Dance Free: Sonya Dessureault

Dana helps you put into words what is already in your soul. I highly recommend her to anyone starting a business or taking a new turn. You’ll wish you found her long ago.

-Sonya Dessureault

The Artist

Sonya Dessureault is a dance professional based in Montreal with a teaching and performing career spanning the globe. She specializes in West Coast swing, a partner style defined by improvisation and expression. With her trademark intensity, she has produced several iconic showcase and classic routines and has kept a rigorous training and teaching schedule. Sonya is known for her fierce commitment to personal growth in herself and others, both on and off the dance floor.

The Challenge

In 2017, her long-term dance partnership ended, and she faced a critical turning point in her career. Would she seek another dance partnership to continue the traditional path? Or would she seek alternative paths? As she discerned the next steps, Sonya knew she needed to establish herself as a solo professional in a field that expects women to have partners.

The Solution

Sonya sought Dana Ray for help in defining her career trajectory and brand positioning. Through the Ground Truth Process, Sonya identified that Freedom was her personal Ground Truth.This was embodied through two core practices: personal expression and technical precision.

To identify her positioning, we administered a survey to her top clients, including both students and event directors. We noted that many of her students and, therefore, much of her income, came from women struggling to find methods to train as followers without a regular practice or performance partner. This especially impacted female dancers in Europe where events often require equal lead/follow numbers, often excluding other talented follows who did not have a registration partner. Sonya was uniquely positioned to address this need.

Secondly, we translated Sonya’s Ground Truth into language that defined and communicated her work:

Business Ground Truth: “I empower women to tell their story in partner dancing.”

Brand Tagline: “Dance Free.”

Her Ground Truth anchored her career choices —this external language communicated the services she offered as in alignment with her career and values.

Application

Sonya shared the resulting reports with her team of remote creative freelancers, which included a logo designer, website designer, website developer, copywriter, and photographer. They used the Ground Truth and Brand Positioning Reports to align their work. The result was a web presence and visual identity congruent with Sonya’s business objectives and services while capturing her fierce voice.

In the coming months, Sonya developed products to serve her audience. She filmed and released an online library of educational videos; she followed this by building a 400+ person online community in the “Sonya Sisters” Facebook group. Currently, she runs monthly challenges where members share videos of solo-training to her videos.

Sonya is also a founding member of the Westie Goddess Retreat, an event for female-identifying dancers run by female professionals. The event demonstrates the growing financial and creative potential for female professionals in alternative business models.

Sonya’s nontraditional journey continues as she pursues a degree in osteopathy to further her contributions to the dance world. She also chose to pursue her personal growth over attending traditionally “elite” events. She prioritizes her creativity and capacity, and so attracts business from those who share her values.