Business Innovators Radio - Bonnie Diaz: Empowering Dancers with Innovative 3D Partnership System Aims to Elevate Ballroom Dance Artistry

Episode Date: July 9, 2024

Bonnie Diaz Shares Her Innovative 3D Partnership System for Ballroom DanceIn this episode, Dr. Tami Patzer talks with Bonnie Diaz, a former world and national ballroom and Latin dance champion, certified yoga, fitness, and Pilates master instructor, and passionate advocate for animal welfare. Bonnie is the author of the book Ballroom-ology and the founder of Ballroom Barks, an organization dedicated to rescuing animals and promoting animal welfare within the dance community.Bonnie Diaz has an impressive background as a professional ballroom dancer, instructor, and advocate. She met her dance partner at age 19 and has been actively involved in the ballroom dance world for over two decades. In addition to her competitive dance achievements, Bonnie is the founder of Ballroom Barks, a non-profit organization that organizes fundraising events at ballroom dance venues to support animal rescue efforts. She has also created an educational website called Ballroom-ology, which is dedicated to preserving the history and authentic roots of ballroom dance.During the interview, Bonnie discusses her innovative 3D Partnership System, which she has been developing and refining over the past 10 years. This system aims to enhance dance partnerships through a holistic approach that combines the Spirit, mind, and body. Bonnie explains how the 3D Partnership System helps dancers cultivate a shared awareness and energetic connection, allowing them to produce a more authentic and visually captivating performance, regardless of the judges’ perspective.This episode is a must-listen for ballroom dancers, instructors, and enthusiasts who are interested in taking their partnering skills to the next level. Bonnie’s insights on the importance of the mind-body-spirit connection, as well as her tips for developing a strong, cohesive dance partnership, provide valuable guidance that can benefit dancers of all levels. Additionally, listeners who are passionate about animal welfare will be inspired by Bonnie’s work with Ballroom Barks and the meaningful ways she has integrated her love for animals into the dance community.To learn more about Bonnie Diaz and her innovative 3D Partnership System, visit her website at Ballroomology.com. You can also explore the work of Ballroom Barks at BallroomBarks.org and connect with Bonnie on her website at BonnieDiaz.com.Be sure to look out for Bonnie’s upcoming article “Ready, Set, 3D Dance Partnership” in an upcoming issue of Dance Week Magazine.Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/bonnie-diaz-empowering-dancers-with-bology-and-3d-partnerships-innovative-3d-partnership-system-aims-to-elevate-ballroom-dance-artistry

Welcome to Business Innovators Radio, featuring industry influencers and trendsetters, sharing proven strategies to help you build a better life right now. Hi, everyone. This is Dr. Tammy Patser, and I'm really excited because we have a truly inspiring guest with us, Bonnie Diaz. Bonnie is a former World and National Ballroom and Latin Dance Champions. a certified yoga, fitness, and Pilates master instructor, and a passionate advocate for animal welfare. She's also the author of the book, Ballroomology, and the founder of Ballroom Barks, an organization dedicated to rescuing animals and promoting animal welfare within the dance community. Bonnie has recently introduced the innovative 3D partnership system. aiming at enhancing dance partnerships through a holistic approach combining spirit, mind, and body.

Today, we'll talk about her journey and her work and her vision for the future of ballroom dance. And we're going to start with her animal advocacy. So welcome, Bonnie. Hi, Tammy. Thanks so much for having me here today. You're so welcome. And everyone, I had the pleasure of interviewing Bonnie several years ago. And so it's been a while.

So I'm really excited to talk to her to give an update on everything she's doing. But first, I wanted to start with Ballroom Barks because you told me that this was what sparked this entire mission for you. So tell me what motivated you to start Ballroom Barks. And what are the main goals and mission for ballroom barks? Yes, of course. Well, ballroom barks was formed in 2009 as a not-for-profit 501C3. And it was put together with the thought of my passion for helping all animals on the planet, but being an active ballroom dancer and so many ballroom people.

competitive competitors or studio owners, they all, when you go to these places, they all have their animals with them. They have their little dogs with them and, you know, they do a lot of helping of rescuing animals. And I was very inspired by other people in the performance world who would always do fundraisers and adopting events and I'm animal lover since childhood. And I used to volunteer at all the shelters here in New York City. And after a while, I've realized I have an amazing venue here that I can bring awareness to animal rescue and uniting the ballroom dance community to help animals all over the world. Right now we're active in the tri-state area, but we have done fundraisers helping a rescue in India, which was very fun. but what we do is we organize through a ballroom venue and event and we can do it several ways.

