Finding strength and purpose with Jordan London

Hi Friend,

The Instagram algorithm is a magical (and revealing) thing, isn’t it?

Right now, my feed is full of holistic health remedies. And I’m ALL for it!

There I was, eating my Sunday lunch, starting with the salad (because ‘they’ recommend starting with veggies, protein, healthy fats, and then carbs). My salad even had a squeeze of lemon over it (apparently helping my body break down and digest food).

Only to find myself a few hours later… let’s just say not following the recommendations I’ve been learning. 🫣 

My hubby jokingly enquired about my newfound “healthy tips and remedies”. To which I replied, "It’s all about baby steps." 

Since starting this journey and finding inspirational people online, my algorithm has noticed.

That’s when I came across Jordan London’s account. I knew I had to message her.

Her smile and energy are so infectious. She went from a student at the Houston Ballet Academy to a professional dancer at the Estonian National Ballet. Now she's a growing entrepreneur.

From hearing the typical “too muscular for ballet” comments, to embracing her athletic body and celebrating strength.

She’s only been sharing her story online since July last year. Her message is inspiring and encouraging so many dancers and ex-dancers!

During our call - which felt more like two friends catching up than an interview - she shared how taking a break from ballet has helped heal her relationship with dance and her body.

All thanks to spending time traveling, in nature, and going to the gym.

Her story is so encouraging.

Jordan doesn’t just talk the talk. She is actively creating strength programs for dancers and coaching dancers. 

You can’t help but smile seeing how passionate she is about helping dancers. Helping embrace strong bodies and realize that strength takes your dancing to another level.

This article is FULL of practical tips that Jordan and I hope can help you on your own journey. 🫶 

When you left the company, did you question whether to continue or stop dancing? 

Oh, yeah!

I mean, I'm sure for you, too. When I left last year I felt so confused. I think at the beginning everyone who leaves a company thinks: “I'm done. I need my space.” 

It took many months for me to realize I still wanted to be connected to it. I needed space away from dancing, time to heal, and to rest first.

I'm still figuring out exactly how that looks…

What have you been up to since leaving the company last year?

My idea for this year was that I was going to be traveling. Seeing the world a bit, and it's been insane! 

I've learned so much, especially about life and what else is out there other than ballet. Obviously, it hasn’t been easy at times, but it's been really fun. 

It was actually during our trip to Las Palmas, a Spanish island, that I started taking class regularly again. I went to a local studio - with no expectations.

And I loved it! I realized I wanted to keep dancing and wanted to stay in the dance world somehow. 

I’m starting a business focused on ballet coaching and strength training for dancers. 

I love it and I hope that it shows. I hope when people see my passion for what I’m doing that they feel they can trust me to help them.

How have you found the entrepreneurial journey so far?

Starting your own business is definitely a difficult journey. 

As humans, we don’t always find it natural to work without results. We need results and a path to keep working. I’ve worked many months without results, and I still sometimes do.

I’m just trying to believe in myself, ignore people’s limiting beliefs, and keep going. I’m part of a dance entrepreneur mentorship program which has been so helpful. 

Sometimes it’s hard to see your progress from zero to where you are now. But so much growth takes place when we look back! 

The creativity I feel now is like nothing I’ve ever felt in the ballet company or school. And I didn’t even have to try to bring it out of myself. It just came!

I love the journey now. I never really understood the ‘falling in love with the process’ statement before - until this year. 

Looking back, I never really loved the rehearsal process. I should love the process, right? You have more rehearsal process than you do performance.

But now I love the journey because it's you just figuring it out. You problem-solve and it's amazing. 

So even though it’s stressful because of the instability and unknown of it, it’s so rewarding, too.

Overcoming a perfectionist mindset

Being vulnerable is a big part of the entrepreneurial journey. You can work so hard on something and yet be humbled really quickly if people don't want it.

