma from maybe full traumatic experiences or trauma from like everyday stress, like just daily life, right? Like, let's face it, life is kind of chaotic, the world can be kind of kind of chaotic, right? And so it's a great way just to essentially tap into all of that. So um, I just loved hearing your hearing your story, and it reminded me of, have you heard of? So I hadn't heard of the style that you mentioned of class, ecstatic dance, right? That's what you had said it was. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Have you heard of um it reminded me very much of something I come across recently, which I think is called Dance Church or Church Dance. I think it's dance church, and it's very similar to the vibe you were talking about.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, um, that movement kind of I first heard about it a few years ago because my friend was trying to start a dance church in her area. Oh, okay. So you know it. I mean, yeah, so basically just getting together to dance, you know, having a couple hours that you do that. I also heard years ago in like New York City that somebody had started some, I don't know, five or six 5 a.m., 6 a.m. dance, um, something. So instead of going out and doing nightlife dancing and getting drunk, people could go in and dance like they were having nightlife, but without the drinks, maybe maybe they had coffee. I don't know. And that way it's like revving up for work. So it could be their workout, their party time, their coffee time. So cool. They're ready to go and take on the day.
SPEAKER_00I love that. That is so, so fun. Like again, more experiences about how dance can be a part of your your life without it being all the things that maybe I've experienced, right? Or other professional dancers have experienced. Yeah. So basic bitch boogie came about because um, as I mentioned earlier, I had that uh membership with the ladies that dance with me twice a week, right? So they danced with me live under Unstoppable Babes. And we had two classes. One was called Embodied Grooves, and that was more about embodying the movement within your body and using just like all types of styles, not specific to a style. And then There was a class that I did called sensual grooves, and sensual meaning like touching up on your body's sensuality. Um, but not necessarily for a partner, not necessarily for somebody else, but essentially to reconnect to yourself. You wouldn't believe how many women have a really hard time touching themselves, and I mean this in the way of just my hand going up my arm. For those that are watching the video, you'll be able to see this, right? Or just being able to be able to continue to move against the body without feeling uncomfortable or awkward. That that is very hard for so many women, and that's where the sensual grooves came from. So um hang with me here. I'm gonna get to the answer of the question. So I was teaching these two classes twice a week, loved it. It was so good, especially during COVID times, because this is when it really started. Um, it was a really great place for us to connect. We were all craving that connection of move our bodies, do all the things. And um what ended up happening was I would hold space for um us to share at the end of class. So we would all come off our mics. I mean, obviously, I was talking the whole time, so they would all come off their mics with me, and I would, you know, have a space for them to share what's going on for them. And at first this started really like shyly, like not a lot of people would share, and that was okay. It was just like if you have something to share and you want to share, go for it. Eventually, this turned into something where it was almost like a therapy session for everybody, and there was nothing wrong with that except for the fact that I'm not a trained therapist and I'm not somebody that's able to um work with you on traumatic experiences in that traditional talk sense, right? I mean, like as a human, I can do that, but I'm not a therapist, and so that was like a really hard distinction for me because I wanted to open the space, I wanted to hold the space for us to relate and connect in different ways. But what I also found was I was really taking on a lot of what these ladies were sharing. And I already had my own traumatic experiences I'm working through and still working through, right? But then I'm I'm taking on everything they're sharing, and I'm finding myself just like crying at the drop of the hat when we're not on class, just like randomly, or I find myself working through this trauma that I'm holding that's not even mine. And so what that meant to me was we need a way to be able to move our bodies that helps us work through the trauma, identify it, observe it, acknowledge it, and be able to release it and reconnect to the body, but in a way that I could provide the support, which was not in that therapist lens. So I did decide to cancel that membership after about maybe I think it was maybe a year and a half or two years. And again, another really hard decision. Anytime I make a decision to stop something, it's really hard for me, especially when it comes to dance, because I'm so connected to these people I'm working with, these these kids or these women or whoever it is I'm teaching, I really get um such a connection myself and we develop a relationship that it becomes hard, right? I felt like I was taking something away from them, which I was, and primarily because I didn't have the I I couldn't support them in the way that I knew they needed the support. I feel like you have something to add here. Jump in.
