uma Journal: Andy

Dance: A Connection with Music
By Andy

My dance journey began with an interest in breaking while in high school, but I didn’t get to learn much about it back then. Fast forward to college, and some friends and I ended up taking a hip-hop dance class for a semester—which I enjoyed a lot!

While in college, I developed a strong interest in music as a way to deal with depression. Listening to music helped me to relax and take my mind off of negative feelings, so I continued to listen. Eventually I took an interest in popping because I didn’t understand the musicality aspect of dance. This led me to explore this area on my own as a hobby over the years which helped me to bridge music and dance together.

After finishing college I found that the work related to my degree didn’t interest me. What continued to interest me was music, and, for the past year or so, I primarily focused on teaching myself to produce music. As a result of the pandemic and this aspiration, I developed a sedentary lifestyle and ended up out of shape. This helped me realize I needed to get moving again, which spurred my search for, specifically, breaking classes—thus leading to my discovery of UMA. 

My first class was Movement Flow with Ron, and I remember my shins cramping up because I couldn’t move through a squat position comfortably—let alone many other positions. Ron’s classes guided me through exercises where I could build up the strength to hold and move through those positions, many of which I never thought I could do.

Jerry’s classes allowed me to pursue my high school breaking goals, and the cyphers in class are great since we get to freestyle and apply the moves we learned in class. Ricky’s classes always get me moving with the music in a variety of ways, which I value a lot as connecting with music and having fun are both very important to me. Emily’s classes have been great for learning popping fundamentals, as well as experimenting with fun concepts—such as puppeting. Tyger’s classes helped me to see things I don’t see, such as… myself in the mirror, but also aspects of dance like the depth of your steps or how you accentuate a specific movement.

Dancing has allowed me to push myself physically, mentally, and emotionally, and has given me and many others a space where we can connect with music and express ourselves. Thanks to all of the staff at UMA who help make this experience possible!

Thanks for sharing Andy!

Check out Andy getting down in Ron Wood's House Dance Ground Moves and Lofting class- Thursdays from 6-7pm!