Meet Jessie Alegria of Flywheel Sports, Barry’s Bootcamp & Urbanity Dance in Back Bay

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessie Alegria.

Jessie, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I think my journey towards becoming a full-time fitness instructor may differ from the norm. I’ve never held a corporate job, worked in an office or had a typical 9-5. I feel incredibly fortunate that I knew, since I was 16, exactly what I wanted to do. The problem was that I kept ignoring it. I am originally from Costa Rica — born and raised until I was 15 years old. My parents are a mix of Brazilian, Swiss, Russian and Nicaraguan and my classmates were equally as diverse. I was exposed, at a very early age, to different cultures, customs, languages and people’s own stories. I’ve always been interested in people and what makes them “tick”, so to speak. When I was 15, my mother got a new job teaching at a school in Washington, DC. She had spent some of her childhood in DC, moved back later in her 20s (where she had my brother and sister) and was therefore excited for the move. I, on the other hand, was not. I left my class of 16 students (all with whom I had run around in diapers) to a class of 500 students in an American public school. I was one of very few Latinx students there and felt very isolated. I sought escape in the only thing that I could bring back from my life in Costa Rica — dance.

After school I’d go to the dance studio and take back-to-back classes until the sun came down. I took everything from ballet to jazz to Hip Hop to Modern, and loved it all. I loved learning, being physically and emotionally challenged; I loved performing and making the audience light up. After high school, I stayed in DC for my gap-year. This wasn’t exactly by choice, however. Since moving to DC, my mother and I had been in the long, strenuous, EXPENSIVE battle towards gaining American citizenship. Since immigration is a highly sensitive subject (always!) but especially now, I feel it right to say that though it took over 12 years of waiting, applications, fees, doctor appointments, blood tests, interviews, exams and so on, I acknowledge my privilege in my personal immigration story. I include it here merely because it is a major part of my identity. During my gap year I danced with a Hip Hop company, led by amazing instructors and choreographers who, hands down, inspired me to be the instructor I am today. (You actually interviewed one– Aysha Upchurch!) I also got a taste to teaching and choreographing — and was hooked. Especially with Hip Hop. When it came time to apply to colleges, however, I didn’t look for ones with vigorous Dance programs. In fact, none of the schools I applied to had Hip Hop. This is when I started to ignore my passion. I continued to dance and actually directed a Hip Hop group on campus, but as much as I loved creating, moving, connecting with others, I never thought I could actually make a career out of it. I got my BA in Anthropology (again, people/ cultures/stories etc.) but was terrified to commit myself fully to what I knew I was meant to do.

I moved to Boston in 2012 with no job. I had spent the previous summer in NH working as a “movement counselor” at a treatment center for children and adolescents with severe behavioral issues. It was the hardest job I’ve ever had but showed me just how powerful movement is. I moved to Boston hoping to continue working in that way but still telling myself I needed a more “respectable corporate job.” The more I searched for such a thing, the more I wanted to run away from it all and just dance. I started to teach some dance and fitness classes on the side and after time, as I continued to meet so many amazing people, got to hear their personal stories and goals, and was blessed to see, on the daily, how much dance, fitness, music and community impacted their lives, the more I fell in love what I was doing. I haven’t looked back since. I say this a lot but I mean it–I am here because of my clients. (Whom I call “Fam” or “Squad”.)

Has it been a smooth road?
I struggled finding “my place” in the world when moving to the US. I felt like an outcast, I felt different, I felt judged.

This, however, I believe has helped me as an instructor–because I can relate to those feelings of insecurity (whether they be about identity, purpose, or one’s own body.)

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Flywheel Sports, Barry’s Bootcamp, and Urbanity Dance story. Tell us more about the business.
I work for amazing companies that know how to build and foster communities through dance and fitness.

Flywheel Sports, Barrys Bootcamp & Urbanity Dance

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I just hope to teach for as long as I possibly can. Even on my busiest weeks, I never think of teaching as “work” and I know that won’t ever change. I hope to keep creating, building and fostering communities, meeting new people and helping them feel really, really good about themselves.

Contact Info:

• Email: jessiealegria1@gmail.com
• Instagram: @jessie_alegria
• Facebook: @jessiealegriafitness

Image Credit:
Chris Capozzi
Nick Cosky

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