Meet Nico Osier

We were lucky to catch up with Nico Osier recently and have shared our conversation below.

Nico, so great to be with you and I think a lot of folks are going to benefit from hearing your story and lessons and wisdom. Imposter Syndrome is something that we know how words to describe, but it’s something that has held people back forever and so we’re really interested to hear about your story and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

How did you overcome imposter syndrome?
Honestly, one of my graduate school advisors sort of shook the impostor syndrome out of me. Here’s a recap of the moment that changed my life forever:

One day while I was working on wrapping up my dissertation, my advisor told me that several faculty members had been singing my praises, and that he was proud of the positive reputation I had developed for myself. Rather than thanking him or taking it at face value, I responded from a place of impostor syndrome. “I guess I am fooling everyone!” Rather than let it go, he challenged me and asked if I was an impostor. I said “sure am” and laughed it off, hoping it would move the conversation along. My advisor did not let it go. “Oh, so do you not take me and the other faculty seriously as experts in the field and leaders in academia?” “Of course not! I take everyone very seriously and have so much respect for your expertise and leadership…it’s just me who’s an impostor!” I stammered back, nervously. He continued: “Well then does that make you the one true impostor?” “What?!” I replied, feeling legitimately panicked by this point. “Well, we are experts in the field and leaders in academia who know what it takes to succeed at the job and we see you doing those things… so you’re either just doing a good job or you’re the one true impostor that is pulling the wool over all of our eyes. Seems pretty unlikely to me though.” I didn’t realize at the time that this conversation represented a formative moment in my life.

Fast forward to 2023, when I impulsively responded to a DJ’s instagram story stating that I should be the person that he hires to teach line dancing at his upcoming event. At the time, I barely even knew how to line dance myself, but my gay audacity had kicked in and there was no turning back. I felt nervous, but I taught the lesson to the best of my abilities. When I finished up, I was feeling a bit insecure when several people came up to tell me what an amazing teacher I was and how much fun they had. I heard my advisor’s voice in my head asking “are you the one true impostor?” From that moment on, I decided to take people’s positive feedback seriously, as well as all the nonverbal cues like the big genuine smiles that I get to bask in while they’re dancing.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

My greatest passion is dancing and sharing my love for dance with others through my unique, joy-focused, two-left-feet-friendly and explicitly queer-welcoming Country Fried Dance lessons. I am proud that I am able to teach people to dance, and create spaces where they can have fun learning, regardless of experience level or technical ability. I have been told that I do a great job of putting people at ease and have become known for starting my lessons by asking for anyone who has danced with me before to help me to let everyone in on the number one rule for dancing with me: “The stakes are what?” I ask. “NOTHING!” They boisterously yell. I go on to explicitly state that “you can have fun dancing even if you mess up, but you have to let yourself.” “I’m personally healing my inner gifted kid through dance,” I add. When I mess up during a dance (which inevitably happens at least once per lesson) I role model self-grace and a no-stakes attitude: “hope y’all enjoyed my accidental solo!”.

Another thing I think that makes my line dance lessons stand out, is that I always do each dance to at least two different songs, and I am intentional in my song swap choices. I try to represent multiple genres and to amplify the voices of queer people and other underrepresented groups. Beyond helping me reach a diverse community of dancers and aligning with my own core values, this is a great way to help people retain the dances because it helps them build muscle memory rather than having them associate certain moves with specific lyrics. When dancers develop muscle memory rather than relying on auditory cues, it’s easier for them to slip into that blissful moment of extreme presence I call the “dance trance”.

I am sole proprietor and lone boots on the ground here at Country Fried Dance, and I am working hard to grow my brand. I joke that I was born to dance and forced to learn how to use Canva and manage social media accounts, because that’s where a lot of my time has gone. I’m also adding new events, including Scratch-To-Country Fried Dance (my ultimate beginner workshops, which were just launched in May) and a Smothered-and-Covered series (my advanced workshops, which I hope to launch this summer). Additionally, I am seeking new venues, and trying to book more private parties and corporate events. My commitment to the bit is unending and I love a good theme so I enjoy any chance to pair my favorite dances to a specific event or audience. As an example, I taught at a combined Easter and 4/20 party where I debuted to the world how well The Bunny Hop pairs with Afroman’s “Because I Got High”! Beyond teaching dance, I formed and am training a performance troupe that can be booked for community events, and we have already performed in 3 cities and are seeking additional opportunities to perform (please reach out with any leads)!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Cheesy as it feels to say, the thing that I think has most fueled my success with Country Fried Dance is love. My love for dance has added so much joy to my life, and when I do it in front of others, I am often told my joy is palpable. In addition to loving dance, I love people and have a special place in my heart for my queer community. Knowing the immense benefit dance has brought to my physical health, mental health, social life, and beyond, motivates me to care for others by sharing my love for dance so they can experience these benefits firsthand.

