Meet Oksi Govanovskaya

We recently connected with Oksi Govanovskaya and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Oksi, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

Greetings. I’m Aksana Govanovskaya, also known as Oksi, I’m a choreographer, dancer, businesswoman and architect of creative provocations. I guess before answering this. question it’s worth starting with where I even started, because my path is quite a complicated story. I was born in a small town in Belarus called Ostrovets. My desire to dance was born in deep childhood, only opportunities in the city far from civilization was not at all, I mean development and promotion. It all started with the fact that my dad gave me and my brother a video player and I found a disk with the performance of JLo, it was a test disk for the video player and it had a clip from the concert. I remember standing in front of the TV and repeating and learning the moves. That’s how my love for American performers was born and my love for American culture only grew. I remember how we used to get Madonna’s concert tapes and copy the moves. There was no internet, there was nothing, but we were always looking for opportunities. That’s how I tried to grow up and emulate the American culture of Hollywood. I didn’t have a proper education, and my parents insisted that I choose a career as an accountant, which I was very unhappy about.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)But in the future when I opened 3 dance studios in Belarus I realized that it was necessary, because the desire to dance and reach heights will never disappear, but to be a competent manager, to know business and be financially literate – this is what was necessary in my journey. My mission has always been to help people through dance, I know that dance can save a person (it happened to me, it’s a long story as dance pulled me out of a six-month depression). I created three studios and one in the very center of Belarus, but since my teenage years I dreamed of visiting the Millennium Dance Center in Los Angeles. But as you understand, for a girl from a small village, it was just a pipe dream…. it seemed. But I kept moving, opening studios taught me how to be resilient and how to build a dance community.

I trained a lot, you can not tell how much, I remember how my friends saved money for vacations, and I saved money for dance camps, a year I saved up and went to Europe to learn from my idols from America. This passion and desire to pass on American culture to my students, and I had about 400 of them by the age of 26, filled me with strength and inspiration. When I became a top choreographer in my country and I felt that I had already passed on everything I could, I also felt that I needed the next level and I felt so much more cramped in my country. I decided to take a step to meet myself, because before I was doing everything for my students, some of them became choreographers and opened their own studios. I believe that every representative of dance culture should first of all think about how to transmit, inspire and help people through what they do best – dancing and teaching!

So that’s when I decided to realize my dream and opened a visa to America. It took me about a year, not counting the many years I had been developing and dreaming of visiting the Millennium Dance Center in Los Angeles. I promised my students I would train in America for two months and come back to pass on the experience! And so it happened, I fulfilled my promise, but something else happened! On the trip I met a guy, it was love and it was like a fairy tale! So now I live in America married to the man of my dreams and we are doing great!

Now I am promoting and developing in America! I starred in several videos with the stars, I had time to work with the most popular choreographers in the world and by the way in the Dance Center of my dreams! I also teach and continue to share my love for dance carrying through the dance of all sincerity and the power of fulfillment of dreams! This is an amazing story, how a little girl grew up with a dream of America and in the end everything as in the story turned out for her a wonderful opportunity and changing her life in an absolutely incredible beautiful way! It just proves that you have to believe and follow your dreams!

If we talk about what drove me to my goal – love! I always do everything with love, I love my child, I love people, I love the world and it reciprocates! And of course my strong and combative character, discipline and constant focus on my goal! Already by this time I continue to grow further, I teach in Los Angeles and Philadelphia, I plan to travel around the states with my master classes! I have also chosen another direction and that is creative architect! I can’t imagine my life without creativity, so I’m a couple steps away from opening my own creative agency, which will also be filled with love for the world! So dream on my friends, this world is so beautiful! And, by the way, what a little girl from Belarus always knew for sure, that for her to open the whole world!

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

My personal instagram/Тik Tok page: oksigovanovskaya

https://www.instagram.com/oksigovanovskaya?igsh=MWx0NjM1Mnc3OWsxYw==

My dance community instagram/Тik Tok page: oxygen__dance

https://www.instagram.com/oxygen__dance?igsh=eDFkbnkwY3lvejk4

At the moment I run my dance studio remotely, it’s a dance center in the very center of Minsk: unity_dancecenter

https://www.instagram.com/unity_dancecenter?igsh=eGd2OGMwbTNjeGVx

I teach at Impulse Dance Studio in Philadelphia: dance_studioimpulse_philly

https://www.instagram.com/dance_studioimpulse_philly?igsh=MWxhMTB1NXVucXo4bQ==

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I believe that the most important quality is not to give up! I got a tattoo “never give up” when I was 18 years old and it was like it was leading me all this time! You and your success depends not on the number of your successful projects, but on the number of attempts! So be true to yourself and your idea, keep moving even if you can’t, stay in search, don’t stop learning and be able to adapt to the situation!

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

I’m always on the lookout for talented people! I love to communicate and share skills and energy! I would love to get a bigger dance community, so if you love dance – let me know!
I would also love to do collaborations with dancers and choreographers: project, video, workshops, etc! I am always open and have a lot of experience!
And of course as an architect of creative provocations I am going to open my own creative agency, so I am waiting for a team of creative people with whom we will create the most unusual creative provocations.

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