I even had the hair and wore leg warmers. I've been dancing for 32 years this July. I started with ballet when I was 3 years old and I got boobies at 8 and realized I'd never be a skinny ballerina. My dreams were crushed. So I moved on to hip hop. When my parents split, my mom reintroduced us to Christianity so we grew up in the church. We had a really cool church and we had a youth group that was like MTV for Jesus.
It was filled with bboys, graffiti artists, and MCs. I got to perform on tv with them. We were taught that it was okay to be yourself and you can worship God with your art.
After high school I just wanted more. I was determined to learn as many dance styles as I could. I got into breaking and was a Rock Steady crew member in New York.
From the breaking scene I got into the popping and locking scene, house, vogue, and whacking. I learned from the people who created these dance styles. I wanted to learn everything I could about street dance. I started a crew called The Waackers and one of the girls from the crew was a classical Indian dancer. So I taught her Whacking and she taught me Bharatanatyam. She was actually the muse for Bollywhack.
I went on to study Bhangra, Classical Indian dance and Bollywood. The more dance styles I learned and the more I got into music, fashion and art the more I realized how connected we all really are. What was it like competing on Dance Plus in India? It was the most amazing experience because I wanted to learn more about Production. It was like production bootcamp. It was intense. Introducing Bollywhack to India was really cool.
In India sexuality was so fluid pre-colonialism. Whacking is a queer dance. It comes from the queer LA club scene in the 70's. It raised a lot of questions for people there - "Like where does Whacking come from?
What does Pride mean to you? I come from a queer household. FIDM Lab photo — selfie 6. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
Every day we have a choice. We can support an up and coming podcaster, try a new family-run restaurant, join a We think the first step to understanding someone is asking them Every neighborhood in LA has its own vibe, style, culture and history, but what consistently amazes us is not what differentiates Voyage is excited to present episode 4 of The Introverted Entrepreneur Success Stories show with our wonderful host and sales expert You are going to love our next episode where Whitley interviews the incredibly successful, articulate and inspiring Monica Stockhausen.
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Portraits of the Valley. Portraits of Hollywood. Introverted Entrepreneur Success Stories: Episode 4. Heart to Heart with Whitley: Episode 4. More in. Local Stories November 10, Local Stories November 8, Introverted Entrepreneur Success Stories: Episode 4 Voyage is excited to present episode 4 of The Introverted Entrepreneur Success Stories show with our wonderful host and sales expert She is the first whacking choreographer to explicitly introduce the dance style to mass media by creating dance content for the FOX realit Created by Kumari Suraj in This cross cultural connection is a seamless union of powerful arms, elegant hand gestures, exotic poses and dramatic story telling facial expressions.
Kumari Suraj's unique choreography tells the story of her experience as a multiracial human being influenced by dance cultures of the ss. Her body of work is the melting pot of her creativity. Taught dance in over 22 countries. She has been an important support, mentor, and teacher in my early years especially.
She was an important soul on my journey to becoming me. She always encouraged colorful and unique self-expression and cultural bridging. Email Address. Join our fabulous community for monthly updates and other feel good content.
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