SPEAKER_01Well, I was gonna ask mostly out of curiosity, since you have a hard time making this decisions, do you have a process that you go through um to come to your final conclusion, or what is that like for you to make a hard decision like that?
SPEAKER_00Um, that's a great question. And I breathe like that because you can probably even just hear the heaviness in my my my voice as I'm saying this. Um, it really comes down to me assessing everything that's going on in my life. So I assess what's happening in my life externally as well as what's happening for me. Um, and is this something I'm doing for myself or is this something I'm doing for others? And what is the benefit and the disadvantage? Like these are the things I work through. I talk with my wife about, we go over and over, and we get all the points, and we really talk through it all to understand if this is a decision that really has to be made, or if it's something that maybe I can tweak the process of inside the actual thing, right? Um, and so that's kind of how I work through my hard decisions, but it takes me time. Like I can't, it's not something where I just wake up the next day and say, right, that's done, on to the next. That's just not for me how it works. For me, it's a lot of like I'm already grieving it before I've even made the decision. So there's a grief process that happens. That's what makes it so hard because I'm so attached to all of these people that I teach, my kids, my students, um, my adults, etc. I just get so attached to them because you're in such a vulnerable, you're sharing vulnerable space together. And it's just something that I think naturally happens when you're comfortable with people and when you feel like you've found your person or your class or your people or your group or your community, right? Like that just naturally happens. So for me, I feel like I go through the grieving process way before even I've made the decision. And then once we make the decision, there's like a whole nother grief process that happens after that. And so that's why it takes me time. That's why I have to step back and like not do anything, not teach, not like go do my own things, but not in a space where I'm facilitating for months so that I can essentially like refill my battery, but also move past the feelings that are coming up for me around that decision. Because honestly, I just felt so bad canceling Unstoppable Babes. I really did, because I knew how much this meant to those women that I danced with each week. And likewise, it was very similar format to the drop-in model. We'd learn a new routine each time. We would like you wouldn't have to remember it week to week. We would go through lots of different aspects of like that sort of drop-in model. So you could come whenever you wanted, right? You didn't have to come to every single class if you didn't want to. But that overall space of what we created there was the thing I felt the most guilty about, right? Like I was like, man, in my head, if I cancel this group and this space and this community, where are they gonna get that? Like, that was the question I would continuously ask myself. Where are they gonna find this space? They obviously haven't found it up until now because this is the space we created, but like, how is this gonna affect them in the future? And so that also is something that really is hard for me because I feel like it's on me in a way, right? I created this space, they love this space, now I'm ready to move on from this space because this is how it's affecting me. So those are kind of to answer your question, that's kind of how it works for me. So with Unstoppable Babes, after I cancelled, well, not canceled, stop the stop the program, stop the membership. I then was back into in-person teaching, uh, but I'd taken some time off, right? Like I said, I'd take some time off, just do me, got back into in-person teaching. But this whole time I'm thinking, man, I need to take the unstoppable babes model, but turn it into something different, turn it into something that is sustainable for me and sustainable for the women that are doing it, but also they're still getting what they need out of it. And so that took me some time. That took me time to figure out like, what does this look like? How can I deliver this in a way that doesn't send me spiraling twice a week as I teach these live classes and then dealing with my own shit, you know, and try not to spiral for all of that. Like, how can I do that? And so that's where basic bitch boogie was was formed. It actually started as um bare bones boogie, and then I changed it to basic bitch boogie because I liked the I liked the kind of punch in the face it gave you. It's like, oh, what's this basic bitch boogie, right? Like versus bare bones boogie, right? So I kind of liked that. I also wanted to reframe the way basic bitch was used in overall terminology. That is definitely something that we don't, a term we don't use in Australia. Basic bitch is not something that's a usual term. And so something I learned here that I loved, but I realized it had negative connotations about it. So I wanted to change that narrative as well. Um, and so basic bitch boogie just kind of formed from um being able to essentially do more work and learning myself about trauma where it's hosted or stored in the body, where it's held, and creating movement that specifically um allows the areas in the body that hold the trauma to release and open it up. Like, so for example, the sternum is a space where we hold a lot of our grief, trauma, issues, anger, whatever it is. The sternum is