Hi, I'm Santina!
I build spaces where movement, marketing, and meaning meet.
Not the traditional kind and most definitely not the surface-level kind.
Everything here is rooted in culture, nervous system awareness, and real human kindness!
The Story
Dance has been part of my life since I was four years old, growing up in Adelaide, South Australia. Yes, I was that studio kid, six days a week, jazz and tap and ballet.
Ballet wasn't where I found myself, though. Hip-hop, musical theater, street jazz, funk, Latin styles, heels, commercial dance, Broadway…that's where I actually felt like I could move like me instead of moving like the mold expected.
I chased that feeling into performing and touring across Australia, managing a performing arts company, and coaching National Hip Hop Champions three years running (I was one, too).
I came over to the US to the US as an Au Pair with no intention of staying longer than my contracted year. But then I met my wife Danyelle and as the saying goes, the rest is history. We’ve built (and continue to build) our life in Washington, a decision we've never once second-guessed.
I opened a dance studio and taught 400 kids a week, until the pandemic forced its bittersweet closing. That loss became the pivot. Nearly two decades of working with kids, a business degree, a teaching degree, and everything I'd learned about culture, movement, and community turned into the work I do now; helping dance businesses become the go-to in their area by tapping into their culture and vibe through an organic online visibility lens.
You'll still find me in the studio room as a dance educator, and I step in as a stage manager for productions (think: recitals, ballet productions, shows) that need someone who understands both the art and the logistics — I've got your six!
And on the other side of it all, I help women reconnect with their bodies through joyful, trauma-informed movement, because business savvy and embodied movement have never actually been separate things for me.
The Belief
Every body is a dancing body!
We all have our own way of moving, and the work is removing whatever's in the way of finding joy in it.
There's no right body, no right training, no right way in. The industry loves to gatekeep who gets to call themselves a dancer. I don't!
Breaking that stereotype means building spaces that are actually inclusive, actually safe, and actually nurture the dancing body instead of policing it. Every dance space I'm a part of is a space I wish I had growing up as a dancer.
Joy is strategic. Community is powerful. Your work, and your body, deserve to feel aligned.
As a Dance Educator
I teach to the whole human, not just the dancer in front of me, but the layered, complicated person underneath. (Think of it like an onion: every layer you peel back reveals more.) That means there's no one-size-fits-all approach. I learn how each dancer actually receives and processes information, visually, auditorily, tactile, etcetera, and teach to that, not to a template.
This work shapes more than the next era of dancers. It shapes the next era of humans. Dance is where you learn kindness, compassion, grace, how to love your body, and also the real mechanics of it: the history, the science, the actual reason your leg won't hit 90 degrees today. All of it matters.
In Basic Bitch Boogie
BBB starts with one question:
What does movement that actually feels good look like for you?
Not movement you're supposed to do, not movement that proves something, movement your body wants. It might feel uncomfortable at first. Nothing worth having starts at 100% comfortability. But feel-good movement is what keeps you coming back to it, even when chronic illness, chronic pain, or trauma stored in the body makes you feel stuck or disconnected.
BBB is built around four impacts:
Reconnect to Release:
Coming back into your body so you can let go of what it's been holding
Relearn to Renew:
Unlearning old movement patterns and beliefs to make room for new ones
Remember to Reignite:
Reconnecting with what movement used to feel like, to spark that feeling again
Reclaim to Rewild:
Taking back ownership of your body, moving free of the rules
More Than the Work
When I'm not doing all this, you'll find me with a cup of chai (or tea, always tea), watching reality trash TV. I'm genuinely fascinated by the psychology behind it, not just here for the drama. Comfort movie rewatches are Sister Act 1 & 2 and pretty much any dance movie ever made — Center Stage, and the classic hip-hop dance flicks that defined a whole era.
I'm an Enneagram 8, a Pisces, and a Manifestor in Human Design… make of that combination what you will. I love pretty much every music genre except heavy metal. I cook, read, crochet, love a good community festivals or concert, and spend as much time outdoors and at the beach as I possibly can, usually with my wife Danyelle by my side.
And yes, I'm Australian, so the accent (and the occasional bit of cheeky Aussie slang, plus a cuss word or two) comes standard if you're in my world, obviously, minus the cussing when I'm teaching children.
Home is rounded out by Mr. Buckley, our Maine Coon cat, and two turtles, Stevie and El Jefe.
