Meet our dance coach Helina Smallwood

Helina has been dancing since she could walk. Dancing for family and friends at various gatherings and continued until she had the opportunity to teach and perform for both her Hip Hop and Step Team all throughout her years in High School. Four years ago, Helina started a journey of self-love. She read a book called The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma. This book taught her that in order to heal the body, you have to become one with it. For Helina one of the best ways to become one with your body, is to move it! So she did, started walking, participated in yoga/meditation, then led back to dancing. She then began learning tutorials online that inspired her to create her own choreography. This allows her to express herself and connect to her body giving her a freeing feeling that provides her healing.

Fun fact about Helina is she has a passion for writing, anything from her thoughts, fears, poems, songs and even short stories. She loves reading and studying poets like Maya Angeou, Nikki Giovani, Toni Morrison, Langston Hughes. More recently she's tapped into Rupi Kaur, Kia Marlene, and Ijeoma Umebinyuo.

All Helina's life she dreamed of working with young BIPOC girls specifically to empower them which is what brought her to Phenomenal She.

"My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style." - Maya Angelou