More than movement: The ‘life-changing’ spirit of teacher-choreographer Heather Britt

By David Lyman

More than movement

The ‘life-changing’ spirit of teacher-choreographer Heather Britt

This is an appreciation of dancer/teacher/choreographer Heather Britt. Usually, we don’t write things like this until a person passes away. Or, at the very least, retires. But I don’t want to wait that long. Britt has that effect on people. When you wander into one of her wildly popular Dancefix classes, you suddenly discover you have the need to move. To spin and roll and bump those hips as you never have before. Never mind how much your muscles may hurt in the morning. There’s ibuprofen for that. It doesn’t make any difference how much of a klutz you may have thought you were.

Britt empowers you to try things you may never have had the courage to do.

Forget those hotshots on “So You Think You Can Dance” or “America’s Got Talent.” Forget the big-name ballet stars. Or Beyoncé. Or Shakira. Give me Heather Britt, anytime.

Cincinnati Ballet artistic director Victoria Morgan was the first one to tell me about Britt. It was 2004. I was living in Detroit. But Morgan felt the need to tell me about a remarkable young woman, a dance guru whose vivaciousness had captured not only Morgan but almost anyone else who encountered her.

“She’s our local hero,” said Morgan.

Heather Britt

Photo by Tina Gutierrez

Challenging her students

It would be two years before I saw Britt in action. But other friends had talked about her, too, describing her dance/workout classes as inspiring, boisterous, stimulating, exhausting – in a good way – and, in more than a few cases, “life-changing.”

When I arrived, Britt was teaching in the ballet’s Studio A. It’s a huge space, the room usually devoted to studio performances or full-company rehearsals.

I heard the class before I saw it. The pounding music permeated the lobby. It was reminiscent of the harddriving techno clubs I’d left behind in Detroit.

When I entered the room, I was surprised at how full it was. Seventyfive students must have jammed in there. Even more surprising was the variety: Hardbodies. Beginners. Twentysomethings. Senior citizens. Dark people. Light people. Some were scrawny; others were accomplished dancers. Even Morgan was taking the class. I don’t think I had seen a more wildly diverse group in a dance class.

Just as notable was that, no matter what their abilities, everyone in the room seemed so exuberant.

Even if you’re not a dancer, she is an inspiration.

This wasn’t your run-of-the-mill dance/workout class. Most of them are thinly disguised calisthenics classes. This was real dance, as invigorating as it was physically grueling. And guiding all of this was Britt, her body whipping this way and that with an energy and sense of goodwill so infectious she seemed to will people to do the impossible.

Heather Britt

Photo by Tina Gutierrez for Movers & Makers

A variety of styles

More than a decade later, she’s still at it, an entrepreneurial dynamo who seems to be building Dancefix into a dance juggernaut.

In 2015, Britt opened a Dancefix studio in Blue Ash. The studio now offers upwards of 30 classes a week, everything from jazz funk to adult ballet, from West African dance to the original dance workout classes. There’s even Dancefix for kids.

That’s on top of seven weekly classes in Cincinnati Ballet’s West End studios and four more at the newest Dancefix outpost, with the Nashville Ballet. Britt is working on similar relationships with other ballet companies.

A decade ago, Morgan recruited Britt to choreograph for Cincinnati Ballet. On average, she has created a new piece each year. She now has more pieces in the current repertory of Cincinnati Ballet than anyone except Morgan.

“She has such an indomitable spirit,” said Alena O’Donnell, who has known Britt since their days as dance majors at Cincinnati’s School for Creative and Performing Arts. “She inspires everyone around her.”

‘Burned out’ on ballet

It’s hard to believe today. But there was a time when Britt was ready to bail on dance. After she graduated from SCPA in 1991, she had no idea where she belonged in the world of dance. She had great ballet technique, but in her heart she knew ballet wasn’t the place for her. Besides, she’d immersed herself in so much dance at SCPA – she’d been there since fourth grade – she wasn’t sure she wanted to continue with it.

“I was burned out,” said Britt. “I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to dance anymore.” So she moved to Durango, Colorado. Convinced that dance was behind her, she raced mountain bikes professionally and toyed with becoming a physical therapist.

But dance crept back into her life. She taught aerobics, then taught and choreographed at an arts camp in the Catskills. Finally, she moved to San Francisco and started auditioning for small dance companies.

She performed with a handful of them; Dance Repertory/SF, Landini Dance Company, the Potrzebie Dance Project. But her most important connection came with a group called Rhythm & Motion. Philosophically, its high-powered combination of dance and aerobic workout was similar to Britt’s Dancefix.

But after returning to Cincinnati and starting an R&M branch here in 2000, Britt’s entrepreneurial instincts kicked in. In time, it led her to develop her own broad-based regimen of dance – Dancefix.

Becoming more inclusive

Her timing couldn’t have been better. Over the past 15 years, most professional arts organizations have struggled to find ways to be more inclusive, to involve more women and minorities in leadership positions, to break down gender barriers.

Britt was way ahead of them. As a result, Dancefix has expanded at a rate she never imagined.

“Heather lets people explore different sides of who they are,” said Nick Mullikin, associate artistic director of the Nashville Ballet and the person who approached Britt about affiliating with the company. “For us, as an institution, it has helped us expand our brand and connect with the community in ways that we had never been able to do before.”

Just as Dancefix’s choreographic flash mobs pop up at many of Cincinnati’s highest profi le galas and social gatherings, for instance, the Nashville branch has become a staple of Nashville’s star-studded Christmas Parade.

For Britt, it’s not merely about adding more classes or more cities, though those are definite priorities. Britt, you see, is on a mission. And she wants to share that with as many people and in as many places as she can.

Dancefix is dance, you see. But it is about so much more.

“Dancefix is about making connections among people,” said Britt. “We’re about equity and inclusion and helping fund arts organizations. We’re not political or religious. We’re more about dance than we are about fitness. Dancefix isn’t about how you look. It’s about how you feel.”