We can do it as a dance competition and the like you would in a regular dance competition like you see on TV or Dancing with the Stars and everybody can dress up as the animal of their choice. They have an animal theme costume. They have an animal theme song, you know, like the Pink Panther and whoever wins, you know, brings in the most money and a portion of that goes to a shelter or goes to a rescue organization. The last one that we just did this past January, 2024 in New Jersey, we did a what's called, what was called Hustle for the Hounds. So they all dressed up in costume and danced hustle dancing.

And a portion of that went to the K-9 unit here in New York City, which helps make maintain, you know, the wonderful animals that work for the police and the fire and the rescue. And a portion of that was sent to them this last January. We also do affordable housing here in New York City. Ballroom Barks is associated with a small 14-unit building here in the Chelsea area. And we accommodate as many people with animals as possible. We don't do any kind of extra fees or charging, you know, kind of animal security department. deposit, it makes people feel safe and comfortable. And people that have animals in their

apartment or in their universe tend to be a lot kinder, a lot calmer. They feel a lot safer. And they're helping an animal. They'll help each other in a human. So we try to encourage that energy and that kindness throughout all the time, through our mission. Wow. And you've been doing that since. When did you say 2009? We incorporated in 2009. And we did kind of little things to try to test the waters to see how we were going to go. The very first one that was huge, very huge, was in 2012 at the Roosevelt Hotel.

It was quite gigantic, actually, and raised huge amounts of money. And it was very successful. And every year, we just kind of went to a different. dance competition that was open to working with us. And we just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger helping more animals. We've rescued many animals, which you can see on our website, ballroombarks.org. And you can see the animals that we've helped with medical issues as well. And then, sadly, as you know, unfortunately, COVID hit and, you know, funding kind of dried up. So we've mostly focused on affordable housing, helping the animals around our area, and kind of smaller fundraising now

with the K-9 unit. And that particular organization has many sections to it. It has what they call a geriatric unit for older, senior dogs that need help. It has animals that have cancer issues, like humans. You know, they have sections for them. You know, they have wonderful, we work with the Animal Medical Center here in New York City, and they're a huge hospital that has like eight levels. And it's just like for the humans. And they have physical therapy and water therapy and wonderful, just programs that we try to support. So this particular time, we just went for the K-9 unit.

They put their life on the line, just like the firemen and the policemen do. and they need help too. Wow, that's really amazing. Before we started the interview, you actually told me that ballroom barks led to ballroomology. How did that come about? Yes, this is a very interesting story, actually. Being a ballroom dancer, most of my adult life from 19 to the present time,

previous before that I was classically trained and I met my partner when I was 19 and started ballroom dancing loved the partner dancing all the time in developing through the years you deal with many styles of dancing much information you're dealing with other people your your partner you're trying to produce a product that is authentic to you and you're it's like when you're learning something all the time it's in process you have a lot of data a lot of data a lot of data a lot of data that you're trying to process and i was actually um just closing my eyes one day and thinking how would i want to present a program that would help other ballroom people like ballroom barks does helps for the animals and ballroomology the

word just sprang into my head. And I remember I jumped up. And I said, I went on that website, Go Daddy, right away. And I said, I wonder if this name is available. I kept saying, it can't be available. It's, you know, danceology, musicology, cosmet. And it was available. I said, oh, no. So I just immediately bought the name. And Ballroom Barks is trademarked, of course. Ballroomology is trademark. And I put together a website, an educational website, that has multiple videos, the history of ballroom dance articles, and most importantly, it is dedicated to my mentor who taught me everything I know from age 19 to 37. Sadly, he passed away when I was 37, and his name was Bob Madeiras. And it's dedicated to him. And because of the way he taught me

and trained me in the authentic style, and the way he taught me to express myself and teach, and coach and appreciate and to know the history of why something came the way it did with the rhythms from Cuba and Africa and why the Viennese waltz comes from the English and the Viennese and the Germans and knowing the history of everything, just like you would study everything else when you take ballet or if you, you know, you take music, you have to learn the foundation. And he was such a influence to me and such a gift to me. that was how I honored him. And then it just developed as it kept going to a very wonderful project

