Adult Hip Hop & Yoga: TOGETHER!

Urban Movement Arts and MoveMakers Director Vince Johnson works on his Yoga Inversions with Yoga Instructor Noah Julian.

An action shot from one of RagTag Empire's Swing & Lindy Hop events. RagTag Empire teaches Swing Dance Classes for Adults! Photo: Lily Kind

With the arrival of 2018, we're taking a moment to see reflect back on the last 5 months since we launched Urban Movement Arts (UMA) this past September. UMA was born from our director Vince Johnson's desire to expand beyond MoveMakers, our kids Hip Hop classes and after school programming. MoveMakers has been growing steadily since 2015. The grown up friends and families of our Move Makers students wanted to get in the groove too. With so many places to work out in Center City, Vince knew it was an audacious move to start up a new center for adult fitness and dance, but we knew we had something special: top notch teachers offering authentic hip hop classes alongside fitness focused yoga and creative workouts. We are excited to be offering both the focus and serenity of yoga classes as well as funky sweat of Hip Hop classes.

​We believe these forms compliment in each other and help adult students achieve their goals. We believe this because it's our own experience as professional movers and teachers. Our Yoga teachers are a special breed. We know there are a lot of places you can take Yoga classes in Philadelphia. Our yoga teachers are affiliated with Yoga Movement Sanctuary, and all pursue parallel physical disciplines that work together with Yoga.What we're currently offering is a mix of regular drop in yoga classes and accumulative 6 week series (beginner yoga and splits) where adult students can build strong foundations and dive deeper into building a life long yoga practice. With more blog posts on the way, you’ll hear more about Emile Sorger, Alex Brazinski, and Noah Julian later in the year. In addition to being a healthy habit for everyone, Yoga is also the conditioning and performance secret for many dancers and athletes. Whether you want to learn to simply touch your toes or execute a sexy press handstand, Yoga can help.  Yoga practice also builds body and breath awareness, increasing mental clarity and concentration.

There's also a deeper layer of crossover between fitness and dance that connects to Vince's Martial Arts roots, which is about learning to translate passion into discipline in order to grow beyond your own expectations of yourself. It's been so exciting to see our old friends and new students show up and throw down.
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Some students come in for Vince's House Dance Class and stay for Lily Kind’s Solo Jazz Dance Class. Others come in for Laurel Card's Dance Fitness classes in the morning and end up in a 6 Week Yoga series. Shout out to the O.G.'s, the adult students that have been with us since before UMA was born, and are still coming regularly to take class, continuing to try new things. Move Makers parent Karen V. has been taking breaking with B-Boy Metal since February 2016. We've seen her in all kinds of classes! She also performed with other UMA adult students in the MoveMaker showcase last month.  Vinh & Jude, also MoveMakers parents, are known to take Vince's House class together, showing off new moves in the cipher. Shaina of www.themomedit.com has been taking Laurel Card's morning classes three times a weeks since they kicked off in September. Keep your eye on The Mom Edit to catch Laurel's interview! (Laurel's daughter Gia is a MoveMakers student too!) In fact, watch out for ALL the parents who have been coming through to and taking our adult hip hop classes. Too many to name! We see you!

The arrival of the New Year has brought some new faces through the door. Some folks are keen on a New Years Resolution to get in shape or try something new.  Others saw the chalkboard street sign and popped in. We’re glad for the new faces and for the familiar ones. We’re excited to be offering this combination of Hip Hop dance classes and Yoga for adults in downtown Philadelphia. Let’s keep it going in 2018!

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Students from MoveMakers, our Hip Hop for Kids and After School Program. Photo: Adriana Imhof