one of those. I'm sure you can attest to that being a massage therapist, right? You know you know where these places are. So the sternum is one of them. So movement specifically that is opening up the chest versus closing in the chest, is something that you would find you wouldn't even realize after you do some of the movement that all of a sudden that you're feeling maybe vibrations coming up. You're feeling vibration in the body because it's coming out. You don't know what it is, but all of a sudden you feel like crying. That's the trauma, the grief, the anger, whatever it is that you're holding on to, that's that coming out. So after doing more learning about that, then I understood, okay, there are move, there's specific movement that allows you to do what we need to do here and to tap into the human body, reconnect to the human body, but in a way that was joyful and intentional. And that's how basic bitch boogie came about because I was like, I don't really want to like give movement that has them all down in the dumps the whole time. Like, I want to give them movement that has them raging if they need to rage. I want to give them movement that has them smiling from ear to ear, dancing and grooving if they want. I want to give them movement that really has them reconnecting into the center of their body if they need that. Like essentially, whatever it is that they need, they can come to the app and choose a three to five minute follow-along, either seated or standing, and do their thing. And I liked it because I liked keeping it a short um duration, each follow-along a short duration, because if you're really tapping into your body and reconnecting to your body, then there are aspects that we need to allow to process. And normally that's just a good enough time to uh figure it. When I say figure it out, I mean like see it. See it. We're seeing what's coming up, then we're processing, we're observing, we're acknowledging, we're realizing, and we're allowing the emotions to come through. Any more than that time sometimes is too overwhelming and too scary and shuts you right back down. So, in the essence of that, we want to make sure it allows the body to do all the things, and that's kind of where it all started to form. And from there, then I started to create the impact so that essentially there are four different impacts you can choose from, either seated or standing. So, for example, it's reconnect, uh release to reconnect. I should get these right for myself, huh? Release to reconnect. Um, there's four different ones relearn to renew, remember to re-wild, etc. like that. So essentially, whatever you're feeling in your body, you can tap into the app and say, I feel like reconnecting to my body. I'm gonna go to that impact today and I'm gonna choose a follow-along from that impact. And that specific three to five minute movement will help you do that specific impact so that you can really have your choice because it is your body, it is your choice. You should choose what you want to do with your body whenever you want to do it, and that's really the basis of how it all kind of came about.
SPEAKER_01That's pretty cool. Um yeah, that's one of the things I noticed when I got on there. I was like, oh, these are all really short, easy to do workouts, you know, it's not um not taking a whole 30 minutes or an hour or something. And for me, I was like, this is good for somebody who's short on time. Or if you're just trying to work in small workouts throughout the day, like I could see somebody that has say a seated office job just taking five minutes to do a quick little movement and um absolutely and and just kind of work it into the day. Or if somebody's just getting started with movements, having something that's this short can help. Because some of them, you know, I'm doing and I'm like, oh, this is fun, but I'm surprised I'm like two, three minutes in, I'm like, oh, my breath is kind of kind of working up there a little bit, you know. Some of them do slight up, they're thinking crazy and uh other than my cats are looking at me wondering what I'm doing. That's hilarious. But but that's what I really found um enjoyable about it was how easy it is to do these small little workouts.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. I appreciate you sharing that. And I think you're right, like every time I record, so the area we're recording in right now is the area I record basic bitch bookie, I just flip it around essentially, um, which you may notice from some of the things in the background. But um, every time I record them, and it is a little different because I'm I'm speaking as I'm dancing, that typically takes a different cardio aspect to do. But I still also really surprise myself in how quickly the cardio rises up when you wouldn't think you'd think in a seated position where you're doing this specific movement that maybe the cardio might not rise up for you, but it does. And then I have to I think to myself, oh my gosh, like you really can get a great, um, like you said, like a move, what I would call a movement snack happening, right? Where you're able to like tap into that right for a couple of minutes, get those endorphins going, do whatever you need to do in that moment, whatever it feels good for your body, and then go about whatever else you need to do. And so I think it's really cool to be able to do this in a way that's not necessarily style specific and not necessarily only one type of workout specific. So, what I mean is it's not only it's not just stretching, it's not just mobility, it's not just dance, right? You're doing