that has really influenced and helped a lot of people along the way so people can reference. Because a lot of people don't know. They see Dancing with the Stars. They think it's like a Vegas show, which some of it is. But they don't see where it came from and how people learned how to partner dance and why it developed the way it did. that really is fascinating and so you created the website it's an educational website and you also wrote a book called bar room ball bar room i'm sorry ballroomology what is the message of that book because i know that

you divided the book into spirit mind and body and i i think that that's unique when when And you think, I don't know that people always think of dancing as being that integrated. Yeah. It's, as an artist, you're always dealing with bettering yourself, bettering yourself. You're always trying to do the perfect weight shift. You're always trying to do the perfect expression. You're always trying to have the best look. You practice for hours and hours and hours and hours to make it look natural.

And then, you know, you hope you have the correct. effect or, you know, it's the correct outcome that you're looking for. Sometimes you hit it. Sometimes you don't. As you progress as an artist and your awareness and your knowledge and data progress with you, your body is a finely tuned instrument. We refer to the body as an instrument, like a violin, right? And you're always working to make it as perfect as possible. I don't think perfect is possible, but whatever the gifts are in your body, you're working to develop it all the time.

As you go, that is your body, what we call your skill set. What's your skill set? You have your mind, which is... sometimes working for you, sometimes working against you. You can go to an audition and never get a callback. It can really do a number on your confidence, for lack of a better word, your ego, your, why didn't they pick me? The thing is, when you're auditioning all the time as a solo person, you might go to literally 150 auditions and get one. So when people, people say you got the job, I always say, you don't realize how many I didn't get. That's how much

you have to go through that process. It's the same thing as a couple when you're dancing. You are developing. You come to the dance floor, hopefully within the same mindset, not always. Sometimes you have more than just a dance relationship. Sometimes you don't. It can get very difficult and challenging because two people are trying to produce a product on a stage, on a TV, on a dance floor. And if you're in the competition world, you're being judged, you're being marked, you're being evaluated. It is subjective, not objective. If you do the Olympics, you have to skate the basics before you can do the open competition.

If you're doing the Olympics, it's based on who jumped the farthest. You can't fake it. There's no, I didn't like him today. When you're competing in the ballroom world, it's subjective. Do I like that person? Do I know that person? The dress doesn't look good. They didn't look on that angle.

You can keep doing it over and over and over again and get stuck. Your mindset can get very uncomfortable. And it can get very unenjoyed. as you go. So moving forward, the mindset is only the second one. The third one is the spiritual awareness, the consciousness, the development of how you open up your mind to a higher level to know that you have a character, you have a soul, you have an awareness, you have an essence. You want to be able to share that and talk to somebody about. that. It can be very difficult staying with somebody for a long period of time and getting to a

certain point and not developing any further, number one. Number two, the biggest thing I can say to you because I've been at the top, it's not getting to the top, it is staying at the top. That is the most, I don't want to say uncomfortable, but it's a very pressurized energy. So I can relate that to other people that are in show business or in dance business. These phenomenal, phenomenal talented people, the Whitney Houston's, the, you know, that sadly, the way they handle that is they go to a drug or they go to drink or they go to whatever it is they need to try to give them the, confidence or the security or the strength to carry on. So unless you have some kind of a spiritual connection with whatever the God of your understanding is or whatever your awareness is or whatever your higher consciousness is,

that must be connected to create an outcome that you're consciously aware of and bring joy to you as you do it if you're not working. working well with another person, it might help you, it might not, hopefully it will. It will allow you to perceive yourself of value and strength. So when somebody is judging you, you're not devastated when you don't make a final or you don't win the trophy or you lose the championship. And the thing is, you know, you can't take it with you. It's not the end of the world.