Love also feeds into and fuels a second non-cognitive trait that I think has been critical to the growth of Country Fried Dance: grit. My love for dance and people fuels my determination and courage to grow Country Fried Dance. Perhaps more importantly, love inspires me to persist during setbacks, rejections, as well as other let-downs and inevitable hard times along the way.

Love also fuels the third thing that I think has been most impactful to my journey: creativity. As a lifelong learner of dance, I have spent a good amount of time thinking about what works and what doesn’t work for me when learning. Since starting Country Fried Dance, I have also made deliberate efforts to reflect on what events and enduring resources are available, evaluate their quality, identify gaps, and create novel events/resources to address these gaps.

For example, I created a Spotify playlist for each dance I know with every song I think works well, so people can practice on their own at a variety of tempos including songs that are slower than the original. This is in contrast to what I have seen in other line dance lessons where dancers are left to sink or swim to the original track, or alternatively, the instructor will use audio software to create a slowed down track to work people up to speed. However, I have never taken a class where the slowed down track is shared with students and I suspect most dancers don’t feel prepared to adjust a song’s tempo on their own. Plus, my playlists have an album cover that has all the steps listed on it for easy reference! When people save the playlists to their own Spotify profiles if a song comes on when they’re out and remember what dance works with it they can search the song name in the app, and it will show them the playlist. Not only will they find the step sheet as an album cover there will be a note in the album description that tells the dancer if there are any special dance circumstances called tags or restarts for the song.

Another example of how creativity has influenced the accessibility of my lessons, is that I teach choreography in a way that optimizes choice. I routinely provide alternative moves that may be preferable to people who are newer to dance or who have various disabilities and/or injuries. For example, I suggest avoiding stomps for people with bad knees, or eliminating turns from a dance for those with vertigo. I also remind people often that they have the power to make every dance as low or high energy/impact/effort as they want. I often give an entry level alternative for a move before teaching it as written and then add on a more advanced option. I am also explicit in telling learners to listen to their body, never do anything that hurts, and to let me know (publicly or privately) if they need help adjusting the dance. More recently, I hosted my first ever event aimed specifically at serving deaf and hard of hearing dancers, which involved me borrowing some very loud speakers and also getting support from American Sign Language interpreters. This is an offering I’m hoping to expand on in the future.

In terms of advice for people earlier on their journey, I would say above all else: only relentlessly pursue things you truly love and feel passionate about. If you haven’t found that yet, keep looking. Grit is something that can be developed over time, with practice, and with the support of a therapist or some quality self-help resources. Creativity is the easier one to develop or improve on deliberately, in my opinion. My own creativity has been fostered through play, asking others for feedback, as well as a good amount of trial and error. My best advice to others trying to become more creative would be to not be afraid to play around and get messy, but take good notes – you can always redirect your energy at any time.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

I am always looking for ways to share Country Fried Dance with the world and collaborators to help me do it! I am looking for event planners who would like to loop me into their upcoming event’s programming, as well as management at venues interested in hosting my events – especially those located in Austin, Texas and the surrounding areas. I also am really hoping to book more wedding-related gigs and would love to partner with a DJ who specializes in weddings to book some events where I could do more things like: choreograph a first dance for the newlyweds (or create a custom line dance for a wedding party to do in celebration of the happy couple), to teach a line dance lesson to the wedding guests (or at a related shower or party), or even to just provide party starting services to get people out onto the dance floor during the reception. I’d also love to partner with more musicians who either want to get people line dancing at their live shows or who want to have original choreography for one of their songs and/or music videos (which is becoming increasingly popular, including Dasha’s “Austin” and Brooke Eden’s “Giddy Up”)! Additionally, I am hoping to find people and groups that want to book my performance troupe for events such as parades, Pride Events, corporate parties, and sponsored events at festivals such as Austin City Limits, South By Southwest, and beyond. Likewise if any of you are involved with the media and want to feature me or give me a platform to teach dance or share my story, I would be truly honored! If any of this resonates with you, please don’t be shy about direct messaging me on instagram @CountryFriedDance or sending me an email at CountryFriedDance@gmail.com. I also have a request form you can use: https://tinyurl.com/CFDrequests. I would like to thank Erika Rich Photography who took all the photos included here.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Erika Rich Photo

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