a little bit of all of this depending on which one you choose, right? And I think that's really, really um like a fun thing to explore. I have someone who's in the app right now who um also has a program that I'm a part of, and she creates uh 15-minute daily strengthening workouts. And so I do this with her because I've I try to find myself in places where I'm not the one always facilitating, and that's kind of hard, right? Like when you're always teaching, when you're always facilitating, it is hard to find those places. But um she does such a good job of recording 15-minute workouts with weights or whatever, excuse me, you can do lots of different accommodations. Um, but essentially with her, she's doing a full 15-minute aspect. She comes over to do basic bitch boogie, and there are comments in there that she's like, Oh, this felt really uncomfortable for my body, but I'm I tried it anyway. I tried the body rolls, they feel not great in my body right now because of XYZ. Or, oh, I was surprised that chicken legs felt really good. And like these are just names of things that I'm saying in in the app, right? Like, let's do the chicken legs. I don't know if you've gotten to that one. Yeah, that's a very interesting one. Um but but things like that. And so the point of the story is she is more of a fitness, let's say fitness sort of person, doing weighted workouts, doing more so that let's say lifting, than she is doing stretching or mobility or movement. Then she comes over to my side and does my things, and so she's always wanted to learn dance. And that's the other thing. Like, this is a space where you can do this where you're not being judged. There is no shame in the like there is there's no shame coming on on you. Like you can really tune in, do it in your own time, in your own space, and be able to be free of all those other expectations and feel okay to mess up because that's what it's about. Like when you're learning, you mess up. And so for her, it's very much she said to me, I've always wanted to learn to dance, and I never felt comfortable going to a dance class. I don't know necessarily that she uses basic bitch boogie in the way of working through her trauma. She hasn't really talked to me about that per se, but I know she uses it to learn how to move her body, and I know she uses it to learn how to dance, right? Because I'm teaching actual dance, like the breath, right? Or something like that. There you're like, oh, I know that from back in the day. Great, let's learn how to do that, right? Things like that. And so it really is something that you can use however feels good to you if you find the joyfulness in this sort of avenue of reconnecting to yourself.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's so cool. Um, so do you get people that are telling you how they're being affected by utilizing these movements to help move through different emotions?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I haven't necessarily had anyone that's spoken up per se yet about that. Um, that sort of like traumatized or feeling emotion aspect. Um, and I think there's a couple of reasons for that. I think it takes a lot of awareness within yourself to even understand what might be coming up or what might be happening. Um, personally, I am someone who grew up um not being able to express my emotions with my words very well at all. Now is a different story, but back in the day, I was not that person. And so dance and movement really helped me do that. And even so, my um, if you were to talk to teachers or coaches, etc., they would all probably say to you back in the day that my movement was beautiful, it was hitting everything technically I needed to hit, but there was nothing happening here, like there was no emotion coming out of my body, there was no facial expression happening, and that that's a whole nother like topic for conversation. But my point there being is that I was so closed down to even acknowledging what those emotions were. I couldn't even tap into them sometimes when I was dancing and moving. And so I think that the first thing is we have to be able to acknowledge and be aware of what's happening in our body, and that sometimes is really scary. It's sometimes really hard, especially if you've been through a lot of shit. Really, like it's hard to allow yourself to feel vulnerable. It's hard to allow yourself to feel whatever it is that you're feeling unless it's happiness, right? Because happiness is easy to tap into, right? But allowing yourself to feel sad, allowing yourself to cry for having absolutely no idea why, allowing yourself to be angry, allowing yourself to feel grief, allowing yourself to feel like, I don't know what's going on, but this, right? Like those things are hard to tap into. So I think that's one of the reasons why. And the second reason I would say is it's not always easy to talk about. You may be aware of what you're experiencing, you may acknowledge it, you may know what's going on in your body, but then being able to talk about it and put words to it is a whole different ballgame. And so I would say not as much yet. I hope, I hope someone shares it with me because that's just all like good for me to hear. I love to hear how it's helping them, what I can change, what I can adjust. But um, the actual conversations haven't happened there yet. It will, but not yet.