Today we’d like to introduce you to Diana Soto.
Hi Diana, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I’ve been dancing pretty much my entire life. My parents originally put me in dance because I was incredibly hyper and they didn’t know what the heck to do with me! I also wore orthopedic boots as a child (which I apparently managed to break), and someone suggested ballet could help with my alignment and posture while giving me somewhere to channel all that energy.
It worked. I became a total dance-academy baby, taking multiple classes a week throughout my childhood and eventually becoming a professional dancer specializing in Spanish dance, particularly flamenco, as well as modern and contemporary dance.
Then, at 25, my life changed dramatically when I was diagnosed with breast cancer.
There’s a very clear “before” and “after” that comes with hearing the word cancer. After my diagnosis, I stopped dancing for several months. But as my birthday approached—and I was preparing to begin chemotherapy—I realized how badly I wanted dance back in my life. Dance had always brought me joy, and I needed some of that joy again.
The problem was that I was proud. I didn’t want to return to flamenco or contemporary dance, where people knew me as a strong, competent professional dancer. I was about to go through chemotherapy, lose my hair, and become physically weaker, and I didn’t want people to see me as a cancer patient. More importantly, I don’t think I wanted to see myself that way.
So I decided to try something completely new.
I’m originally from Puerto Rico, which is a small island where everybody seems to know everybody, and because I’d been dancing my whole life, I had already tried almost every dance genre available to me. The one thing I hadn’t tried? Belly dance.
I remember thinking, “This looks fun. It doesn’t seem that complicated.” Ha! I was *very* naive about belly dance back then. I was completely wrong about it being easy, but I was absolutely right about it being fun.
I thought belly dance would be a summer affair—something joyful to distract me while I went through chemotherapy before I returned to my “serious” dance career.
15 years later, I’m still here.
I fell completely in love with this art form. Belly dance helped carry me through an incredibly difficult period of my life. It reconnected me to myself and connected me to beauty in a way that illuminated my creativity. Eventually, I realized I wanted to pass some of what this dance had given me on to other people, and I made the decision to change directions professionally and dedicate myself to belly dance.
Today, my work has several facets. I produce events and educational experiences for belly dancers, coach and mentor intermediate and advanced dancers, and perform professionally throughout the Houston and Galveston area for weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, and other celebrations.
What I once thought would be a summer escape ended up completely changing the course of my life.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Definitely not! The beginning of my belly dance career was born under fairly dramatic circumstances, and the road since then has certainly had its plot twists.
One of the biggest came in 2017. I was at the height of my career in Puerto Rico: I ran a dance school with three locations, produced a dance festival, performed regularly at restaurants and events, and was thriving as a full-time artist.
Then Hurricane Maria hit.
The hurricane devastated Puerto Rico. Where I lived, we were without electricity for six months and without running water for four. So suddenly the question became: How do you keep a dance business going when you have no power and no water?
I’m incredibly grateful for the students I had at the time. They were extraordinarily loyal, and we were in the trenches together. We made do. But that experience also forced me to think seriously about the kind of future I wanted. I knew I wanted to have a family someday, and for me personally, Hurricane Maria made me realize that building that future might mean leaving Puerto Rico.
That decision eventually brought me to Houston in early 2020.
And then, just a couple of months after I arrived, COVID-19 hit.
I had moved to a new city as a full-time artist working in the entertainment industry—and suddenly the entire entertainment industry shut down. Once again, I had to figure out another way. I pivoted into online offerings and found ways to continue working and creating within the reality I had been given.
One of the biggest lessons my career has taught me is that, as an artist, you have to use your creativity both on and off the dance floor.
Creativity isn’t limited to the show you produce, the choreography you make, the painting you paint, or whatever your particular medium happens to be. You also have to be creative in how you craft your career. You have to be able to look at the circumstances in front of you—even when they’re nothing like what you planned—and ask, “Okay. What *can* I do with this?”
You pivot. You respond. You find another way.
