Traci Young-Byron is leading a group of young, strong girls at Miami Northwestern High School as they are part of the “G Girls” dance team. ALLBLK has released the series “Supa Girlz,” which follows the dance team. Young-Byron is the visionary director, helping the girls through their successes and struggles around the neighborhood of Liberty City.
Young-Byron spoke with rolling out about the series, her superpower, and the message she would give to young girls.
As director, what was your vision for these young girls on the dance team?
My vision for the dance team was to be something completely unorthodox and different than what most people were accustomed to seeing at that time in Miami. So, I wanted to change the game up a little bit because I felt like in Miami, everything is about tradition, and tradition is great, but sometimes you have to kind of stray away from those things in order to make history. My vision was to incorporate all sides of dance: ballet, modern jazz, hip-hop, and West African, in conjunction with marching band, so that’s what I wanted to happen. I think that I’ve done a great job of doing that in making a lane of our own and creating a space that is solely ours.
How did you uplift the dancers when they were going through hard times outside of dance?
One of my quotes is, “If you lead with the heart, the body will follow.” My goal is to tap into their heart and pierce their souls a little bit, which is why I’m so hard on them. I want to kind of break them down to build them back up. I want to strip them of all of the things that they think are important, and then I build them back up and pour other things that they need to [fill] them for the future.
My tough love is what helps them become resilient. It makes them push in their daily lives as well, not just in dance, so they can go home and tackle relationship issues, they can go home and be able to communicate effectively with their families and things of that nature, because as an artist, it teaches you to be creative, and it’s a place for you to where you can feel free and express yourself. I think that being able to be an artist and be a dancer helps them in their everyday lives.
What is your superpower?
My superpower is the ability to reach people and change lives through movement. I think [it’s also] my ability to just be authentically myself, and unapologetically who I am, and just to be able to exist in spaces where being a person like me wouldn’t normally be okay, and just be okay with being different. I think just being unique is my superpower, and being able to just embrace all of my flaws and all.
What message would you give to a young girl who is trying to find herself and build faith in who she wants to become in the future?
I think I’ll whisper in her ear to just embrace who she is. Nobody’s perfect. Nobody has it all. If you learn how to take your flaws and put them toward your purpose, nobody can use [them] against you. Learn from your mistakes; every “no” is not a “no”; it’s just not right now; there’s a lesson in every loss. If you just embrace who you are and just own all of you, then nobody can use it against you. Nobody’s perfect but you are perfectly made in the sight of God.
