Elemental Studios Community Blog

  Hello Everyone, and welcome back to the Student Lens. Today, I will be featuring a dancer who has truly defined strength and courage through their dance journey, Charli!.  Charli has been going to Elemental Studios for 9 months now and recently started spreading their wings into joining the diverse and loving community that Elemental Studios has to offer. Charli, like many new students who come to Elemental Studios, has had their fears and self-doubts, but they have come and jumped so many hurdles to pursue a dream for themselves that they never dreamed of being possible.  So, before we get into the interview, let's learn a little bit about Charli.  "I started dancing in my 30s. I identify as non-binary, and dreamt of being able to do something like this for years (nerves be damned). I grew up in a very poor household with a single mom of 3, and we didn't have the funds for me to pursue dance.  After my childhood years, I was diagnosed with a rare illness that...

  Hip-Hop Foundations are the essential, original dance movements and techniques that form the center of Hip-Hop Dance. The moves originated in the streets of the Bronx, New York City, in the 1970s, and over time, these moves have become recognized and appreciated in hip-hop culture.  Some key foundational moves include the Two Step, the Reebok, Running Man, the Cabbage Patch, Robocop, the Bart Simpson, Happy Feet, Brooklyn Bounce, and many more moves. These dances were often referred to as "party dances" as many of them were social dances created in parties and clubs. Learning Foundational moves has many purposes, such as groove, which encourages students to learn the bounce and rhythm of hip-hop music. Musicality which helps students understand how to connect with beats, basslines, and lyrics. Building character, which shows students how to carry personality, history, and the core attitude of hip-hop, and finally, building blocks that are used in more complex choreography a...

  Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Student Lens. Today, I am going to be interviewing the incredibly talented Huy, who has been a consistent attendee of the studio, and chatting with him about his experience at Elemental Studios.  Before we get into the interview, let's learn a little bit about Huy, shall we? Huy grew up in Washington, moved to Michigan for grad school, and ended up in Colorado for work. These days, Huy is a physicist by day and a dancer by night. Dance has become his favorite way to stay grounded, challenge himself, and have fun while he learns.  He started off as a martial artist and found his way into the breaking scene because it scratched the same itch. Control, creativity, and pushing your limits. From there, he fell in love with training in general. Taking class, working on foundations, messing up a lot, and coming back anyway. Lately, he has been focusing on more hip-hop and breaking, putting more intention into freestyle, and working hard ...

  Hip-Hop Dance has become a HUGE part of dance culture in recent years, with the origins of the dance style starting off in the early 1970s in the Bronx, New York City, and influenced by many styles such as B-Boy/B-Girling (freezes, acrobatics, footwork, power moves, etc), funky styles (popping, locking, and boogaloo), Party Dances (The Smurf, Cabbage Patch, Running Man, and Reebok) Krumping (origins of LA), Turfing (origins of Oakland), and Litefeet (Origins of NYC) were later introduced in the late 2010s to the hip-hop scene. This style has evolved into more than just a movement, becoming a way of storytelling, competition, and community building. This style has also been influenced by battling at parties or on the streets, which has created an emphasis on creativity, individuality, and skills. Over time, Hip-Hop has evolved into both street styles and studio/performance styles that remain rooted in its foundations, with improvisation, rhythm, and cultural expression. Hip-Hop as...

  Hello Everyone, and welcome back to the Student Lens. Today, I will be talking with Mae, who has been a student at Elemental Studios for a while now, and I am excited to be able to interview her and talk about her experience with coming to Elemental Studios. I hope you guys are just as excited as I am to get to know Mae, so let's dive in, shall we? Mae has loved dance for as long as she can remember. As a kid, she took the classic tap and ballet classes-but her real training came from dancing along with music videos in her bedroom throughout middle school and high school. That self-taught fire eventually led her to pursue dance more seriously in college, where she joined classes, made the dance team, and eventually became the team captain. From there, she was recruited into Esme Dance, performing at Denver Pride, local events, and their annual showcases. Her style has always been rooted in emotion-expressed through jazz, contemporary, and lyrical movement. After years of dancing ...

  Afro-Fusion and dancing in heels have two things in common : they bring together communities  to  create art and express self-confidence that changes the lives of dancers all across the world. Today, I chatted with The Randall Nunez, a Masterclass instructor for Elemental Studios, to talk about how Randall got started with dance, the company TRIBE, and inspiring many dancers and themself as they continue their dance journey. So, let's meet Randall, shall we? Hello, my name is Randall Nunez! I’m a professional choreographer, dancer, creative director, singer, actor, and more. I’m located out in Orlando, but originally from NYC. I’ve worked with The Weeknd, SuperBowl, HBO Max, Amazon Prime, Rletto, and more.  I started dancing professionally in 2019. I never thought of doing dance a day in my life. I did theater and choir my whole life, which had some type of dance in it, but nothing like this! I took a chance on myself and trained with many dancers in different citi...