[ep 077] Ariel Swan on embodied living & pushing through fear

When Ariel Swan is in the room, you feel her presence. Her laugh is big and infectious, her speech cadence is quick and lively. A long-time professional dancer, she started her career at 18-years-old, traveling the world performing on cruise ships and doing commercial gigs. Eventually, she became a pilates & Lagree instructor and cofounded popular long weekend R&B dance party Slow Jam Sundays. Then, in June 2019, Ariel opened Jaybird, an infrared yoga & pilates studio, with her business partner Barbie Bent. Ariel was born & raised in North Vancouver, a fearless and adventurous child in perpetual motion. She was a rhythmic gymnast, until an injury sidelined her. She found her way back to movement through dance and began to pursue a career, landing her first professional gig as a BC Lions cheerleader and creating a modern burlesque dance movement with friends. Another injury ended her dance path, a challenging identity crisis for her. But she, again, found her way back to movement through pilates and teaching at Lagree West. A call from her sister, an actor, prompted Ariel to move to LA to dog sit; there, she went to a few infrared movement classes. She and Barbie began to talk about bringing the concept to Vancouver, but Ariel hesitated—then pushed through her fear to make it happen. Jaybird now has studios in Vancouver and Toronto (with a second one coming) and plans to expand into the US. In this conversation, we talk about the responsibility she took on at a young age; where her love for dance comes from; how picking up choreography is a matter of letting go & trusting; what she learned about herself traveling the world as a cruise ship dancer; her relationship with her body as someone who practices embodiment as a career; the story of Jaybird; her love from Peru and the retreats she’s hosted there; how her relationship to fear has evolved over time; and much more. I loved talking life with this free spirited, hard-working, and kinetic human. Much love, May