Trained under Debbie Allen, and credited for choreographing music videos for top recording artists such as Cardi B, Simone Sobers' path to success to date is not by chance. Simone is most known as the creator of The Boss Chick Dance Workout, "a ladies only hip-hop, Dance Hall, and Afrobeats Twerk fitness brand with the mission of empowering women in a body positive environment to be active, to build confidence, and to embrace their bodies via twerking."
Long before the term "twerking" became popular, Simone had a passion for both dance and fitness. Hailing from London, England, Simone started dancing when she was six-years old. She trained in ballet, tap and jazz until High School, where she was introduced to hip-hop and contemporary dance. It was an online workout during her graduate studies that brought an immediate industry need to Simone's attention. She says, "it was through doing these workouts, that I realized the lack of representation in the fitness industry for women of color. I really enjoyed doing these workouts online, and I really loved this particular fitness guru and crew; however, I couldn’t connect with her on a physical level, because I knew my body could never look like hers or have the same composition as hers. It made me realize how many other women of color felt like this in the fitness industry."
Up until then, Simone worked as a Professional Dancer and Dance Educator. She saw an opportunity to create her own lane and include fitness into her repertoire by creating "The New Sexy," an online fitness series of workouts. She continues, "Then I decided to take it to the next level and become a certified personal trainer. It was serendipitous that I happened to be in New York City, pursuing a Master's degree in Dance at NYU and able to take my first major leap into the fitness industry as a professional through an exciting project with Madonna and her boutique line of gyms called Hard Candy Fitness. This process was one of the first steps that lead to me creating my own fitness my own dance fitness empire The Boss Chick Dance Workout." In this new endeavor, Simone intended to inspire women to be badasses. "Not just on the dance floor, but in their everyday life," she says. Hence the name "The Boss Chick Dance Workout;" female specific, this program would be as strong and empowering as its name.
It was two years into business when she realized that combined both techniques, dance and fitness into a "Twerkout." Simone says, "women seemed to really enjoy the twerking aspect, so I decided to focus on this niche and build out this sector of the program to deliver quality twerk fitness techniques and choreography." Constantly evaluating her business and its customers was essential to its marketing success. Simone launched her first tour, to appeal to her twerking audience... a twerk fitness tour, which sold out for the entire 20 cities scheduled.
Now, based in Miami, Florida, Simone takes The Boss Chick Dance Workout on the road, based on demand. "Within the first year that I started the work out I started to receive emails from people who saw our videos online that lived in different cities and asked about the workout coming to their city. So, that gave me the idea to launch a tour and guerrilla-style market the work out around the world," says Simone.
Currently on the Twerk Fit Fest Tour until late November, Simone offers a variety of options for enthusiasts who cannot attend in person, such as "hometwerk," an online, month twerk subscription with access to classes, courses and techniques where users can cancel at any time. She also uses social media as a tool to not only share photos of the things she's doing and places she's going, but also to "share life lessons, insights and wellness inspiration beyond pictures," she says. Through posting self-help topics, quotes and inspirational phrases, she's able to, as she says, provide "messages of substance to help women on a mental and social level in addition to physical."
Boss Chicks looking for a fun fitness routine, or even positive body-and-mind affirmations can rely on Simone for just that. For more information on Simone and her Empire, as well as remaining Twerk Fit Fest Tour dates for 2019, visit bosschickdanceworkout.com and @bosschickdanceworkout on Instagram.