Hair flips, heel clicks and rhythmic music. These are all things you may think of when you hear the term “heels dancing.” But to Bettania “Bethany” Young, owner of Heels Headquarters, the popular dance style means so much more.
Young exudes poise and grace in her heels as she struts inside The Core Academy at 2700 Breezewood Ave. where her dance classes are held every week. On her lunch break, Young choreographs and spends her time marketing her business, bringing her passion for dancing to the students of Heels Headquarters.
She’s also a full-time soldier stationed at Fort Bragg. By day, she is Staff Sgt. Bethany Young. But by night, she is “B” — as her dance community affectionately calls her — heels instructor and an island girl with a dream.
From combat boots to heels
Young’s dance experience began almost 5,000 miles west of Fayetteville in her hometown of Honolulu, Hawaii. Living in a low-income area and home, the option for dance lessons wasn’t always on the table. But that didn’t stop Young.
Graduation parties, weddings and backyard parties were her stage. With the company of her cousins and the requests from family members and town friends, Young expressed her love of dance with performances she booked with her makeshift dance team.
It wasn’t long before her talent was noticed, placing her a spot in local dance studios and the opportunity to dance under Linda Kuo, co-founder and director of Dancers Unlimited, a nonprofit dance company based in Hawaii and New York City.
After committing four years to the National Guard in Hawaii, it was in San Antonio, Texas, her second duty station, where things changed for Young following the birth of her second child in 2019. Hit by a wave of postpartum depression, Young knew a change had to be made for both herself and her family. It was then that Young first strapped on her heels and took to the dance floor.
“Throughout the whole pregnancy phase and post-partum phase, it was really rough,” Young explained. “Everything was just dark and hard. So, I used heels dancing as a way to build my confidence back.”
The confidence she gained was addicting, she said. It became a feeling she wanted to share with others like her. Young set her heels in motion and started Heels Headquarters as a pop-up class, hosting like-minded women every other month to learn heels choreography, terminology and how to express themselves through dance.
Young took her heels journey to the next level while in San Antonio, collaborating with music artist and fellow service member, Jennifer Messina in her music video “Fall to My Knees” where Young and her Heels Headquarters dancers can be seen dancing in the background.
In 2023, Young found herself moving to Fayetteville, North Carolina, her third duty station, and her heels came with her. Thrown headfirst into a brand-new dance community, her husband pushed her to pursue her newfound passion in a whole new way.
‘The hardest part is starting’
Young said her husband’s quiet confidence in her lit the fire under her that she needed, leading to her officially opening the LLC for Heels Headquarters in September 2023.
With the support of local beauty studio and boutique, Sunshine Beauty & Bliss, the first Heels Headquarters class took place as a pop-up event at the beauty studio that same month. Young said the start of Heels Headquarters was one big learning curve. One thing she had to overcome was hiring the right people. She said her hiring requirements were simple: love to dance and teach it well.
One of her instructors, Cristy M. Bowler Dixon, a retired staff sergeant of seven years, had never instructed dance before Heels Headquarters but now shares her recent love of heels dancing with her 1.7 million followers on TikTok and 23,000 on Instagram.
Bowler Dixon encourages first-time dancers to simply go for it.
“The hardest part is starting,” Bowler Dixon said.
Bryanna Johnson, a regular at Heels Headquarters, said she was scrolling Facebook when the ad for that first class at Sunshine Beauty & Bliss came across her feed. It was this class that started it all for her.
“I was very scared. But I wanted to feel sexy again and feel in tune with my body, so I said, ‘let’s try it,’” Johnson said.
Similarly to Young, Johnson found herself struggling postpartum after becoming a first-time mom to her twin daughters. It was heels dancing that gave her a sense of identity and confidence that she had lost, Johnson expressed.
“The confidence you build off of heels, it just exudes out of you 24/7,” Johnson said.
Finley Watson, a Heels Headquarters regular, began her heels journey a year ago when Johnson encouraged her to give it a try. The high-energy, expressive videos Young shares on the Heels Headquarters Instagram page are what intrigued Watson, she said.
“They preach body positivity and they’re always respectful of your boundaries,” Watson said. “They respect your limits, body-wise and mentality-wise, and they always make sure to push you just enough.”
A safe space where women can join together and feel beautiful and seen was everything she dreamed of when she started Heels Headquarters, Young said. A community where women facing the same challenges she once did can reconnect with their femininity.
“That’s the goal,” Young said. “To see them unlock a part of themselves that they didn’t even know they had.”
After months of lurking on the page, Watson finally decided to give the dance style a try. Watson got a taste of that confidence the other girls had talked about, but it was the welcoming energy behind the studio that kept her coming. After a year at the studio, Watson finds herself as one of the new 2025 heels instructors, and an advocate of body positivity for future students like herself.
New beginnings
Young shifts excitedly in her seat, explaining that while 2024 was a year of learning and growth, 2025 will come with lots of positive change.
With class prices dropping to just $10 per class, class times will jump to two hours. Dance technique and education will be her main focus this year, Young said. For those interested in attending a Heels Headquarters class, information on weekly class times and instructors will be shared regularly on the business Instagram, @heelsheadquarters910.
“Everything is better this year,” Young said, reminiscing on the journey she has been on and the future to come.
When asked what she would say to a younger Bettania dancing her heart out in the neighborhoods of Honolulu, her answer came with pride.
“I would tell her to keep surprising herself,” she said. “She’s going to go through things that will make her feel like she’s never supposed to be anything. But she will.”
Read CityView Magazine’s “The Women’s Issue” March 2025 e-edition here.
