Shut Up & Listen: Sofia Alexi!

We’re very, VERY excited to be welcoming Sofia Alexi to the Shut Up & Dance HQ team!

As our operations & customer experience coordinator, you’ll find her changing her email response to you from black text to something a little more colourful, cuddling her cat (Pickles) and attending as many Shut Up & Dance classes as she can squeeze into her week.

We’re fizzing about Sofia working at SU&D HQ because she’s already helping us create the space, time and systems we need to take Shut Up & Dance to the next stage of growth – which was our plan for 2020. So 2021, bring it on!

Instead of doing the work we need to do, we sit down with a cup of tea and Swedish cinnamon buns and force Sofia to fill in the blanks to our questions so that you can get to know Sofia if you haven’t met her at class. Without further adieu…

My name is Sofia but my friends call me Sofia! Someone once tried giving me the nickname ‘FiFi’ - I wasn’t a fan. I’ve also been called ‘Sexy Alexi’ – I liked that way better. 

Coordination level: Orangutan 🐒

I’m happiest when I go for my dreams. Like moving to New Zealand, taking dance classes, and pursuing a creative profession. Challenging myself is definitely my biggest mood-booster. 

I wanted to work with Shut Up & Dance because from my first interaction with Shut Up & Dance to this day, I’ve always seen SU&D crew as a successful, positive, FUN, inspiring team who run their business based on their core beliefs that everyone has the right to dance, have fun, and not be judged.

As a SU&D participant, I always thought working with these sassy, awesome women would be the absolute dream… and it is! The SU&D squad all have a unique ability to spread joy just by being the awesome people that they are, and it shows in everything they do. It’s incredibly powerful when a business operates on the values they promote, and combines professionalism with authenticity. We really care about each other in the SU&D community - I feel so privileged and happy to be part of this movement! NZ and the world: WATCH OUT! We are coming at you, one booty shake at a time!!!

My favourite guilty pleasure track is Ooh Aah...Just a Little Bit with Gina G because it’s best on repeat and really loud while driving.

Something that has changed since my first Shut Up & Dance class is I realised life is too short not to do what you love. SU&D was part of my physio rehab program. The classes gave me the kick I needed to quit my job in customer service, pursue my dream to become a content producer, and put my health and wellbeing before everything else. The fact that I’m now back in customer service but at SU&D is a pretty funny plot twist :P

Dance is probably one of the most fun and expressive ways to celebrate life and yourself. I feel that dancing is something I do for me and me alone. It’s my happy place where I leave the world at the door and experience so many positive feedback loops. Dancing is such a great way of exploring and getting to know your body in a new way. I don’t get the same awesome kick from the gym or from running. I can do those exercise forms to complement the dancing but they are too monotonous to be my first exercise choice.The feeling I get when we as individuals move, more or less, in sync as one body to a catchy song is so awesome! Makes me all fuzzy inside. 

The Shut Up & Dance routine that best describes me is Nails, Hair, Hips, Heels by Todrick Hall because it’s life goals. The day I can nail that routine I can do anything. 

The happy feelings I get from dancing puts things into perspective. I’ve tried swimming, badminton, pilates, you name it but I’ve never looked forward to going to class in the same way as I do with SU&D. I honestly feel I’m a happier, better, more confident person and just deal with life in a more constructive way now. Doing stuff because you want to rather than because you have to is such a game-changer, and that’s what dancing has reminded me of. And, I perform random hip-sways at the supermarket, and don’t care if anyone is watching. 

My life motto is – Erm I would need a new motto every day. So for now, let’s go with “when life closes a door, open it again. It’s a door, that’s how they work.”

The most important thing life has taught me so far is that I don’t know anything :P

To pay the bills I work for SU&D part-time, and part-time leaf in the wind if money was no object, money is not really an object as I almost have everything I need and want. Except for, ya know, my own place to live, thank you housing crisis.

My most dorky moment this week was narrating my whole life story to a barista. He’d only asked me how my day was going. 

I wanted to be an archaeologist or a breakdancer when I grew up. Had I become both, I would have made a “Breaking History - Down with the Breakdancing Archaeologist” Netflix series.        

The world would be a better place with the patriarchy buried six feet under. 

The routine I want to learn the most is any routine from the film ‘Save the Last Dance’ or anything by Zara Larsson. 

If I was a cake I would be a Swedish Princess Cake - round and sweet on the outside, light and fluffy on the inside.