Welcome to a new dance season! We are so happy to introduce Hip Hop to our Community! You are going to be amazing!
Boys & Girls Crew Hip Hop Class Tuesday’s 6:00-6:40pm With Nancy Xiong
Guest Dance Instructor John Barrella
Meet Your Hip Hop Educators
Street Dance Educator, Choreographer, Performer, Consultant & Company Director
John Barrella’s work is based around street dance culture. His work utilizes a range of arts influences with techniques based in locking, popping, b-boy, and hip hop. As a performer, John works as a solo artist and in collaboration with members of the hip hop community. He has been a featured dancer in music videos “HSKT” by Tenin and “Get Away” By Alissia. Other works include a presentation fot Tedx: Chaos, Halftime shows for the NY Knicks, NYC Breakers’ Battle of the Boroughs reunion and much more. As a choreographer, John’s work has been presented internationally. His unique approach to movement has been placed on dancers in countless schools in and out of the United States.
At the age of 14, John was accepted into the “School of the Arts” in East Brunswick where he spent four years learning modern dance and ballet from a variety of instructors and master teachers. Aside from traditional dance classes, he attended annual courses in human anatomy, improvisational techniques, childhood education, choreography techniques, musical theatre, and theatre. In college, John studied small business management to round out the important aspects of his dance career training. From his early teens, John has studied under various hip hop artists and was recruited into WildStyle dance company where he learned his core hip hop techniques. He gained appreciation for street styles with glimpses into technique for house dance, waacking and dancehall. Furthering his training, John still regularly attends classes and events with master and pioneering hip hop artists. Notable influences on his work include Tom Mckie, Spex, Brian Green, Bev Brown, Jazzy J, Sekou, Pavan Thimmiah and more.
John is director of “The Redef Movement: Artists of Street Dance,” a dance company he founded in 2007. He and his company present work both in a range of hip hop and professional dance atmospheres, most frequently presented throughout NJ, NY, and Philadelphia. Their comedy-based work “Stupid Humans” is a satire on the performing arts, often utilizing live shows or dance films to create humorous takes on common elements of the dance and performance world. In addition to his duties as a company director, John is an adjunct professor for hip hop at Rider University.
In recent years, John has developed a curriculum and program that trains teachers in hip hop terminology and technique, applying it to class structure. This program, “Essentials for Dance Education” has been implemented in classrooms around the world and has offered countless teachers a look into his own method of instruction. John’s classes and events are designed to teach aspiring dancers the fundamentals of street & hip hop dance as a freestyle art and techniques to master choreography. His goals are to inspire people to be artists and push themselves creatively and positively both in and outside of dance.
NANCY XIONG IS A HMONG AMERICAN WOMAN WHO WAS BORN AND RAISED IN MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA. SHE FIRST STARTED HER DANCE JOURNEY IMMERSING INTO TRADITIONAL HMONG DANCING AND DANCE COVERS. STEPPING INTO COLLEGE, SHE FOUND HERSELF FALLING IN LOVE WITH HIP HOP AND OPEN STYLE CHOREOGRAPHY. FROM THERE, SHE STARTED TRAINING MORE HEAVILY INTO VARIOUS STYLES TO EXPAND HER KNOWLEDGE IN EACH STYLE'S HISTORY AND FOUNDATION, LEARNING FROM DIFFERENT COMMUNITIES AND CULTURES.
AS OF TODAY, SHE IS ONE OF THE CO-FOUNDER AND CO-DIRECTOR FOR ELITE FAMILY DANCE TEAM WHO ARE ON THEIR 8TH SEASON, HEAVILY FOCUSED ON COMPETITIONS. SHE HAS LED THEM TO COMPETE AT THE WORLD OF DANCE CHICAGO, MASTERPIECE, PRELUDE MIDWEST AND LOCAL COMPETITIONS! SOME OF ELITE FAMILY HIGHLIGHTS ARE WINNING: 1ST PLACE AT THE MINNESOTA STATE FAIR TALENT SHOW 2021, BEST THEME AT WORLD OF DANCE CHICAGO 2018, THIRD PLACE AT MASTERPIECE 2019 AND FIRST, THIRD, FOURTH AND CROWD FAVORITE FOR HOT INDIAN DANCE OFF 2019. SHE IS ALSO A PROGRAM AND EDUCATION ADVISORY MEMBER FOR THE COWLES CENTER AND A FEATURE ARTIST FOR THEIR EXCHANGE PROGRAM WITH HI-ARTS NYC. SHE HAS BEEN AFFILIATED WITH MANY TEAMS INCLUDING S.H.E (SHE WHO HOLDS EVERYTHING) AND GENTLEBAES. LASTLY, SHE IS A HIP HOP INSTRUCTOR AT HOUSE OF DANCE - TWIN CITIES AND FEATURED GUEST CHOREOGRAPHER IN MANY LOCAL STUDIOS. ON TOP OF HER 9-5 JOB AS A DIVISION COORDINATOR, DANCER AND TEACHER, SHE IS A WIFE AND A PROUD MOTHER TO HER 2 KIDS, ALICESTASIA AND ARTEMIS.