About
Born in Hotlanta, Georgia, I grew up in a melting pot of minorities. I was a “latchkey” kid who gained respect through my athletic abilities. Twaz by no means a ghetto, but certainly middle / lower class apartment complex. I was the “white guy” who could run fast and had a sense of rhythm. In my world, I was the minority, and this has proven to be the case for my life through the present. I found myself heavily influenced by other cultures aside from my own and this mixture lead me to an underground culture known mostly as Hip-Hop.
My mom danced ballet on a professional level. Both my parents loved soulful music and this is what I grew up listening to. My paps bounced to Los Angeles when I was five (don’t worry we’re good now), and I lived with my mom and sister until I was 13. Up until that point, my mom taught me the moonwalk and I practiced party dances in my room. She was the most influential musically in my life. We would watch In Living Color and Yo MTV Raps constantly. My Aunt and Uncle then took over as parental units when I moved in with them. They taught me “life living skills,” such as organizing, critical thinking, business perspectives and more importantly, developing a backbone. Without them, I would not have made it to college. I DID however, and it was in college that I discovered my truly passionate love for dance. I attended Georgia State University, and it was in the heart of Downtown Atl that I met two gentlemen by the names of Totem and Joy. They took me under their wings and introduced me to funk, breaks and bboy culture. As the saying goes, “the rest is history.”
Surrounded by djs, bboys, bgirls, artists, mcs, entertainers, I was filled with an overwhelming desire to plunge into the depths of dance, beginning with breakdance. At this time, I was 20, and I felt a mad sense of pressure to hurry and learn as much as I could before I got too old. Rushing into things led to a knee surgery, but after my recovery, I ended up accumulating a good amount of commercial work including music videos and movie appearances. This certainly influenced my decision to move to LA after graduating with a BBA in 2003.
In LA, I immediately joined Culture Shock LA and picked up a dance agent. I then became obsessed with Campbellocking and joined Tony Tee Dance Company where I trained with Don for a short while and Tony for a long while. Little did I know I would find myself in Japan on 4 separate occasions in just 2 years time doing performances and instructing dance. This opened my eyes to the potential of new media and reaching millions of people with dance. Now it’s 2008 and I am in the best shape of my life. Aside from a separated shoulder that just occurred 2 weeks ago July 17th at 5:20 pm!!
Anyways, dance is my life but then again so is about 20 other things that make up “hobbies” of mine including studying web developement and design, staying current on technologies, Web 2.0 and social networking, did I mention dance, eating and enjoying multicultural ethnic foods, things Japanese, filipino accents, dancing, teaching dance, playing guitar, hustling life while I still have the energy to do it.