Gal BePole, Dance Speak Founder

At 25, I was getting my master's in microbiology and genetics by day and teaching dance by night. I had a very sensible plan for my life. Then I got skin cancer, which was not part of the plan.

I went through extensive surgery, and as I lay on my sofa for 3 weeks because standing hurt, I got a message that was impossible to ignore: my mission on earth is to lead people in dance. So I did the obvious thing. I left science and started teaching dance.

At the time, I focused on twerking, a dance rooted in Black culture, as a way to empower women. I built a movement in Israel, my home country, and toured the world teaching workshops and training teachers in my methodology.

I spent 5 years growing this movement internationally: teaching thousands of classes and workshops, reaching 10,000 students in my online school, and building an online community of 100,000 people. Women embraced their bodies after years of eating disorders, started wearing shorts and bathing suits in public, and went after audacious career opportunities, all because of the confidence they built in the studio.

In 2021, I moved to New York for an MBA at NYU Stern. Business school is not where you expect to find the missing piece of your dance career, but it was after that highly structured environment that I discovered somatics and character work. Suddenly I understood something I'd been watching for over a decade: the way people move their bodies in public is the way they move through their lives.

Expand your capacity to dance in public, and you'll see changes in your personal and professional life as a result.

That's what Dance Speak is. The best coaching methodology to accelerate your freedom in your body, and your self-actualization in life.

15 years teaching

10 international tours

13+ countries

90+ instructors trained

thousands in the room, 10,000+ online

How Dance Speak Started

I was at a festival, dancing with my eyes closed, going completely wild. I was praying nobody was watching me because I was going so hard.

Then I opened my eyes, and nobody was watching me.

And honestly?

I was a little offended.

So I found a small side stage, climbed up, and kept going. Slowly, people started to look... and I loved it!

I was being seen, and every minute I stayed up there, I could handle a little more of it.

I was feeling the music, letting my movements crescendo as the track built toward the drop. I went all out, sure I knew exactly when the beat would drop, and it didn't.

I completely fumbled, in front of everyone watching me.

I felt the anger and the embarrassment hit my gut at the same time. And instead of climbing down, I turned them into my next move: a dance about how furious I was at the music for fooling me.

That's where Dance Speak was born.

We all want to be seen.

We all mess up.

And when you let your body say exactly what the moment feels like, the mess-up becomes the best part of the dance.

That's why I call it dance for non-dancers.

You don't need to be good.

You just need to show up and let your dance speak.