But when you're a younger dancer coming up, you have blinders. on. You have huge energy. Your leg, you can kick your leg up behind your ear. You don't know how it got there, but you have the energy to do it. And so you do it. As you get older, you realize you want to learn how that leg got up behind your ear, but your body can't do it, but your mind finally understands what the process was. Your body just can't do it. So that's kind of what I'm relating it to, if that kind of explains anything? Well, I think for dancers, they can relate. But I think that when you are talking about the mind, body, spirit connection,

I think that is totally relatable in just life in general. So with ballroomology, what type of feedback have you gotten from dancers and people who have who have registered? your book? I have gotten actually excellent feedback on it because I have addressed that issue of the soul, spirit, character, essence. Most people, because they're dancers, are just, it's a visual art form. That's all they know. They're in the mirror. They're fixing the line. They're working. Leg isn't high enough. The person next to them is better, prettier, not prettier. Didn't work out right. Bad partnership, good partnership.

blame each other a lot, blame each other a lot, and then they pretend they walk on the dance full like everything is perfect and it isn't. So behind the curtain, it's very uncomfortable, very uncomfortable. So acknowledging that issue of relating to another person. And when I did the book, which was a while ago, I gave them different kind of exercises to try to relate to each other in a different way as opposed to kind of being a, sometimes emotional can be one dimensional. It's very flat. You know, you're at each other. You know, you're trying to make each other do something or comply or lead, follow, or do it

my way. This is the way it has to be done. And there's always two people coming together to make that separate entity, right, which is going to be the artistic expression, which is your own authentic expression, it's not, let me say to you this way. God gave everybody something, a gift, okay?

Some people, God didn't give it to them to be a dancer for whatever reason, and they're determined to be a dancer. Do you understand what I'm saying? So they can work with people that can practice for hours and it's never going to get better. I don't know what that is.

I just know that God didn't give it to them. And then there's other people that I've seen that God has given amazing artistic dancing gifts and they don't care, and they're sticking a needle in their arm. I would give a quarter of their talent, a quarter of their talent, and they don't care. So I don't know what that is.

I just know when the spirit or the consciousness or the awareness is not elevated, those are the kind of issues that you can have when you're trying to move forward. I know God didn't make me a singer, you know. I can practice. I've auditioned as a singer. I can hold the key. I can, but you don't want to mic me up for the solo, you know.

And I don't want to do the solo. God didn't give that to me, you know. some people just, it's very hard for them to accept what the gift is and what the destiny is. And the way to get some peace of mind is to open up the mind and elevate the consciousness to know that whatever it is you're gifted to produce on the planet might not be what the other person has. I think that makes a lot of sense because all of us like, number one, I can't dance and I can't sing that I'm good at. at other things. So I do, I think people listening can understand that concept. I wanted to really ask you about the 3B partnership system because you've worked on this for a while and you've been perfecting it. Can you tell me what it is and how it came about? Yes. I have been,

for lack of a better word, playing with this with different people and couples over the last 10 years. Little bits and pieces, you know, and I've always gotten tremendous feedback. And just this past year, during COVID, I had some people reach out to me saying, can you please just talk to me about that because I'm working here, we're dancing, and we want to work on it, and it's really helping. And can you please do it? Can you please do it? I did it. So I did it. And I actually did a year of working with a couple and working, you know, doing certain things.

And one of the people said to me, it's fabulous, but you need a name for it. I said, what do you mean, a name for it? And I said, I just call it, you know, working around a shared axis, you know. And basically she said, no, no, that doesn't, that's not. It doesn't mean anything to people because nobody knows what that is. So I really thought about it and I went, 3D partnership system. And I'll tell you where that comes from. In any kind of performance, ballet, opera, theater, there's three types of stages.

There's what's called the classical proscenium stage, which is what the Broadway stage has an arch, it's flat, the audience sits. the audience sits and watches. Everything is a visual experience and an audio experience. Okay. The second one is called, sorry, I just lost my train of thought. The second one is called thrust, thrust stage. A thrust stage goes out into the audience. It can be round. It can be a runway. Okay, that was actually the original one. centuries ago, and it's three-sided, has a back. The third one is called In the Round. It's exposed on all sides. Sometimes they have that in dinner theater, but that's what a competition is. You're dancing in the round. What the ballet people did years ago was when they had the Presidium stage, they used to have what was called a raked stage. That meant it tilted from the audience up on an angle to the back, away from the audience.

The audience was level and the stage was raped. So that's how they saw it. Okay. So then what happened was as they progressed, they realized that it didn't work that good. So what they did was they raised the audience. Okay, if you go to a theater, the audience is raised, and they flatten the stage. Okay, so they're progressing. The final kind of Pierre de Resistance was the ballet people realized that they were still dancing flat.

