S2E8: Speak your Truth with Cierra Lauren

In today’s episode we sit down with world renowned dancer, Cierra Lauren. Cierra has had an extensive and amazing career as a dancer, but recently gained more notoriety for her courage to come forward with reports of abuse and assault against a prominent leader in the dance community.  We experience some technical difficulties, but power through this candid, interesting and intimate conversation with Cierra.  She openly shares some life changing milestones, talks about her first exposure to hip hop and building a studio from the ground up at the young age of 17.  Cierra openly shares a near death experience while pursuing a major career opportunity and teaches us a lesson in the value of failing. She discusses the origins of her non-profit organization Speak Your Truth Worldwide and bravely shares her experience with the notorious AOV founder and owner. In addition to Speak Your Truth Worldwide, Cierra shares the details for her podcast “Unscripted”.  We wrap the episode with a fun round of rapid fire, Cierra shares her opinion on what’s good in the dance community and we’re reminded of the strong unstoppable warrior that Cierra Lauren is.

In this episode, we explore: 
00:32        Introduction
02:52        A warrior mentality
05:26         Cierra’s first hip hop class
11:45        Building a studio from the ground up
14:22        No room for self doubt        
16:55        Cierra’s advice to a younger self        
19:05         Making a name for herself
21:38        A major opportunity in Cierra’s career
*We begin to experience some technical difficulty with the video component*
24:00        A near death experience
30:15        When a door closes, another one opens
*We switch locations and our video component resumes*
35:02        There are no bumps in the road, that is the road
37:22        Speak Your Truth World Wide
43:06        A fight for her life and her commitment to the dance community
56:20        We as a dance community can no longer accept this behavior
58:20        Moving toward a safer community
1:02:19    Rapid fire questions
1:09:34    What’s good in the dance community?
1:11:27    Closing remarks
1:14:22    Thank you for a wonderful Season 2!

This episode’s guest(s):
Follow Cierra Lauren on Instagram
Follow Speak Your Truth Worldwide on Instagram
Learn more about Speak Your Truth Worldwide 
Learn about how you can support Speak Your Truth Worldwide 
“Backin’ It Up”, Cierra Lauren 
“Can’t Say”, Cierra Lauren
“The Morning”, Cierra Lauren
“Work”, Cierra Lauren  
"Who Do You Love", Cierra Lauren  
“It Matters”, Cierra Lauren
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Special thanks to: 
-Jane Banares for creating our Co-Lab Podcast artwork 

Music by Sam Stan - Das Boo - https://thmatc.co/?l=997FC418
Music by SkeetOnTheBeat - Late Night - https://thmatc.co/?l=E76B5749 

The conversation continues over on Instagram and TikTok
Have a guest suggestion or just want to say hello? Drop us a line at hello@co-labpodcast.com 
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