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you bring up some really good points, especially about awareness, because when I reflect on my own journey, whenever I'm going through something or experiencing something, I don't necessarily have words at that time. It's not until a significant period of time has passed. I'm sitting there thinking about it, or I have a new concept come across my path or new words that explain something, and then you have that light bulb moment and you're like, Oh, this is what was happening when I was doing that. Now I know, I get it, and so that's been a lot of my own experience, even with dance and movement and realizing how much I was using that to move through different things, or um there's patterns that come up, and I I literally can dance them out on the dance floor. I um I can do energy work on myself while I am dancing. So I'm literally rearranging my or field and the patterning that is stuck there while also getting things thematically out of my body and moving air. And I probably already processed some stuff like through my brain prior to the point that I'm on a dance for. And so just that combination of the somatic expression, putting the emotions into it, and then moving the energy around me makes profound shifts happen. I absolutely don't even know how to explain it to other people, other than it is possible. I have experienced it, and I know that yeah, that's that's my best testament.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely, and I think like something that you mentioned there that I think is important is like this is if you're able if you're at that space of having done like the inner work to even get to that space. Like there is so much before that space where you're at being able to reshift those patterns, etc., through the energy work while you're dancing, that many people are not even at. And and it's it's too scary and it's too hard and it's too challenging to even potentially get there. So that there is like multiple layers to being able to get to a certain space with everything, really, but especially within the body. Like I like to use this example. If you take like an onion, whatever, yellow, red, whatever onion you want, and you start to peel away these layers, every time you peel an onion layer away, it's like peeling a layer away from your body that you're you're trying to work through, right? And so the first thing really about like just the human experience in general, in my opinion, is you need to be able to feel. And this was something that was so hard for me for so long, being able to actually feel. And I don't mean superficially feel, and what I mean by superficially feel is oh, this thing happened, you're expected to react this way. This thing happened, it's a good thing. You're expected to be happy about this good thing, so you should portray that happiness. That's superficial if you're not actually feeling that true feeling within you. Your body. And so that disconnect happens where a lot of us can't even connect a feeling to what is happening in the body and being able to peel those onion layers back to get to where all of that needs to happen. So I think it's amazing that you can do all of that. You've obviously done a lot of work to get to where you're at, right? Like, let's be real pat on the back for real to be able to do that. That's huge, right? And so advantageous, so so advantage. So advantageous. Is that the word? Such an advantage is what I'm trying to say. Such an advantage for you to be able to do that. And I hope many more people can do that. What I really want everyone to know is that the the more you peel away the layers in your own time, whatever that looks like to you, the more you're going to be able to get back into the human experience, back into feeling and back into truly embodying what it is that you're trying to do wherever you're trying to do it. I mean, at the core of it, that's what it really is. Kind of taking away that shell so that you can do and feel and be present. And I could go on and on and on, but I'll leave it right there.
SPEAKER_01No, I absolutely love that. This is a great way for somebody to just start. Um because that's really any point is you begin doing something that might not feel deep at all, but over the process of practicing something or forming a new habit, the it and it's a micro change. Like if you just committed to doing five minutes a day, that's a micro change. And it can have profound effects, but we are like our lives are made up of these habits that we create, of these little micro moments that we have day to day. And so if somebody's experiencing intense uh energy in their body, and their body keeps the score literally, and it's unaware moving, even without having the intention behind it of oh, I'm trying to move um stuck emotions out of my body, just that movement in and of itself, because yeah, nobody does go into a movement class and say, Today I'm here to get my emotions out. But it's true. I mean, you don't know sometimes why you're there. Anyway, keep going. Yeah. And I and I really think even any workout, I think people that um make it a point to move their bodies in any way, shape, or form on some type of a regular or consistent basis is actually having the ability to move things out of their body. So if something comes up, you have an argument with a loved one, and you're sitting on that, you know, you can go to the gym and you can do whatever your workout thing is and kind of move through that. And I've heard the people utilize their workouts in that way sometimes. And they're doing it unconsciously, but when you add the conscious layer in, it can become even more powerful because that's where the awareness is that you're moving into, and you can have more profound insights or um clearing of old patterns and ways that we cycle.