Their bodies were dancing flat, even though they had different angles. So the ballet people, ballet masters, made up the technique and invented, it's to current today, called the a palmong, a palm, which is a shouldering technique. you see dancers dance, they learn how to use their head, their shoulders, their core, their arms, and shape on an angle. So they're not just standing flat like a flat doll, like a flat cardboard. That three-dimensional shaping is what has been put forward in the round, okay, in the ballroom dance competitive world. So what happens is if a couple is dancing, The problem is the judges are looking at you at a different time. How do you know you look good?

The only way you know you look good is if you create a three-dimensional shape between the partnership at all times. That's what got me going forward because people were doing it. Sometimes they look good. Sometimes they look bad. When the judge looked at them and they looked bad, they didn't get a good mark. and they looked visually not pleasing. So I developed the system of working around people are dancing.

They each have their own skill set. They have to know their choreography, their core. They have to know their placement. They have to know their footwork. Before they come together, that has to happen. That's called skill set. The mindset is that you're both going to work on something in a three-dimensional shape. That means that you know what

a shared access is. That's an imaginary vision in your mind's eye between the partnership that you're going to shape your body around, whether you're in a closed position or an open position, and take it around the dance floor. I relate it to the sun, okay? The sun is the center, for lack of a better word, and the planets rotate around the sun. Okay? They're in different positions for however many years. However, the sun rotates in the center as well. Do you understand? So by people knowing that they have an imaginary shared axis that they are focusing on, that changes their mindset as opposed to trying to hold each other in a position

and force each other in some kind of movement around the floor, whether it's an open position with a handhold or a closed position. and that allows them to have a three-dimensional picture and a three-dimensional energy as they move forward. And the last thing is the life set, right? So by doing this, what happens is by doing their individual skill set, they come together in a mindset, opening a three-dimensional image in their mind's eye, to produce the awareness of a higher consciousness by focusing on that shared access between them so they can move forward and produce whatever product they want in a higher energized awareness way.

So we have life set, mindset, I'm sorry, skill set, mindset, mindset, in a three-dimensional pattern that allows people to partner, touch each other, not touch each other, right, visually or not to create a product that they don't have to depend on each other to produce something beautiful and enjoyable. And that'll calm them down because they get so nervous because they're trying to create something. Everybody gets very upset and anxious. And it will ripple and carry on to their life so they're. are not pretending to be perfect in public and killing each other in rehearsal in private.

It doesn't work that way. The skill set doesn't work that way. You're either at peace and calm all the time or not at all. I'm listening to you describe this. And I know that sometimes when you do meditation, you might imagine like a ball of energy or a white light. And so as you're describing that, that they would be imagining this something that they're creating together. I can kind of see exactly what you're saying that because they're creating this like energy force together. And then of course they're moving around. So what is your vision for how this

is going to change dance and dance competition. It sounds like if you're able to dance with a partner and you always look good, no matter what the angle the judge is looking at you from, what does this mean for a ballroom dance? That means that a couple is in a focus control mindset and a person. that they don't have to depend on a judge to tell them if they're looking good or bad. That's the first thing. It gives them huge freedom. Also, it will allow people of any level, beginner, intermediate advance, to be able to produce full potential, full potential at whatever their level is going to be. There's some people that are just always going to be a certain level,

no matter what. There are some people that are going to be the finest dancers on the planet. So it allows anybody at any level to produce that pattern or produce that shared access and have a product that they don't need a judge to tell them they look good or they look bad. They know that what they're focusing on is producing their essence, is producing their product, is producing their outcome, their unique, authentic, artistic expression. The other thing I wanted to say was, I'm currently in negotiation. I don't want to say where, because I don't want to, it's not finalized yet, to working on college teams to produce. I've worked with one of the people associated with the college, the university, and I've worked this concept with them,

and they're very interested in putting it forth to their ballroom club, their ballroom dance club, because the colleges have, you know, intramural or inter-college competitions all year long between them. And to allow this younger generation to experience this, to be able to feel the confidence and to be able to produce, because the colleges, you know, don't necessarily get the support in the ballroom club,

clubs that, say, for example, other sports would get. You know, like they have huge sports programs and then a ballroom dance club. They have a theater or a dance department, but the ballroom dance club is always not so much on the highest rung. And if you realize that, you know, if you look at gymnastics or if you look at, you know, other sports, they have many things available to them. They have psychiatrists. They have psychologists.