I actually think this is one of the ways being an artist can make you a better businessperson. We’re accustomed to creating something where there was nothing before. We experiment. We problem-solve. We imagine possibilities. When you bring those same instincts into your career, they become incredibly powerful.
Six years after moving to Houston, I have a thriving dance career again. I produce events that bring dancers to Houston from across the country, perform professionally at restaurants, weddings and private events, and coach intermediate and advanced dancers.
But I also think it’s important to count our personal victories as victories. Since moving here, I bought a house. I got married. I got two kids. I built a life.
My career matters enormously to me, but it isn’t the entirety of my life—and ultimately, I think the life is what feeds the art.
The path has definitely been a winding one. But it has absolutely been worth it.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a professional belly dancer, coach and event producer, so my work really has three interconnected sides.
As a professional entertainer, I perform throughout the Houston and Galveston area at restaurants, weddings, birthdays, anniversaries and private events. As a performer, I’m known for being incredibly dynamic and engaging. I love walking into a room, reading the audience and figuring out exactly what that particular crowd needs. No two audiences are the same, and for me, great entertainment is about creating a connection with the people in front of you—not simply executing a beautiful dance.
I also coach intermediate and advanced belly dancers online, both in developing their dance craft and in building their careers. There are so many different paths a dancer can take professionally, and I’ve had experience across many of them. I love being able to help dancers figure out what *their* version of a fulfilling dance career looks like and then create a path toward it.
What makes my approach somewhat unique is that, in addition to being a dancer and educator, I’m a professional coach certified by the International Coaching Federation. That training deeply influences the way I work with dancers.
I believe dancers already possess far more strengths, resources and capacity than they sometimes realize. My job isn’t to create a carbon copy of myself or tell someone exactly who they should become. It’s to help them identify the strengths and resources they already have, develop the ones they need, and remain accountable to the goals and dreams they’ve chosen for themselves. I want to help dancers become more fully *themselves*.
The third side of my work is event production. I produce The Showgirl Experience, an annual Houston event focused on giving belly dancers the tools to grow as professional entertainers and develop sustainable careers. Our next event is November 21–22, and we’ll have dancers traveling to Houston from across the country.
I think what I’m most proud of is that all three parts of my career ultimately come back to the same thing: connection. Whether I’m entertaining a room full of people, sitting one-on-one with a dancer who is trying to figure out her next step, or creating an entire experience for dancers to learn and grow together, I want people to walk away feeling more alive, more confident and more connected to what brought them there in the first place.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Something that surprises a lot of people is that, in addition to my dance career, I also have a thriving corporate career. I’m a Vice President of Health Communications at Edelman, a global communications agency, where I’ve had the opportunity to work with clients including Google, the American Heart Association and Texas Heart Institute, among others.
Because I’m so active in my dance career, people often assume I’m a full-time artist. And I was, for many years. But today, I have both a corporate career and an artistic career—and perhaps the most surprising part is that I genuinely love having both.
When I transitioned from being a full-time artist into the corporate world, I worried about what that might mean for my identity as an artist. Instead, it actually set me free creatively.
There can be tremendous pressure when your art is responsible for paying every bill. Having a career outside of dance gave me the freedom to make artistic decisions based more on what excites me, what feels meaningful and what I want to explore—not simply on what I need to do to make a living.
I’ve also realized that these two sides of me aren’t in competition with each other. They’re both completely authentic to who I am. And, honestly, there’s much more crossover between those two worlds than people might expect.
Pricing:
- Belly dance shows for private events range from $250 – $500 pending on time duration, location and type of show
- Online coaching offerings start at $75+ depending on the offering
- Tickets for The Showgirl Experience range from $30 – $100 depending on the show/workshop/panel discussion
Contact Info:
- Website: https://dianadancemagic.thrivecart.com/the-showgirl-experience-2026/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dianadancemagic
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DianaDanceMagic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbNnKaPfC95l8clvnDyM4Pg/videos
