Dance Chat

A Power Cord From a Brooklyn Window Caleaf Ramier Sellers does not begin his story in a studio. He begins at a window. He grew up in Brooklyn, on the border of Canarsie and East New York. Outside his home was a basketball court. People would knock on the window and ask if they could plug their sound system into his house. His mother would ask, “How long are they going to be out there?” He would sa...

Henry Link did not first meet music in a battle, a cypher, or a club. He met it at home. Every Sunday, his mother and grandmothers played old-school rhythm and blues while the house was being cleaned. As a child, Link mopped floors, wiped walls, and cleaned windows to songs he did not yet understand. At first, he hated that music. Then he saw his family dancing to it, laughing with it, living insi...

In New York’s dance community, Peter’s path is a familiar one—starting from a high school dance team, moving through crews, choreography, directing, and competitions, eventually becoming a director of Project D. But what truly changed his relationship with dance didn’t happen during those years—it happened after he walked away from all of it. A Dream Without a Roadmap Peter didn’t grow up in the k...

In New York City’s dance world, some chase the spotlight, some live inside studios, and others quietly question what “success” even means. Melanie belongs firmly to the last group. Her journey doesn’t follow a clean, linear arc. It feels more like improvisation—testing, detouring, and rediscovering—much like the way she dances. Living Two Lives Dance wasn’t a sudden calling for Melanie—it was alwa...

A girl “Banned” from Competition by Her Parents, Secretly Trained Her Way to the National Team At three in the morning, Qilin crawled out of bed and tiptoed down to the basement. That was during her second year of middle school in Canada. By day, she was an ordinary international student, sitting in classrooms taking academic courses; by night, she was a rhythmic gymnast practicing in secret—somet...

“I knew dance is my destiny when I first saw it” In most people’s imagination, a successful choreographer begins at three years old in a studio, enters a conservatory as a teenager, and stands center stage by twenty. Kitty McNamee’s story runs almost in reverse. She didn’t start dancing until she was seventeen. She grew up in a small town in Ohio. She didn’t have formal training as a child. And ye...

Five years after Naini’s passing, eight dancers still train for over four hours every day. Lights turn on and off, music plays on repeat. The tempo is fast, unrelenting. Sweat streams down spines, legs begin to shake, but the movement cannot stop — 8 counts, then another 8 counts. Executive Director Andy Chiang stands in the corner, eyes fixed on every detail. It’s hard to imagine that this figure...

The first time Eskillz realized that the body could be used did not happen in a dance studio, but in a dojo. At twelve, his father sent him to study karate. It wasn’t a decision about dance, but one about self-defense. Yet through the repeated cycles of punches, turns, and closures, he felt something awaken for the first time: the body could be activated, sculpted, and understood. In that moment,...

When winter light falls across her shoulders in New York, Julie Ludwick has already been dancing for sixty years. Sixty years — what does that mean? It means a person has given her entire body to time, her entire spirit to the stage. It means choosing to trust her weight to a steel bar, a gently swaying low-flying trapeze, or a ladder hung in the air — and choosing to do so again and again for dec...

Four years ago, as the pandemic brought the world to a standstill, Tako was simply looking for a place to restart dance, and created a Xiaohongshu account called “Tako Dancing in Los Angeles” to share her training. Little did she know that she would start from scratch in LA’s professional dance scene and, within four years, evolve from a dancer who was “almost like a beginner” to one selected by c...

1. The Spider Mama's Name Lili's Instagram is called Black Spider Mama. The name sounds absurd yet carries a hint of mystery. She explains with a laugh: "I just wanted to shed those pressures and expectations, to have the most casual, most random, most mischievous name possible." She says spiders are precise hunters and also wild, resilient creatures — "Others may destroy its web, but it always we...

When Justin “Ice-o” walks into a room, there’s no mistaking the calm, self-possessed presence he brings with him. Born and raised in the Bronx, the 37-year-old popper has turned what began as a playful wave with his cousin into a life of artistry, discipline, and unapologetic authenticity. A Wave That Started It All Ice-o formally stepped into the world of popping in 2013. But his bond with dance...

In the studios of New York City, 17-year-old Una is often the youngest in the room. But don’t let her age fool you. Barely a year into her life in the United States, she has already carved out a place for herself on stage after stage. For her, dance isn’t a passing interest—it’s the foundation she has grown up on. From Ballet Shoes to Street Beats Una’s first steps into a dance class came at five,...

"If I could dance like this for a lifetime, I'd be perfectly happy." 🟠 01 | From Beijing to New York: A Dancer’s Awakening Mini still remembers her first dance performance during elementary school. But what truly ignited her passion was a hip-hop experience in high school. "I didn’t want to learn Jazz back then—everyone was doing ‘girly’ dances, and I wanted to be different." So she chose Hip-hop...

"I didn't plan to become a dancer. I just followed my interests and danced my way into my current life." She's not a dance academy graduate, nor did she start with childhood dance training. She began with Breaking, started in Taiwan, and journeyed through New York's subway streets, studio mirrors, and spotlights to become a choreographer, videographer, performer, and "Teacher Rose" to countless st...

"I am a human being." He says this with a bit of a joke, but this inexplicable introduction ends up sounding like a metaphor - a creator with two feet on the ground, a "human being" who jumps between on and off camera, between reality and expression. He’s the guy filming dancers, and someone who never really stopped dancing — just switched sides with the lens. Behind the camera, another life unfol...

Zhang Jingxian's dance story begins with an emotional moment in kindergarten and evolves into leadership in one of China's most prestigious university dance crews: FL Crew at Peking University. His journey reflects persistence, passion, and personal growth through the expressive world of street dance. Early Beginnings and Rediscovery Xian’s introduction to dance came after a tearful rejection from...

“I’ve been dancing for 16 years. But for the first 14, I didn’t really know what I was doing.” This is not a story about viral choreography or street dance battles. This is a story about slowness, search, and subtle transformation. From a nightclub dancer to a dance company founder, from a freestyler in the session to a "storyteller" in the theater, Guangmin uses dance to tell not only movements,...

In all the parallel universes, this is the choice Shu Yiran feels most proud of – leaving behind her career in architectural design to pursue her passion for street dance in New York City. New York has always welcomed dreamers, and Yiran is one of many who found her true calling in this vibrant metropolis. Though trained as an architectural designer, a field of precision and structure, she discove...

In the bustling dance scene of New York City, every dancer has a unique story. Today, we sit down with Charlene , a dancer and instructor with a diverse background, to explore her dance journey, her insights on teaching, and her perspective on the ever-evolving world of dance. From Chinese Dance to K-Pop: The Early Years Charlene's dance journey began at the tender age of three with Chinese dance....