We moved from the suburbs to L.A. and I picked up break dancing when I was 10. I joined a dance crew in high school and I was battling. I also took ballet most of my life until high school.
When I was younger, I was one of the few girls in the neighborhood who could break dance. That's kind of my local, ghetto-celebrity claim to fame.
I'm from Chicago, so you know we come from juking and footwork.
I just do hip-hop because I love to do it.
With 'Dope Walk,' I wanted to bring back kids dancing and having fun again. That's how it used to be in Harlem. I remember everybody Harlem-shaking and 'Chicken Noodle Soup'-ing. Those were some of the most fun and memorable times in my life.
I was an international krumper at one time. I can't talk about it, really, because when you've lived for krump like I have, when you get a bit older and you move away from it, it's hard.
Krumping has a little anger.
I grew up in the '80s, when breaking was cool, and then it got corny in the '90s, and it became cool again with all these choreographed B-Boy dance crews.
People misconstrue when I say I was a dancer. I was not classically trained. I was a street dancer, and I got to do what I did in the nightclubs of New York City.
I would see b-boys breakdancing in the hallway, I thought it was cool. I started practicing in my living room, then started battling, and then I joined a crew, and we started getting into competitions. In fact, we still battle - for fun now.
I would take the jeepney all the way to Angeles City, and that's how I got introduced to break dancing.
I realize judges don't understand what the hell kicks are doing.
Street dance resonates for teenagers. It's inclusive and brings in different audiences.
All through college, I did a lot of break-dancing and all kinds of different martial arts.
