MENINA FORTUNATO
The Creator/Founder of
MY DANCE CAREER
I am a Portuguese & French Canadian, born & raised in British Columbia, Canada. I have dedicated most of my life motivating and inspiring others through dance as a dance educator, performer and choreographer.
I have been teaching dance for 25+ years, have an extensive dance background performing on TV, film, live shows, commercials all over the world (over 40 countries). I have taught thousands of dancers worldwide from small children to professionals and everyone in between. I was also a guest instructor on VHI's Celebrity Fit Club and a guest judge on the TV show Dance Moms.
I have shared the stage or the screen as a dancer with Britney Spears, Beyonce, Earth Wind & Fire, Beyonce, Maluma, Carmen Electra, ZZ Top, Luis Miguel, Rain (Bi), Carrie Underwood, MC Hammer to name a few.
I have also performed as a dancer on America's Got Talent, Latin American Music Awards, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Star Trek: Enterprise, Spike TV's Guy's Choice Awards, MAD TV, and was Jennifer Garner's Dance Double on Alias.
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ABOUT PRENATAL DANCE
I created PRENATAL DANCE during my first pregnancy in 2010 & released the DVD on Amazon in 2012. At the time, there weren’t any dance based programs for pregnant women, so I wanted to create a fun full body no impact dance workout that women could do at any stage of pregnancy.
PRENATAL DANCE caught the attention of major media outlets that led to international exposure on TV shows, magazines, red carpet events and news articles in Canada, US and UK.
PRENATAL DANCE was named one of “Hollywood must have products” at the Pre-Golden Globe Baby Boom Boom Gifting Suites. This DVD got in the hands of many celebrities including Christina Milian, Melissa Joan Hart, and Shanola Hampton.
ABOUT DANCE WITH MENINA
After I had my 3rd baby at home during the lockdown in 2020, I suddenly wasn’t able to travel, teach, perform or produce any live dance events due to the pandemic restrictions.
My dance career of 25+ years came to a halt & I was going through an identity crisis. I had to lean on my husband financially for the first time in my life. It really crushed my ego and had me feeling lost and frustrated.
I knew that I wasn’t the only mom stuck at home, feeling isolated and out of shape.
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This crisis inspired me to start teaching LIVE zoom dance classes from home to other moms with babies. We didn’t have access to childcare, so I incorporated our babies into the dance classes. After a couple months of teaching, I got back in shape & started to feel like myself again.
As much as I enjoyed teaching, I realized that live online classes were not convenient for me or my mom clients especially with unpredictable babies & never ending tech issues.
That led me to create an on-demand postnatal program so moms can take my classes from home at their convenience from my new web app.
After a year of focusing on postnatal dance, I added classes for moms without babies and decided to rebrand all my programs as DANCE WITH MENINA, that now serves moms at every stage of motherhood (prenatal, postnatal dance & beyond)
I also hired a team of nutritionists to add a comprehensive nutritional program to maximize my clients results.
I expanded my programs by adding world class guest dance/fitness instructors who are all amazing mothers and a new mindset coach to help moms overcome mental roadblocks.
Now my programs are way more than just dance. I offer holistic transformational programs that will transform your mind, body and soul so you can be a happier, healthier & fit mom.