Jets, Dance and Entrepreneurship
Xten (Christen) Ancona works full-time as the Executive Vice President of sales for Vault Aviation, a private jet company based out of Dallas after an award-winning career as an IT/Software sales executive. She has also been teaching and dancing professionally for more than 18 years, working with names such as the Dallas Cowboys. Her obsession though, she says, is teaching Latin fusion dance classes to adult beginners. And she doesn't have a light touch, for anything she puts her mind and heart to will catch fire.
Sitting Still
On November 17, 2018, Xten learned of the passing of her best friend. The following months were tumultuous as she worked to keep her job, struggled with depression and anxiety, stopped dancing and attended therapy.
“I [was] in [my therapist’s] office having a full panic attack. The physical piece of not being able to breathe because of emotion is a very complex thing. And that was my breaking point.” Her therapist kindly but forcefully made her take medical leave, “It kind of snapped me into this realization [that] this whole time I've been avoiding this emotion, this grief, that I needed to go through to be mentally healthy.”
Xten traces this habit to losing her grandmother as a teenager, “I was suppressing a lot of emotions because I wanted to be perfect. I had been avoiding it to the point where now I [was] forced to make time for that illness.” Subsequently, Xten spent the first few months of her healing dealing with her grandmother’s passing before facing that of her best friend.
“It's not always what you think of when you think of wellness, right? You think of eating your vegetables and working out. Being healthy can mean facing emotions you're uncomfortable with. It can mean taking time to grieve. It can mean sitting still for a few days.”
The Sound of Música Latina
In 2019, Xten started to dance again and her passion returned two-fold. “I found this different sense of purpose with it. I had this unexplainable want and need to teach and spread the happiness that dance gives to me to others and show them what getting up and moving your body can do for you.” In 2020, she began to teach again. From this, came the idea to make her own activewear shorts.
Xorties is Born
“In that journey, I struggled to find clothing that made me feel secure and good because my weight and all these things were fluctuating. That's where my idea for Xorties came about, to create a line of luxury athletic wear brand that promotes movement for mental health.”
Just as with everything else, Xten approached creating her own clothing with a fierceness. “It took a while to get the shorts perfect because I didn't want to launch something unless I truly believed in it. That's why I feel so proud to be able to say this is a premium brand.” After the 3 years it took to source the best US-made materials and manufacturers and design them specifically for movement and activity, Xorties launched in April of 2024.
What Serves You
Wellness means learning to say “no” to things that don't serve your wellness journey. For Xten, that meant deciding to stop drinking alcohol. Alcohol, being a depressant, waged war on all her progress toward becoming physically and mentally healthy. “When you experience loss, grief and hard moments, you start to figure out what's important to you. I've chosen to eliminate the things that don't serve me in my life and fill it with things that I wake up and want to do. And I think that's the number one thing: loving whatever it is that you're doing,” she says. Even dairy and fried foods were cut out of her diet as they caused breakouts and affected the way she felt about herself.
But saying “no” can also mean removing yourself from the proximity of people who only bring you down. “I have to prioritize surrounding myself with people who support my journey. Not that they have to be on the same journey as me, but people that are understanding of my goals in my life, help support that and make me feel empowered.” As busy and active as Xten is, saying “no” to projects was just as important as saying “yes” to Xorties.
Coming Full Circle
Now in 2025, comes a very “full circle moment” for Xten as she plans for her wedding to fiance Chris, “I feel like I had to become my best self and be the best version I can be so that I could meet my person.” As with everything she does, Xten is going big with her wedding that will take place this February, standing next to the Mayan pyramids of her ancestors in Mexico.
Find Xten on Instagram @xtenancona and purchase a pair of her activewear shorts at xorties.com.
Anything she puts her mind and heart to, will catch fire
I was suppressing a lot of emotions because I wanted to be perfect. I had been avoiding it to the point where now I [was] forced to make time for that illness.