A Santa Monica College student who founded a breast cancer nonprofit at 14 raised $8,500 for patients struggling to pay their bills during treatment at a dance benefit in Beverly Hills earlier this month, during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Audriana Levian, founder and creative director of A Dream Love, said 40 guests between the ages of 5 and 80 attended Breast Dancer, a pink-themed dance fitness class held the morning of Oct. 11. Annie, an instructor with Exit 33 Dance, taught the class. It was the organization’s debut event.
“I wanted it to feel joyful rather than sad, a morning where people could move, celebrate, and give at the same time,” Levian said in written responses to questions.
Levian put the morning’s total at $8,500. The event’s online fundraising page drew $7,852 from 35 donors, including a single $5,000 contribution, with additional cash donated at the door.
Guests received custom hats, and Levian displayed dresses from her own designs. The office of Dr. Kristi Funk at Pink Lotus Breast Center recorded a video message for the event, she said.
Proceeds go to The Pink Fund, which covers rent, mortgage and car payments, utilities and other non-medical living costs for people in active breast cancer treatment. Levian also serves as a Pink Fund ambassador.
“A diagnosis brings medical bills, but it also brings the everyday bills that keep coming when someone is too sick to work,” she said.
That help lets patients “focus on getting well instead of on losing their home or their car,” Levian said.
According to A Dream Love’s website, The Pink Fund has awarded 5,270 grants since 2008 and distributed $1.5 million in financial aid in 2024-25. A Dream Love says it directs 100% of its event proceeds to patient support.
“I am raising money for people I have never met because, as a woman, I feel it is my responsibility,” Levian said. “The survivors I have met along the way are what keep me going.”
The cause is also personal. According to the organization’s website, a frightening breast health experience showed Levian how much access to medical care can depend on whether a person can afford another opinion. Her family was able to pay for additional care when they needed reassurance. The experience left her thinking about women who cannot afford the same.
Levian has been in fashion since age 10, when she staged her first show for an audience of 400, according to the website. She went on to produce 12 private shows by age 16, two a year.
In her freshman year of high school, she represented her school at the Golden Globes, walking the red carpet in a custom resin corset with gold flakes and a 24-inch bow of her own design. The Beverly Hills Courier covered the appearance in January 2025.
“It meant a great deal to me because I started A Dream Love after this at 14 with the belief that fashion could do more than look beautiful,” Levian said. “Seeing my work on that red carpet showed me that the same attention fashion receives could be turned toward a cause, and that is the idea A Dream Love is built on: wear a dream, and share the love.”
Levian graduated from high school early and is now a pre-health student at Santa Monica College. She said school “comes first, and my chemistry lab is the one thing that never moves.”
A self-described morning person, Levian said she does her most important work from 5 a.m. to noon and chooses one major focus each day, whether coursework, an event or a collection. Design work gets its own time on her calendar.
“The three areas also feed each other: medicine is why I care about patients, and fashion is how I bring people together to help them,” she said.
A Dream Love, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Beverly Hills, is scheduled to present at New York Fashion Week in February 2027, with ticket proceeds going to breast cancer patients. According to its website, the organization shares its runway with emerging designers it selects from California to Australia.
More information is available at adreamlove.org. The Breast Dancer fundraising page is at givebutter.com/breast-dancer.