Questions & Answers
1. What is something that motivates you about your career?
I like art, I like making art. It’s just actions rather than just visuals. I don’t paint, I’m not a good artist or at least I don’t think I ever was. When it comes to movement and theatrics, that’s is something that I love to do. I was always good at putting movement together. The art of it, that’s what it peels me. It’s beautiful, powerful, heartfelt, aggressive and emotional. It’s the emotional, it’s how you feel when you watch something that’s dance or theatrical, that’s what inspires me.
2. What passions/feelings do you find when you dance?
Power. Lots of power, personal power, I always feel empowered. I feel joy, so it’s funny because when I was a technique dancer first, jazz was my style and I did lots of shows, I did lots of concerts, I was in dance companies in LA and I did musical theater. That’s when I was a jazz dancer and before I even discovered hip-hop. I loved to be in control of my body, I loved to push it, I loved space, I always loved space and I think more than even dance I love space. I can’t dance anymore, I have ruin my feet. I work with space differently now, I do stage performances and I direct them or I also like to create artistic spaces. Empowered it’s what I felt like when I learned hip-hop. Joy and beauty it’s what I felt like when I started with jazz, I just loved the length, the lines and the pre-arms. I loved movement and what it felt like, it didn’t maybe look like it felt, but I loved how it felt and then once I was good enough to see that it look like what I felt, when they matched, that was joy. Learning technique takes years and years, so when I discovered hip-hop, which I was in my thirties I was like “What is this?” It’s so different, it’s so grounded and it’s so brought. I loved it, I loved the aggressiveness of it and I loved the power, I felt so strong when I would do hip-hop. “I’m doing hip-hop!” I just went the other direction, that fill me then and then all of the sudden this fills me now. First half of my dance career was jazz, theater and what was pretty and beautiful. In hip-hop was a whole different matter, it was about strength and power control, it was just a whole different feeling. That’s what I needed then. It was different from the different genres that I had studied. I felt very personally empowering and I felt that it was empowering for women, I think it’s empowering for every human, for kids that they feel like they have no voice they can get into a dance class and they have personal power. I saw this with other cultures, a lot of dancers came from places of lack and this was what empowered them, so it was a rebirth of awareness. Building this center was the least I could do to be surrounded with that and there’s an appreciation about that.
3. At what moment of your life you decided that you wanted to start a company?
When I started dancing hip-hop. I loved company work, being pushed and working with others. I loved being in a court of dancers. I needed to start a company in order for hip-hop to be spread. There were no classes here in San Diego and had to drive up to LA. There were a group of dancers of around fifty or seventy dancers doing a technique at once. When I saw that I was like “Oh my god! Their power and their unifying movements are impressive”. This was a big turning point and I was like “Yes, I want to do that!” I was a Nike dance athlete too. I was picked up by Nike and sponsored us as dance athletes. There was a group of like twenty five of us in the United States and we would tour. Nike was on fire and I asked them to sponsor Culture Shock and they agreed. They sponsored us millions and millions a year. I had Nike, they didn’t need to know who I was because I was no one, I was a dancer but I wasn’t a hip-hop person. We got a lot of attention because Nike was big and people wanted to start training hip-hop. This was how I was able to start Culture Shock, it was because ironically I had been working with Nike for about a year. Nike was huge and a great period of time for us. Really it was Nike who allowed me to start Culture Shock and for it to be so successful so fast.
4. What do you like the most about dancing?
I have to use my body and I have to move through space. Even if can’t dance now I go to the gym. I like to push my body. I was given this than I’m going to use it. I just don’t use it too much. I now have a bionic ankle and foot, it’s a full ankle replacement. I don’t have an ankle joint anymore, I just have the skin around it. I had many surgeries, I was very hard on my feet and I didn’t had really strong feet before and I beat them up.
5. Describe dance in 3 words.
Love, joy and real. It just feels real.
6. How much has dance change your life and transform you into the person you are today?
It has changed my life drastically. When I was young I was very physical. The first thing I did was track and field, I was a runner, a sprinter, and a jumper. I only knew that and in my middle school I saw these girls that were practicing some dance routine and I was obsessed. They were really popular and I didn’t know how I was going to talk to them and say “How do I do that? Where do you do that?” My next semester was drama and a couple of those girls were in it. With time these girls became my very good friends and I finally had the nerve to ask and they told me where they took class and who their teacher was. I came home that day and told my mom “Mom! Mom! We have to do this!” Life changed, I was going to be a dancer. I was not good and it didn’t matter, I was going to be a dancer. I loved to run, I loved to move, but there was a mirror and there was people at dance class. I didn’t even know how I looked like. I would get tease by my teacher way back then, she said “Angie, I never knew this is where you were going, when you started you were all energy, very enthusiastic, but not really good.” I’m glad I did knew I was not very good because I have made myself good.
7. What are your goals for the future involving your dance studio and yourself?
Well, five years ago I created a hip-hop nutcracker and it was everything. I loved the tradition of the nutcracker, but I just didn’t wanted to see the ballet version all the time. I also saw that there was this classic story that can be told differently. Everything that inspired me was pop-culture, whether was YouTube, movies, music or videos, just things that are memorable from that year. That was a big goal of mine for maybe a decade and finally got to do that. I hope that Culture Shock is able to keep doing it. I want to open up a Culture Shock cafe downstairs. I want to have a place for all dancers to go before or after class/rehearsals. I want to buy a cabin in the mountains and retire. My daughter has been my passion my whole life. I just need to be there for her. I’m ready to be a support system.
