From Young Performer to Community Leader: Braelinn Johnson’s Journey of Growth Through the Arts

When Braelinn Johnson was a teenager, growing up in Los Angeles’s San Fernando Valley, she carried two dreams she wasn’t sure she’d ever reach: becoming a dancer and becoming a mother. Today, she is both — and the story of how she got there is one of sustained faith, hard-won leadership, and the quiet power of the arts to shape a life.

Braelinn’s introduction to ICAP came through iChoose-LA, a Broadway-style musical promoting nonviolence and anti-bullying. Created by singer-songwriter and ICAP board member M. Lavin.

iChoose has reached students across the United States and in Norway and New Zealand, delivering a message that wisdom, courage, compassion, and dialogue can help young people overcome bullying and adversity. In 2011, Braelinn was among a dozen young artists who spent three weeks in rehearsal before touring ten Southern California high schools, performing for thousands of students and leading discussions about the challenges they faced. The program was warmly received by students, educators, parents, and local media alike.

For Braelinn, the experience was more than a performance opportunity. “Two things I can say I have always wanted to be are a dancer and a mom,” she reflected recently. “Neither of these dreams came easily to me. This is the story of how I developed my life to become both, and so much more.”

She grew up navigating family discord that often left her feeling inadequate and uncertain of her own worth. What helped ground her was the cultural life of her community — particularly a local youth dance group whose energy, unity, and commitment spoke to something in her. When she turned 12, she was finally old enough to join. “Although I often felt like an outsider,” she recalls, “it became the place where I challenged my insecurities and developed confidence. What made this dance special was that it wasn’t about being the most technically perfect dancer. It was about expressing your life and inspiring others through your performance.”

As she grew within the group, she stepped into leadership roles, helping others deepen their connection to their own potential. A major turning point came when she served as a dance leader for a large-scale youth performing arts event in Long Beach in 2011, helping unite hundreds of young dancers on stage.

“Through that experience, I realized I could lead, create, and inspire others on a larger scale,” she says. A senior coach’s lesson stayed with her: every challenge can become an opportunity for growth, and sincere efforts toward our dreams are never wasted.

Translating that conviction into a career took time. She worked many jobs, most of which she didn’t love — though each, she says, taught her something valuable. The exception was any work involving children, which always felt like it was pointing her somewhere meaningful. “I still had no concrete way of making my passion become my career,” she acknowledges. “Yet each experience helped me continue growing.”

The path clarified when she became manager of Sophie Dance, a Los Angeles children’s dance studio founded in 2007, and helped launch its Sophie Dance West location in 2019. Offering ballet, tap, jazz, and hip hop to children from 18 months to 18 years of age, Sophie Dance is built on a philosophy of nurturing each child through what its founders describe as heart-to-heart connections — making the studio not just a place of business but an extension of family. For the first time, Braelinn felt she was building something that brought together her love of dance, her commitment to children, and her drive to encourage others.


Then came the pandemic. Like so many in the arts, the studio faced deep uncertainty. Braelinn and studio founder Miss Sophie worked to keep staff employed and students connected — through dance pods, outdoor classes, and lessons in families’ backyards. Out of that pressure came a partnership built on trust, creativity, and shared purpose.

In 2021, Miss Sophie offered Braelinn a 25 percent ownership stake in Sophie Dance West. “For me, that moment represented far more than a business opportunity,” Braelinn says. “It was proof that years of faith, effort, leadership, and challenging my limitations had created causes that were now bearing fruit.” Today, the studio is co-owned by Braelinn, Miss Sophie, and Kat — the studio’s creative director and the force behind its new theatre program — and serves more than 500 students across its locations.

Two years later, Braelinn learned she was pregnant. Though unplanned, the news felt right. The stability of business ownership and the support of friends and family gave her the confidence to step fully into motherhood.

“One of the greatest joys of my life is seeing both of my long-held dreams realized,” she says. “Not only do I help lead a dance studio that nurtures young artists, but I also get to watch my own daughter dance in the very studio that I helped build.”

She now navigates the overlapping demands of co-running a growing studio and raising what she describes, with evident affection, as “the most strong-willed two-year-old I have ever met.” It’s a life she continues to approach with intention — she has recently pursued a certification in Reiki and describes her journey as one of ongoing spiritual as well as professional growth. Far from feeling overwhelmed by the new pressures, she sees them in the same light she has learned to see every challenge: as an invitation to grow.

It’s a perspective that traces back, in no small part, to a teenager standing on a high school stage with ICAP’s
iChoose
program, learning for the first time what it felt like to use performance to connect with others and spark something in them. That instinct — to lead, to encourage, to create space for others to find their own voices — has never left her.