Today we’d like to introduce you to Ellie Foster
Hi Ellie, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Ellie: I had to learn. This girl was absolutely killing it on the dance floor at a music festival I was attending. Once I got home, I typed in “how to shuffle” on YouTube and I began to practice for hours and hours a week. I fell in love with the dance. At the time, I didn’t know any other shufflers in Cincinnati, so I started a Cincy shufflers Instagram page to connect the shuffle community.
Grant: Back in 2021 Ellie and I met to practice shuffling together and envisioned creating a shuffle group in Cincy like the groups in Chicago and LA. Inspired by the Dirtybird Brand, we decided to rebrand Cincy shufflers to Cincy Horseplay as a beacon and community for shufflers in Cincinnati. We began holding shuffle “Meetups” in parks with a battery powered boombox. At first, we had very little attendance. Now we have unprecedented growth.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Grant: Starting out, we had very little attendance, often times just dancing with each other.
Ellie: There weren’t a lot of shuffle dancers in Cincinnati yet, so we built a brand that would come across as welcoming and fun. I asked my good friend, Avery Nowosielski to create a logo, and she nailed it. I started creating flyers and taking videos for our meetups and posting them to social media. Grant made it his mission to make each and every person feel welcome when they arrived.
Grant: We persisted and improved the meetup experience by adding instruction. We established our digital presence with videos and tutorials, slowly gaining traction and recognition from the online community. We refined our community experiences year after year and eventually got a consistent following as people trickled into our events from curiosity.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Ellie: I’m a dancer, a shuffler. I specialize in building dance skills through a focus on techniques, styles, choreography & musicality. My approach blends elements of jazz, tap dancing, and hip-hop. When I started shuffling, I didn’t have access to local resources to help me learn. I would travel to New York and Florida for in-person instruction, and take online lessons from California-based shufflers. My goal was to carry what I learned from shuffle legends like Elena Cruz, Vanesa Seco, and Mary Grace O’Connor back to Cincinnati.
Grant: I’m most proud of the people that make up the Cincinnati shuffle community. What started as two shufflers dancing alone has grown into a thriving Cincinnati community. And for anyone who has ever felt like we once did, passionate but alone, all it takes is one step to join.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
Ellie: I feel lucky that I’m in Cincinnati living 20 years behind the times. Shuffling has popped up everywhere, but I feel so grateful to be one of the first shufflers in this city.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cincyhorseplay/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/154MkKLfUC/?mibextid=wwXIfr
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@cincyhorseplay?si=ySmjwOjxVKwDAFqE
- Other: https://linktr.ee/cincyhorseplay?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=1ed54eec-af4f-45e1-b7b2-b1ee69169cfa
