Elemental Studios Community Blog

  Commercial Pop as a dance style is a high-energy, bold, versatile, performance-focused style that has truly changed the game for dancers across the world with how it's both fluid and expressive, and how it connects dancers to the inner star that they didn't know that they had. It combines the dance elements of jazz funk, street dance, contemporary, heels, and other dance styles to create choreography that makes you feel ready to perform and showcase yourself in a new way.  The rise of commercial dance as a style originated and grew out of theatrical jazz, vaudeville, and street dance traditions. It has spanned over decades, starting as early as the late 1800s-1950s when early precursors grew out of vaudeville, minstrel shows, and nightclubs.  Some of the great pioneers of commercial dance, such as Jack Cole, who is known as the father of theatrical jazz dance, shaped the slick and energetic style that was used in early Hollywood and stage performances. Another great pio...

  Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Student Lens series. Today, I am here to chat with Heyling, a student who came to Elemental Studios to find a community, to find a way to express herself through a healing process, and to discover her inner goddess in the process. She has shown that healing through dance is possible and that believing in yourself is truly worth it in the end.  Before we get into the interview, let's learn about Heyling, shall we? "I'm Heyling! I'm originally from Nicaragua, and I love photography, cooking recipes from different cultures, exploring new places, and also learning new things. I'm also an English teacher. After surviving a major stroke, dance became more than just a hobby. It became a part of my healing journey and a way to reconnect with my body and build confidence and strength. I'm grateful to be a part of a community that inspires me to keep growing, both as a dancer and as a person." Let's get into the intervie...

  Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Student Lens series. Today, I am here to chat with Juan, a student who has continued to showcase his personality, energy, passion, and love for dance through learning different styles at Elemental Studios. His determination is very admirable, and I have loved seeing his growth. Before getting into the interview, let's learn a little bit about Juan, shall we? "I am originally from a small rural town in Durango, Mexico. My family and I moved to the United States when I was 7 years old. My love for dance began when I started taking hip-hop classes through an after-school program at my middle school. After middle school, I had limited opportunities to continue formal dance training, but I never stopped dancing recreationally. I tried to take up classes at a studio in 2019, but then COVID interrupted those plans.  Fast forward to August 2024 at the age of 30, I joined Elemental and have been training, growing, and learning ever since!"...

  Jazz Funk, also known as street jazz, is a dance style that is a combination of hip-hop and jazz dance techniques. This style originated and started in the early 1980s, and grew during the emergence of hip-hop, borrowing a lot of moves from many other dance styles. From ballet to modern hip-hop and lyrical, it has taken bits and pieces of those genres and has made a unique style that is both fun and expressive in many ways.  As an individual dance genre, the style came to the forefront in mainstream media on the sketch comedy show, "Living in Color," in the early 1990s. The choreographer Rosie Perez directed the "Fly Girls," which at the time included Jennifer Lopez and blended jazz techniques with hip-hop grooves. In the early 2000s, choreographers such as Brian Friedman, Kevin Maher, and Bobby Newberry really made this style a staple in dance culture. With the addition of hip-hop attitudes and the leaps, turns, and modern, dramatic expression of modern jazz, it ...

  K-pop, as both a music genre and dance style originated in South Korea during the early 1990s with its roots in "rap fusion" which became popularized by the very first K-pop group Seo Taiji and Boys in 1992.  This group modernized and experimented with the South Korean music scene and they became the leading force into creating a bigger space for K-pop in different musical aspects outside of the contemporary music style at the time. Seo Taiji and Boys' popularity with teenagers made the music industry focus on this age demographic. Lee Soo-man of SM Entertainment developed the 1st Korean idol system in the later 1990s, which made iconic K-pop groups like H.O.T and S.E.S, which were 2 of many groups out of the 1st generation of K-pop which ranges from the years 1990-2002.  The idol system in the many different K-pop companies is a structured "star factory" where aspiring artists known as trainees go through intense training in singing, rapping, danc...

  Hip-Hop Dance has developed and evolved from a variety of different street styles that we know today, and were created from the styles that came from the 1970s and became popular by dance crews in the United States. Some of the first films and shows that showcased hip-hop dance culture was the show "Soul Train" and the 1980s films "Breakin'", "Beat Street", and "Wild Style", which showcased these hip-hop crews and dance styles in their early development stages, which then, have hip-hop dance and culture more exposure in the mainstream media space.  When hip-hop was introduced to the commercial studio dance space, it was introduced as "new style", and a hip-hop-influenced style of jazz called "jazz funk". Highly trained dancers developed these different studio styles to create choreography from the hip-hop dance styles that were performed on the streets.  The commercialization of hip-hop expanded even more in the 1990s an...

  Hello Everyone, and welcome back to The Student Lens series. Today, I am here to chat with Jessie (they/them), a student who started going to Elemental Studios back in April of 2025 and has continued to grow and improve in their dance journey. They have shown that even if you leave dance for however long, you can go back and have even more drive and passion than you ever had.  Before we get into the interview, let's learn about Jessie, shall we? "Hello, my name is Jessie, or I also go by the name Moon, feel free to call me whatever you like!  I'm currently 21, I'm half-Mexican, half-Honduran, born in Phoenix, Arizona, but raised in Colorado! I don't have much of a background in dance. I only got into dancing because of K-pop. I have been a fan since 2016, and it has seriously helped me get through difficult times.  When I was going to high school, I had seen that the school I was going to had a K-pop club, so I joined right away, and that's where I was roped ...

  Twerk is a dance style that originated from the bounce music scene of New Orleans in 1990. It has a broader origin with many other dance styles that are found among the African diaspora that comes from Bantu-speaking Africans of Central Africa. This style is a larger set of moves that are specific to the New Orleans style of hip-hop known as "bounce". The moves of  "mixing", "exercising", the "bend over", the "shoulder hustle", "clapping", "booty clapping", "the sleeper", and "the wild wood", which were all recognized as booty shaking or bounce.  The tradition of this dance style shaped social clubs, pleasure clubs, block parties, and parades, which created a historical rise to sissy bounce with bounce music that was performed by artists from the New Orleans African-American community, which led to a rising popularity after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. This style expanded and created a widespread ...