I find myself redoing the strength program three times. I keep questioning if it’s good enough for a dancer, or I keep changing my mind about it. It’s that perfectionist mindset.

It’s scary to put it out there because what if no one wants it? To go ahead with something even when it isn’t perfect.

To help me with my intentions, I’ve started creating a new lock screen for my phone every month. For the month of May, it reads:

• Just start

• Take your time

• Pick something from your list (hello scatterbrain)

• Visualize your life

• Tidy your space

‘Just start’ it's big because you'll never know unless you do.

The reality of being in a professional ballet company

I got so tired of having to prove myself at school and in the company. 

It becomes so focused on what the directors think about your performance. What they think about your attitude, your body, and everything else. 

After every show dancers would ask me what the director or ballet masters said. Wondering if they were happy with the performance. 

How about asking: How did I feel during it? How did I think the audience felt watching? When we are fixated on asking the wrong questions, it isn’t about the audience anymore.

It hit me recently again that the entire purpose of dancing is to inspire people. To make the little kid want to become a ballerina. Or to put a smile on the old couple’s face at their yearly performance outing.  

It’s about the audience.

That took a lot of energy - always wondering what they would say after a show. I don't miss that part. 

There are some parts of the dancing that I might miss. But there’s always drama and the politics is in every company. That’s why this year I'm learning to slow down.

How did you learn to build a healthy body image? 

I love this question and honestly, I could talk about this for hours. I think it's so important to draw attention to.

When I left the company my body image was at an all-time low. Lower than when I was in the company. I was so worried about how my body was going to change after not dancing all day every day. It made me so concerned and preoccupied with that.

I'm a very active person so I need to stay active and keep moving. That’s when the gym became a huge outlet for me. 

And so I took a lot of mental focus into the gym. I like to push myself and feel like I'm still working towards something physically. I really channeled my energy into that. 

The gym gave me a different perspective on my body. 

Because in the ballet company, I felt I was more muscular. That I looked bigger than everybody else, but in the gym, I saw how the average person looks. I realized I’m okay and actually not big at all!

I was able to look at myself more objectively and with a different perspective.

And once I healed my relationship with food as well, the different pieces of the puzzle came together.

I started allowing myself to eat my favorite foods but doing it in moderation. I started putting myself on a schedule of eating three meals a day at the same time each day. Eating intuitively by limiting the distractions while I eat. That allowed me to enjoy the food in front of me and be present.

I'm happy with how I look now. I love being around people in the gym where strength is a goal and strength is celebrated. It allowed me to embrace looking strong and becoming stronger. 

And when I started dancing again, I started to feel better - more athletic.

This journey has healed it in the life sense not even just the ballet sense. It did need me to step away from dancing though. I don't think I would have been able to heal if I had still been in the company. 

But it’s been a long process. It's still not perfect and I'm still working on it. 

I noticed that I think about it less. It used to be very consuming and all I could think about in class.

Those little steps in the right direction made the whole picture better. 

I'm so thankful not to feel that way anymore! It was it was ripping my personality from me. It took all the life out of out of me. So I'm so happy not to think about it all day every day. 

The gym is something that really helped with that. And that's what I want to help dancers with - is the strength training.

I always thought that when I stopped dancing, I would NEVER take a ballet class again... As If it would bring back the past ‘traumas’ and unhealthy mindsets. 🙈 

Jordan’s story encourages me that maybe we can return to ballet one day (as a hobby or professionally) and find joy in it.

At the end of our call, she mentioned that having conversations like these is like “active healing”.

It helps us heal our relationship with dance one piece at a time.

My wish is that we can all help each other on this journey of healing and finding balance in ballet. Hopefully without having to step away from it completely to do so.

If you’re up for that, join me by subscribing to the newsletter below.

PS. You can follow Jordan on Instagram here to see what she’s up to. I would highly recommend her strength training programs as they are so beneficial for dancing!

PPS. The Story Goes is also on Instagram and will be getting more active 😉