Abagail Fritz performs on stage for Italian singer Gala Rizzatto. Photo(s) courtesy of Abagail Fritz.

It was one evening in August 2017 in Los Angeles, California, when Abagail Fritz hopped on stage at the Ford Theater during a Youssou N’Dour concert. (For those not familiar with Youssou N’Dour, a quick search identifies him as one of the top musicians in the world. At one point, “Rolling Stone” called him “perhaps the most famous singer alive” in Senegal and much of Africa).

During an improvisational part of the show, as concertgoers danced on stage, Abagail was singled out by one of Youssou’s bandmates, Mbaye Faye, who got on the microphone and began interviewing her live on stage. (A more detailed search will lead you to a YouTube video of this moment, with Abagail answering questions about where she studied dance).

When the music came back up, there was no cue for Abagail to start dancing, but she understood that she was meant to. “I did a solo, all freestyle; nothing was premeditated,” she says. “When I was done, the crowd and the band were shocked.”

That solo earned her a spot performing at one of Youssou’s subsequent shows in Paris at the Bercy Arena – a pivotal moment that Abagail points to as a launching point for her career.

Decades before this moment, though, Abagail was a little girl, growing up in Steamboat Springs, who loved to dance. “I grew up dancing around the house and putting on shows with my sisters,” she recalls. “We charged our parents money to attend.”

At that time, there was one dance teacher in Steamboat, Karen Como, who taught everything. Abagail moved through it all: jazz, tap, ballet. “I was with her until there were no more programs left, and then in my teenage years, I became self-taught,” Abagail says.

When she was a freshman in high school, she took an African dance class with local dancer Robin Getter and was immediately drawn to the rhythm and percussion that feature prominently in this specific genre of dance. When master dancers Fara Tolno, Djeneba Sako and Maputo Mensah came to Steamboat, they opened the door to the wider world of African dance. “Everything left an imprint on me,” she says.

At college in Chicago, Abagail majored in cultural studies while also pursuing her passion, now with a focus on West African dance. “I was really moved by the energy, connection and presence,” she explains. She took a semester off and went to Ghana for a month and a half with an NGO called Cross-Cultural Solutions. “I went as a volunteer English teacher but was really there to be a student myself,” Abagail says. She learned from the people, culture and experience, taking drum lessons and observing local dance troupes. “I wasn’t even dancing this trip myself, but just taking it all in.”

Post-college, she moved to San Francisco, where she could continue to immerse herself in the West African dance and drum culture. “I never thought it was possible to be a professional dancer, but I knew I was pursuing something I was passionate about,” she says. “I was meeting people, becoming stronger, enjoying the process of being challenged by the music and movement.”

Eventually, her teachers began asking her to perform and to teach others. “You have a responsibility to share your knowledge,” they told her.

It was a big responsibility. “These traditions have been shared with me and I’m so grateful, and I feel so much responsibility to do it correctly and share it correctly,” Abagail says. “In that regard, I’m always a student.”

Fast forward to the show at the Bercy Arena with Youssou N’Dour. Another search yields another YouTube video of this moment: Abagail dancing confidently in a solo on stage while the drums dictate an alluring rhythm. What the video will not show you is that Abagail only had two rehearsals before this moment.

“I didn’t hear the music in advance, no one gave me any instruction,” she says. “It was just boom – go."

A significant element of West African dance, too, is improvisation. “You have to be prepared to do what the moment asks of you,” Abagail explains. The music changed unexpectedly partway through the performance, taking on a life of its own with a live audience of 30,000. But Abagail danced unfailingly to the beat of the drum, and that moment opened a new world for her.

Abagail also danced at the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar Creates event, the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens, and the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. She has done shows across the world in the most famous venues imaginable. And for the past five years, she has been touring with Italian singer Gala Rizzatto.

During Covid, she started her company, Heart Dancer Experience, an online subscription that allows people to study dance from anywhere in the world, anytime they want. And recently, the company has moved into the dance retreat space, hosting international retreats around the world in places like Mexico and Portugal, and even cultural immersion trips to Senegal.

Abagail Fritz and her dance students on retreat in Senegal’s Sine-Saloum Delta, where they were immersed in movement, song, rhythm and culture with local artists.

“I believe dance is for everybody and everyone has the right to dance,” she says. “I like to work with all levels. Sometimes we try to convince ourselves that unless we look a certain way, have a certain body type, we can’t be dancers. I try to break that.”

In a prodigious career that has led her across the world, her roots in Steamboat are strong.

“Growing up in Steamboat, the impression of my natural environment and the vastness I got to play in and how it informed my imagination of possibilities is so deeply imprinted on me,” Abagail says. “As I move forward, especially with this style of dance, I can understand the similarities, and I can see why this makes sense to me. There are so many values that Steamboat taught me that have guided me through life: priorities, how to treat people, environment. It was really the foundation, 100%.”

Find more online at www.heartdancerexperience.com and on Instagram @HeartDancerExperience.