Stop Doing the Hollywood Thing!

"Stop doing the Hollywood thing!" yelled my hip hop instructor at the Edge today. He mocked our half-hearted applause at the our fellow students. Clap like you feel it, he meant, and stop being such a fake.

If there's anything I've learned from class today, it would be being sincere.

Stop faking the moves, just do them and feel the music... I kept telling myself.

No matter what a bad or shitty day I have, going to a good hip hop class always makes my day.

I started at the Edge with my friend Adrian who dragged me to class over three years ago. I was like... I had no idea what I was doing. I could barely even do the first eight count. But because it was so hard, I kept going back. I used to sometimes get scared sitting in the car and afraid of going to class.

Since then, I've also fallen in love with dance classes and have surveyed hip hop classes everywhere I've traveled to: Vancouver, Hong Kong, San Francisco, New York... but really... there's nothing like the Edge where you dance with the best students and learn from the best instructors. It's damn hard and intimidating... but it's totally worth it.

The way I see it is that I always prefer to be the worst among the best. That's how you learn right? And that's probably why I'm in LA too.

I started off in Phi's beginning class which still sometimes kicked my ass and eventually made it into the other classes. You're saying like why is this 36-year-old learning hip hop?

I've seen 12 year-olds dance better than me. I've seen 40-something-year-olds dance better than me. I've seen even 50-year-olds dance better than me... so what am I doing here?

For those moments where I can really do it... do it sincerely... and feel the music... it feels so great. And the more I learn, the more I have respect for dancers. I've never realized dancing could be so hard... but so rewarding at the same time.

The instructors that I've taken and recommend: Steven Butler, Dante, Leslie Scott, Phi Nguyen, Napoleon & Tabitha, Nolan Padilla

Yeh for hip hop!