SPEAKER_00Well, and like you're exactly like you're sharing there, like just in that example itself, you realize the layers, right? There are a few clearly two layers you mentioned, but in between those two main layers, there are multiple layers that are happening, right? And so it's I think it's very important what you shared and how people can start to do this, but the micro, what did you say? The micro habits, is that's what you had said, right? Micro habits, micro moments. That those are so important because like when you think about doing something, like say you think about making a really big change for your body. Like, say you're like, okay, I know that I'm not getting enough sleep. I know that I'm not drinking enough water, like just on a basic sense, right? I know that I'm not fueling my body in the right way, or in my experience, I'm binge eating, or I have eating disorders or disordered eating that I'm working through, right? Like I know I have these things that I have to work through. When I look at it like that, oh my gosh, it feels so overwhelming. Like I just want to swallow myself up into a hole and be like, no, I can't. It's too hard. But like you mentioned, that was where I really noticed a shift myself was when I said, okay, my first habit I'm gonna change is I'm gonna hydrate myself because I know I'm not drinking enough water because personally I hated the way water tasted. So I never drank water, right? I already knew this was an issue. So for me then I worked on making sure I was drinking like much more than I was, which I was drinking like unless I was teaching hardly anything of water, right? So I would make sure, okay, I'm drinking now, for example, four of these big jugs of water a day. And that was my goal, literally for months until I had that under my belt. And then I started, okay, now I'm gonna start, I've got that, I'm good with that. Now I'm gonna add being able to get my sleep in, the right amount of sleep that I need for my body. First of all, testing out what that is, and then once I know what that is, that's the second habit. But while that second habit is stacking, my first habit still has to be doing the thing, right? And so from there, you can slowly use these micro habits to get to a space where you feel more connected to your body too. Because this is for me, this is all about disconnection, right? If you're feeling disconnected to your body, you're not taking care of your body, you're not taking care of what you need, typically, you're not fueling her the way she needs to be fueled. You're really, and a lot in my experience, doing what everybody else needs, people blazing everybody else because they need XYZ from you, and you're putting all of that ahead, then actually taking care of what you need. But like that, what's that saying? I mean, not another saying, you know, when you go on an airplane and they give you the spiel about all the safety, and then they say, put your air mask on first before you put that that one, that cliche one. It's very much that though. Like if you don't do what you need to for your own body and for your own self, um there's no way, no way that you can sustainably help anybody else because you're not able to put yourself in that space. And I think that's really important. Something I learned from my wife that I want to share is um because it was really hard for me to use this word, and this word was selfish. I always felt selfish putting myself first. I felt selfish drinking water, I felt selfish eating food when I needed to eat food. Now I know this sounds really probably silly to a lot of people, but this was my reality. I felt selfish getting the amount of sleep I needed. I felt selfish going to a dance class as a student, right? I could go on and on and on. But my ultimate underlying thing was that I felt selfish doing anything for me that would take care of me and put myself first. My wife helped me change that um concept or that idea in saying that selfish isn't necessarily a bad thing. Like I grew up in a space in a in a in a home where it was really bad to be selfish. It was like a really negative thing to be selfish. And so that carried through for me all the way through to my adulthood until probably the last few years where we've really been working on my wife would be like, okay, I'd say, like, oh, I need to do I need to go dance it out, babe. I need to go to a dance class, I need to dance for myself. This is me. Great, babe, go ahead, find your class, go do your thing. And then the guilt would set in. Oh, but I feel kind of selfish because I'm taking an hour out for myself. I feel guilty that I feel selfish if I want to do this. And so this this understanding of it's okay to be selfish, it's okay to put yourself first, and it's okay to do things that help you slowly inch towards your goal. It's not a bad thing, was something that was such a uh mindset shift for me that really changed a lot of my connection to my body and my relationship to my body. And I think that's important for us as humans. We always just feel like, well, if I do this, that's like not contributing to everybody else, it's not helping society, it's not this, it's not that. At the end of the day, there is time for that, and there is time for you. And the time for you is always the time that unfortunately, in my experience, myself, but also talking with so many other women, is the thing that gets discarded the easiest and the quickest. Like it's nothing, but really you are everything. Why wouldn't you put that time into yourself? And that's where I'll leave my mic drop moment.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's so true. By not uh by not taking care of yourself, by being stuck in that mentality, it it puts you in the position for burnout, and then when you're and usually people don't even realize they're in burnout when they are, but it's at a point you've gotten so tired, you're just pushing through on life, but you're not excited by any of the things, it's become motions, your body body probably hurts more, you're not getting enough sleep, you're barely showing up. Right? Yeah, you are you're on autopilot, and while you might be physically present, you like in spirit, don't have the capability to fully be present because you can't even be present with yourself because you've gotten so run down, and then that's when the uh physical diseases start to set into the body because you've allowed all of this rundown and all of these other aspects that there's a certain point where your body is going to tell you to slow down and to take care of yourself if you don't do it for yourself.