They have sports doctors. You know, they have internal medicine. You know, they have a million things working for them. Not so much in the ballroom world. You know, the ballroom world, you learn your technique, you get some coaching. Your coach is not necessarily a trained psychologist, you know what I mean? Or a psychiatrist to help you through things that are happening. So you're out there kind of floundering on your own.

And then for lack of anything else, you just start blaming each other, which is, It's just like life, a relationship in real life. You know, you go to the therapist, you try to work it out. And they break up sooner than they even get a chance to try to produce something. There's some amazing, talented, younger people, older people that leave with such a bad taste in their mouth. You know, they just so bitter, they hate the rest of their lives for not accomplishing and achieving a level of satisfaction that they could enjoy. not even about winning. It's just about being able to produce something when you want, you know, with a conscious effort.

So that's kind of my goal, kind of spread that energy around. Well, it's really fascinating to me because as someone without any ballroom dance information, I can still, as you speak, I can visualize the outcome for these people. So what are the, how do you teach this? Is it in person? Is it online? How does, how are you teaching this program? Right now I am teaching it in person only.

I've been doing coachings, lectures, seminars, workshops. I do want to start some online coaching, but I would prefer to do in person. person because it's, for lack of the word, it's, you know, when somebody is trying to get a three-dimensional perception and they've never experienced it before, if they don't have that other person's body in front of them as a gauge, at least for the first three or four times, they don't, you can look at it on a video, it's like when you look at somebody dancing, what you think they're doing is not what they're doing. You know what I mean?

You think a person lifting their leg up behind their ear is using their thigh muscle. No, they're using their pelvic core muscles to activate that to get that through the thigh muscle to go up. So if you don't understand those kinds of tiny details and get correct. directed right away, you're forward one step back to, forward one step back too. Much easier if there's a kind of hands-on experience. And then follow-up would be, I think, more online. Because if they have the base and the foundation, if I speak to them or say certain things, that's already set. So how should somebody reach out to you if they're interested in learning more about anything, the Ballroom Barks, the BallroomLogy, and of course, the 3D partnership system.

What's the best way to reach you? You can always email me, Bonnie Diaz Dance at gmail.com. You can go to ballroomology.com, and it has all my information there as well. Ballroombarks.org is my website. And also, Bonnie Diaz.com is my personal website. has all my own personal videos and experiences as well. And I just wanted to mention that I have my new article coming out called Ready Set 3D Partnership System is going to be published in the next Dance Week magazine. So that is coming out as well.

So I think the minimum, the dance world is going to experience something new before September. I think it's going to start planting the seed and spreading. And hopefully we'll get some good, unique, authentic, artistic expression and spiritual essence. Well, Bonnie, that is just beautiful. So everyone, ballroomology.com, Bonnie Diaz.com. Go check it out. And, of course, look for that article in. dance week. And of course, just you'll recognize it. What was the title of it again, Bonnie?

It's called Ready Set 3D Dance Partnership. Okay. Ready Set 3D Dance Partnership. And I know just from listening that you're extremely passionate about this. And like I said, as you were describing it, I could see it and I could understand exactly what you're saying about how these dance partners could create this image. And you gave us a big education on the stages too, because the average person has no idea about anything like that. I remember I went to see cats and they came up into the audience. And when you said that, I was like, oh, that's what that was. Yeah, because they literally came into the audience and one of them was like said the lines to me. And so, of course, that was just thrilling because of that. So again, everyone, we've been speaking with Bonnie

Diaz and she is the author of Ballroomology and the creator of 3D partnership systems. And of course, she also created ballroom barks. So if you love animals, go check that out. Definitely 3D partnership system is something that you'll want to check out. If you are a dancer, because it sounds like it's going to change everything about the level and quality of your dance. So thank you so much, Bonnie. Thank you for having me. Much appreciate it.

Everyone, this is Dr. Tammy Pats. Thanks for listening to Business Innovators Radio. To hear all episodes featuring leading industry influencers and trendsetters, visit us online at businessinnovatorsradio.com today.