From Individual Coaching to Global Reach: Claudia Dean on Bolstering Positivity Worldwide
By Madison Huizinga, DWC Blog Editor
Click below to shop the look:
Tracksuit Pants by Claudia Dean World | Cropped Hoodie by Claudia Dean World
If you’ve ever searched “how to get a higher extension,” “how to break in pointe shoes,” or any other ballet-related question on YouTube, chances are you’ve come across a video by the incomparable Claudia Dean. Claudia Dean is undeniably a household name in the realm of online dance content. From private coaching to luxury dancewear to viral video tutorials, there seems to be nothing that the founder of Claudia Dean World can’t tackle. Claudia Dean World strives to “welcome dancers at any stage of their journey” and foster a positive community through global connection. But how exactly did the former Royal Ballet company member get here?
Claudia began dancing at age four because her best friend wanted her to join her class. She decided to stick with it and continue her training, eventually getting accepted into the Australian Ballet School’s Intra/Interstate & International Training Programme (ITP). After getting accepted into such a rigorous program, it occurred to Claudia that she might have a shot at making a career for herself in classical ballet. She continued dancing at her local studio, but around 14-15 years old she started training full-time on the Gold Coast of Australia, about two hours away from her home in Brisbane. “I was actually living away from home, which is a really good experience,” Claudia explains, as she learned how to cook, do laundry, and more all by herself at a young age.
After a year and a half of training and competing at competitions like the Prix de Lausanne and the Alana Haines Australasian Awards, Claudia was accepted into the Royal Ballet School in London. She ended up graduating a year early and joining the Royal Ballet Company at age 17, where she got the opportunity to dance in coveted roles on the Royal Opera House stage. “It was sort of like a dream come true,” Claudia describes.
Click below to shop the look:
Sports Bra by Claudia Dean World | Bike Shorts by Claudia Dean World
And then Claudia had what she describes as a “light bulb moment.” “I’d been away for about six and a half years at this point,” she recalls. “I was missing home a fair bit and I found, as I was getting older, that homesickness for me was actually getting worse.” When she first joined the Royal Ballet School, she thought it was “the most exciting thing ever,” but later began contemplating what she was missing back home in Australia.
“I worked so hard and I’d done so many amazing roles at the Royal Ballet, I think I got to a point where I was a little bit burned out,” Claudia admits. “I got to this point where I was like ‘you know what, I feel like I’m destined to do something else now.’” Claudia retired from the Royal Ballet in 2014 and moved back to Australia.
Upon returning home, Claudia began working with her dad and brother in their real estate business where she got the opportunity to learn a lot about the inner workings of a company. “I kind of had a chance to get on my feet and be with my family,” she remembers. Then one day, an old ballet teacher called her up and asked if she was interested in teaching some of her students. Claudia was reluctant to accept, as she didn’t know if she would enjoy teaching, but decided to give it a try. After working with her first student, Claudia was hooked.
“I love passing on my knowledge and experience from the Royal Ballet but also…[providing] exercises and improving dancers,” Claudia says. “I didn’t have a natural facility for ballet so I was really passionate about dancers that also didn’t have a natural facility [and] making sure they know how to get better feet, get higher extensions, and all that stuff.”
Eager to add more personal coaching into her life, Claudia threw together a website and posted it on her Facebook page to see if anyone was interested in her coaching services. “My emails just blew up,” Claudia says. Eventually, she transitioned out of real estate work and shifted into personal coaching full-time in 2015, which is when Claudia Dean World launched.
“I’m really passionate about trying to help as many people as possible,” Claudia says. “Although I was coaching people one-on-one in the studio, I was like ‘how can I help other people that are in America or South Africa or Brazil.’” She recalls one of her coaching students, Talia Fidra, suggesting she make a YouTube channel to showcase dance tutorials and give tips that she gives in her one-on-one lessons. Claudia thought that this was a great idea, as she hadn’t seen many YouTube videos like that before.
Claudia’s first YouTube video was about how to master triple pirouettes. After 48 hours, the video amassed nearly 200,000 views. Claudia quickly realized that the information she could offer in these videos was incredibly valuable to so many people around the globe who were lacking it. She began posting weekly YouTube videos on a wide variety of technical topics and since then has gained over 250,000 subscribers and 133,000 followers on Instagram.
Click below to shop the look:
Tracksuit Pants by Claudia Dean World | Cropped Hoodie by Claudia Dean World
In addition to her coaching and video content on social media, Claudia Dean has lines of dancewear and activewear. A few years ago, Claudia was asking her followers what more they wanted to see from Claudia Dean World and many dancers said they would love for Claudia to try to make the “perfect leotard.” Intrigued, Claudia approached a bigger dancewear brand and inquired about a collaboration, but was rejected. “But I was still really passionate about doing it,” she shares. “So I went and sourced all my own fabrics, I found manufacturers, I found all the little silicon logos,” and more. Her first dancewear products came out in November 2017 and immediately took off. “They literally sold out in four minutes!” Claudia recalls. Today, Claudia Dean World’s dancewear is bigger than ever, selling thousands and thousands of garments each year. Keep an eye out for new releases coming soon, such as a new bag and four or five additional collections this year.
Through all the work Claudia does, but particularly through her coaching and video tutorials, she hopes to cultivate “a more positive approach to how children and even professionals are treated in the studio.” “I feel like there’s so many different ways you can say things to a child and [they] can be received so well [but can be] so damaging if they hear it in the wrong context,” Claudia says. She wants dancers to walk out of their studios feeling inspired and empowered, rather than discouraged.
Having access to the educational resources that Claudia Dean provides isn’t just useful; it has the potential to be transformative. Since its conception, Claudia Dean World has been geared towards helping individual dancers be the best they can be. Today, that sentiment still comes through, just on a global scale.