SPEAKER_00Right. And I just want to say 100% agree. I am also someone who deals with PCOS, so polycystic ovarian syndrome, and inflammation in my body naturally comes with that and and other things, right? So to add on to what you said there, it really was for me my body telling me we're done before I kind of started to notice. Unfortunately, that's how far I let it go for myself. Um, and it's not something I'm proud of, but it is something that I was taught. It is something that I was not, I felt not strong enough to kind of battle against. And it was something that I felt like I just didn't even have, like you said, the capability to be able to understand what I was going through until my body said, and we're done. And you're like, well, fuck, okay. Now what am I gonna do from here? But it's true, it's very, very true.
SPEAKER_01Wow, you are really creating something that I think could help so many people. So we're coming to a close. Let everybody know that's out there listening where they can find you on the web.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. Um, so you can find me on Instagram at basic bitchboogie, all lowercase, all one word, um, and exactly how it sounds. I was just thinking, do I need to spell that out? But I think we're good. Basic bitch boogie has the handle. Um, you can also find more information about basic bitch boogie on the website, which is www.santinarigano.com forward slash basic uh what's this? That's a lot. But I'm sure you're gonna put all the links. It's a lot to remember. You can definitely find all the things there.
SPEAKER_01Great. And if they want to find your app, how do they do that?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so on um both on the website or on Instagram, there are links that'll take you directly there. Um, but something I want to share, which is just a little gift to everybody who's taken the time to even listen to this episode and to support you and everything you're doing, um, is that I'd like to offer you a uh your first month in Basic Bitch Boogie for $5 only. It's usually $25 a month. But for your first month, five bucks, come in, feel the vibe, feel what it's about, give it a try. If you don't like it, it's all good. I mean, it's only been five bucks, right? Um, and if you do, I hope that you end up, you know, finding a space that feels like yours that you can stay in, feel safe in your body, because that's also the other thing we want to feel safe. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01And I'll have a link for that special discount. It'll already be like the discount code's already in the link. So if you click on that, you're gonna get your automatic five dollars for the first month.
SPEAKER_00So yes, and I do want to add real quick. Oh, sorry, can I just add one more thing to that real quick before the last question? Which is if you go to the Instagram page or the website page, that code is not available in general to everybody, it's just available specifically to you guys. So make sure you follow the link that you put in the show notes.
SPEAKER_01Yes, perfect. Okay, one last question, and you may have already answered this, I don't know. But I um I always like for my guests to leave the audience with one bit of wisdom for you from your life. It could be anything that we talked on today or something that just comes to mind that maybe is stuck with you.
SPEAKER_00One note of wisdom I think I would share is as much as you possibly can, try to listen to your body and try to understand what listening to your body means to you. It means something different to all of us. So try and figure out what that means so that you are able to always show up present in your life. You're able to always take on what you need to take on by your own choice because you're listening to your body and you know your boundaries, you know what you're capable of, you know what you can take on, etc. etc. So I know listening to your body is like one of those pieces of advice is that's like, well, how do I do that? And that's a totally different conversation we can have another time, but really understanding what that means to you is the most important thing out of that.
SPEAKER_01That is a wonderful bit of wisdom. Thank you. I really appreciate you coming on the podcast, sharing part of your story, sharing the app that you've made as a gift to the world.
SPEAKER_00So thank you so much. Thank you for having me. It was amazing to chat with you, and I just appreciate any time I get to share my story and hopefully make an impact to somebody else that needs to hear it. So, so much love.
SPEAKER_01Yes. If you're still listening, you can hop onto YouTube and subscribe, like my video, make a comment. That all helps the algorithm. Get this out to more people. If you're just listening, you can also leave me a review on Apple iTunes or Five Stars on Spotify and share with your friends anybody that you think would be interested. Go get that app and um as you embrace your humanness, be kind, be you, and remember, everything is part of the journey.