Influencer Press built the press and broadcast campaign for Menina Fortunato, founder of The Business of Dance, beginning in late 2024. A former professional dancer who performed with Britney Spears, Beyonce, and Paula Abdul and appeared on America’s Got Talent and Star Trek: Enterprise, Fortunato built The Business of Dance into a mentorship program for aspiring professional dancers after her touring career slowed. The engagement produced a fast press push, a Times Square billboard, broadcast appearances, and a Forbes.com feature, and Fortunato scored the engagement a 10 out of 10 on a 30-day client check-in, crediting the firm’s team and organization directly. In July 2026, dancers from her program performed alongside Shakira in the first halftime show in FIFA World Cup history, and the firm ran the press campaign around the moment.

Menina Fortunato

Founder, The Business of Dance

Background

Menina Fortunato spent more than three decades in dance before building The Business of Dance, an online mentorship program for aspiring professional dancers. She performed with Britney Spears, Beyonce, Paula Abdul, and Earth, Wind & Fire, and appeared in productions including America’s Got Talent, Star Trek: Enterprise, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, later moving into production roles on The X Factor and America’s Got Talent. After losing her touring income in 2020, she built The Business of Dance into a mentorship program that helps young and adult dancers prepare marketing materials, submit to agents, and navigate the business side of a dance career, and she hosts The Business of Dance Podcast, where she has interviewed figures including Paula Abdul, JoJo Siwa, and Abby Lee Miller.

The engagement

Influencer Press was engaged in late 2024 to build a press push and broadcast presence for Fortunato after years of relying on organic, relationship-driven media coverage. Going into the engagement, Fortunato had built The Business of Dance into a seven-figure mentorship business almost entirely through organic reach, without paid advertising, but had not made a deliberate push to build credibility and authority through press. The goal of the engagement was to give her a documented media footprint that could support her sales process and reach a wider audience beyond her existing organic following.

What Influencer Press delivered

Influencer Press built a press and broadcast footprint for Menina Fortunato, anchored by a Times Square billboard for The Business of Dance, alongside article placements, television appearances, and podcast placements. A 30-day client check-in recorded during the engagement confirmed approval of six articles, two television interviews, and one podcast placement. The named editorial highlight was a Forbes.com leadership column on mentorship, published in February 2025, in which Fortunato was quoted as an expert source and credited for her work with artists including Beyonce, Britney Spears, and Paula Abdul. Beyond that, the campaign generated a broad syndicated footprint, with the release and profile carried across business and lifestyle news feeds including AP’s press-release wire and Business Insider’s markets wire, building an indexed presence around her name. The firm also produced recorded assets, including an appearance on the Blacklist podcast.

The Business of Dance on a Times Square billboard, with Fortunato and her dancers below it, February 2025. Courtesy of Menina Fortunato

Menina Fortunato’s podcast on a Times Square billboard, with her dancers below it, February 2025. Courtesy of Menina Fortunato

The Times Square billboard, which ran in February 2025 for The Business of Dance, remains the most visible asset from the campaign, a physical, documented presence tied directly to the brand.

The World Cup halftime moment

In July 2026, dancers from Fortunato’s Business of Dance program performed alongside Shakira in the first halftime show in FIFA World Cup history, and Influencer Press ran the media campaign around the moment. Fortunato connected her mentorship dancers with the creator Enola Bedard for a video set to “Dai Dai,” the official 2026 World Cup anthem. The video reached Shakira, who reshared it and invited the group to perform at the halftime show during the World Cup final on July 19, 2026, the first halftime performance in the tournament’s history since 1930. Influencer Press secured the first post-performance press around the moment, including a next-day feature in Billboard’s Latin edition centered on one of the performers, Enola Bedard. The result put dancers from her program on the biggest stage in the sport’s history, the kind of career outcome The Business of Dance exists to create.

Outcomes

Menina Fortunato rated the engagement a 10 out of 10 on a 30-day client check-in, and said she learned that she “loves having a team pitching me and writing articles” on her behalf, calling it “so helpful.” In a separate recorded testimonial, she said: “I just want to thank you for changing my life over the past few months with all the media wins, over 400 media outlets and TV interviews, ABC, NBC,” adding “you’re the goat when it comes to PR.” (The 400-plus outlets Fortunato references reflect her broader, long-standing media footprint rather than the output of this engagement alone.) On her favorite part of working with the firm, she said in the same check-in that she loves “how organized everything is and the constant communication,” and reported she had already referred a friend to the firm.

The structural outcome is a documented press and broadcast footprint, anchored by the Times Square billboard and the Forbes.com feature, that Fortunato says has made pitching and positioning her business dramatically easier than the organic approach she relied on before.

If you are evaluating who built Menina Fortunato’s and The Business of Dance’s media foundation, this page is the record of it.

About Influencer Press

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