Tyde-Courtney Edwards

‎Tyde-Courtney Edwards (born 1987) is an American dancer and businesswoman. She founded Ballet After Dark, an organization that offers ballet classes to survivors of trauma and assault. Quotes Conversation with Tyde-Courtney Edwards, founder of Ballet After Dark, about healing, community, and using business to build connections ‎Tyde-Courtney Edwards, founder of Ballet After Dark, on healing, community, and business as a bridge I founded this organization as a result of recognizing the lack of prevention and recovery resources centered around women that looked like me. I was searching for a community to heal with, and there was nowhere for me to go. I consider myself a late bloomer in many elements of entrepreneurship. I’m constantly learning something new. The transition definitely wasn’t easy. Nothing in my background was remotely close to entrepreneurship or business management. I was a resident dance teacher for various schools in Baltimore City. I had zero business experience and no college degree. I had experience pushing myself, and I understand now that the grit, ambition and determination necessary to show up to ballet auditions prepared me for this journey. We facilitated a number of listening sessions and did customer discovery to find out what resources the community lacked and created programming and partnerships that filled in those gaps. I was given when getting set up on social media. I was able to pilot languages, images, captions and taglines that really helped me understand my audience and customer persona. A Conversation with Ballet After Dark with Tyde-Courtney Edwards ‎Supporting survivors through dance: a dialogue with Ballet After Dark’s Tyde-Courtney Edwards Thank you so much for having me. I am the founder and CEO of Ballet After Dark. We are a nonprofit organization based in Baltimore City, that provides trauma informed program somatic interventions. Our other programs focus on engagement, exposure, and art enhancement and appreciation. We do believe that allowing for survivors to be reintroduced to some type of routine really, really complements their healing journey. So that's why we wanted to make sure that when we were developing our programing, we had a variety for them to choose from. Putting power back into their hands and letting us know how they want to heal. We've created, a few different ways for us to, connect with community. Some of it is through strategic referral partnerships that we've built with charter schools, other victim service organizations. They focus on survivor justice and also just through creative word of mouth advertising. Ballet After Dark: Body-based healing following sexual trauma ‎conversation with Tyde-Courtney Edwards, founder of Ballet After Dark It was when I really started understanding that in order for me to receive corrections while I'm in the studio. I have to develop a sense of comfort. I had about allowing people into my personal space, I had to let that go. I was paying attention to how I was feeling and how I was changing emotionally when I was in the studio. I was noticing how it didn't feel like a chore. I think one of the biggest challenges that survivors face is identifying as a survivor. A lot of the trauma we endure is conditioned to be treated as either a rite of passage. I would probably say instead of dissecting whether or not you, as an individual, would be considered a survivor. You have to kind of separate yourself from it. You have to take into account every element that went into this traumatic situation and you have to break it down. I like to think that healing requires an innovative and holistic approach. I like what we provide should be done in conjunction with your traditional mental health care. External links ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎Category:1987 births ‎Category:entrepreneurs ‎Category:Living people ‎Category:Chief executive officers ‎ Category:Businesswomen from the United States ‎Category:21st-century African-American women ‎Category:21st-century African-American people ‎Category:20th-century African-American people ‎Category:20th-century African-American women Category:Dancers from the United States Category:Women born in the 1980s