For a long time I operated under my own name.
Aisha Francis Studio. Clean. Professional. Safe.
And honestly too small for what I was actually trying to do.
The name made sense on paper. I had spent over 20+ years building a career in this industry. I choreographed for Janet Jackson, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Alicia Keys, Jennifer Hudson, Nicole Scherzinger, Kelly Rowland, Victoria Monét, Normani, Chloe, Teyana Taylor, Miguel, and more. I created the heels dance genre in 2003 when it did not have a name yet. I gave it one. My name felt like the right thing to put on the door.
But here is the thing nobody tells you about building something under your name alone; it puts a ceiling on it before it even gets started.
Because this was never just about me.
It Was Never Just About Class
When women walked through my door they were not just coming to learn choreography. They were coming because something in them needed to move. Needed to release. Needed to feel something they had not felt in a long time or maybe ever.
I watched mothers who had given everything to their families finally take one hour just for themselves. I watched women who had been told their whole lives that they were not the right size, the right age, the right type walk out of that room standing two inches taller. I watched complete beginners who swore up and down they could not dance, discover something inside themselves that had been waiting their entire life to come out.
That is not a studio. That is a movement.
And a movement cannot live inside one person's name.
Why Haus AF
Haus AF is what this was always supposed to be.
A place. A community. A culture.
The word Haus means home. And that is exactly what I wanted to build; a home for every person who has ever walked into a room and wondered if they belonged there. The answer here is always yes. It has always been yes. It will always be yes.
The AF is for all of us. Every woman. Every body. Every age. Every background. Every stage of life.
And I mean every.
Because when I say this space was built for women I am talking about all of us. Every woman who has ever felt too much or not enough. Every woman who has given and given until she forgot what it felt like to do something just for herself. Every woman who has been told to be quieter, smaller, more appropriate.
I am also talking about every person who has ever felt like the fitness world was not built with them in mind. If you have ever walked into a gym or a studio and felt like you were in the wrong room you are in the right room now. Haus AF was built for the human experience. All of it. No exceptions.
What This Place Is Actually For
Let me be completely honest about what we are building here.
This is not a dance studio. It is not a gym. It is not a wellness brand.
It is all of those things and none of them at the same time.
Haus AF exists so you can get fit without it feeling like punishment. So you can feel sexy without needing anyone's permission. So you can build confidence in your body not by changing what it looks like but by discovering what it can do. So you can walk into a room and take up exactly the space you deserve, which is all of it.
We train in heels and in flats. We move sensually and we sweat. We learn choreography and we freestyle. We work hard and we laugh. We show up for ourselves and in doing that we end up showing up for each other.
That is what happens when you build a space intentionally. Community does not have to be forced. It grows on its own when people feel safe enough to be real.
Built By a Woman. Built For Everyone.
I am a woman who spent decades in rooms where the rules were written by other people. I learned early that if I wanted a space that truly reflected what I believed, what I knew about movement, about confidence, about what people are capable of when someone actually believes in them, I was going to have to build it myself.
So I did.
Haus AF is that building. And That Girl Talks is where I talk about what is happening inside it; the classes, the courses, the students, the moments that remind me exactly why I do this work.
This is the first post. There will be many more.
Welcome to the Haus.
Welcome home. 🖤
— Aisha Francis, Founder of Haus AF
Creator of heels dance. Choreographer. Teacher. Builder.
Move. Sweat. Own It.