8. What message do you want to give others when they take their favorite dance class?
Allow yourself to feel it. I remember in technique classes, in ballet you are so hard on yourself and focus on just doing that movement. Live while you are doing it, I remember some things were so grueling. Like training, some people can live through that and for some people its grind. I feel that what we have here is a little freer to be expressive. It’s not about what someone tells you to do, they will tell you the movement, but they are not telling you how to do it, you get to do it your way. I think that’s a freedom. Let yourself be free to experience what it is you need to experience when you step into that dance class.
I like art, I like making art. It’s just actions rather than just visuals. I don’t paint, I’m not a good artist or at least I don’t think I ever was. When it comes to movement and theatrics, that’s is something that I love to do. I was always good at putting movement together. The art of it, that’s what it peels me. It’s beautiful, powerful, heartfelt, aggressive and emotional. It’s the emotional, it’s how you feel when you watch something that’s dance or theatrical, that’s what inspires me.
2. What passions/feelings do you find when you dance?
Power. Lots of power, personal power, I always feel empowered. I feel joy, so it’s funny because when I was a technique dancer first, jazz was my style and I did lots of shows, I did lots of concerts, I was in dance companies in LA and I did musical theater. That’s when I was a jazz dancer and before I even discovered hip-hop. I loved to be in control of my body, I loved to push it, I loved space, I always loved space and I think more than even dance I love space. I can’t dance anymore, I have ruin my feet. I work with space differently now, I do stage performances and I direct them or I also like to create artistic spaces. Empowered it’s what I felt like when I learned hip-hop. Joy and beauty it’s what I felt like when I started with jazz, I just loved the length, the lines and the pre-arms. I loved movement and what it felt like, it didn’t maybe look like it felt, but I loved how it felt and then once I was good enough to see that it look like what I felt, when they matched, that was joy. Learning technique takes years and years, so when I discovered hip-hop, which I was in my thirties I was like “What is this?” It’s so different, it’s so grounded and it’s so brought. I loved it, I loved the aggressiveness of it and I loved the power, I felt so strong when I would do hip-hop. “I’m doing hip-hop!” I just went the other direction, that fill me then and then all of the sudden this fills me now. First half of my dance career was jazz, theater and what was pretty and beautiful. In hip-hop was a whole different matter, it was about strength and power control, it was just a whole different feeling. That’s what I needed then. It was different from the different genres that I had studied. I felt very personally empowering and I felt that it was empowering for women, I think it’s empowering for every human, for kids that they feel like they have no voice they can get into a dance class and they have personal power. I saw this with other cultures, a lot of dancers came from places of lack and this was what empowered them, so it was a rebirth of awareness. Building this center was the least I could do to be surrounded with that and there’s an appreciation about that.
3. At what moment of your life you decided that you wanted to start a company?
When I started dancing hip-hop. I loved company work, being pushed and working with others. I loved being in a court of dancers. I needed to start a company in order for hip-hop to be spread. There were no classes here in San Diego and had to drive up to LA. There were a group of dancers of around fifty or seventy dancers doing a technique at once. When I saw that I was like “Oh my god! Their power and their unifying movements are impressive”. This was a big turning point and I was like “Yes, I want to do that!” I was a Nike dance athlete too. I was picked up by Nike and sponsored us as dance athletes. There was a group of like twenty five of us in the United States and we would tour. Nike was on fire and I asked them to sponsor Culture Shock and they agreed. They sponsored us millions and millions a year. I had Nike, they didn’t need to know who I was because I was no one, I was a dancer but I wasn’t a hip-hop person. We got a lot of attention because Nike was big and people wanted to start training hip-hop. This was how I was able to start Culture Shock, it was because ironically I had been working with Nike for about a year. Nike was huge and a great period of time for us. Really it was Nike who allowed me to start Culture Shock and for it to be so successful so fast.
4. What do you like the most about dancing?
I have to use my body and I have to move through space. Even if can’t dance now I go to the gym. I like to push my body. I was given this than I’m going to use it. I just don’t use it too much. I now have a bionic ankle and foot, it’s a full ankle replacement. I don’t have an ankle joint anymore, I just have the skin around it. I had many surgeries, I was very hard on my feet and I didn’t had really strong feet before and I beat them up.
5. Describe dance in 3 words.
Love, joy and real. It just feels real.
6. How much has dance change your life and transform you into the person you are today?
It has changed my life drastically. When I was young I was very physical. The first thing I did was track and field, I was a runner, a sprinter, and a jumper. I only knew that and in my middle school I saw these girls that were practicing some dance routine and I was obsessed. They were really popular and I didn’t know how I was going to talk to them and say “How do I do that? Where do you do that?” My next semester was drama and a couple of those girls were in it. With time these girls became my very good friends and I finally had the nerve to ask and they told me where they took class and who their teacher was. I came home that day and told my mom “Mom! Mom! We have to do this!” Life changed, I was going to be a dancer. I was not good and it didn’t matter, I was going to be a dancer. I loved to run, I loved to move, but there was a mirror and there was people at dance class. I didn’t even know how I looked like. I would get tease by my teacher way back then, she said “Angie, I never knew this is where you were going, when you started you were all energy, very enthusiastic, but not really good.” I’m glad I did knew I was not very good because I have made myself good.
7. What are your goals for the future involving your dance studio and yourself?
Well, five years ago I created a hip-hop nutcracker and it was everything. I loved the tradition of the nutcracker, but I just didn’t wanted to see the ballet version all the time. I also saw that there was this classic story that can be told differently. Everything that inspired me was pop-culture, whether was YouTube, movies, music or videos, just things that are memorable from that year. That was a big goal of mine for maybe a decade and finally got to do that. I hope that Culture Shock is able to keep doing it. I want to open up a Culture Shock cafe downstairs. I want to have a place for all dancers to go before or after class/rehearsals. I want to buy a cabin in the mountains and retire. My daughter has been my passion my whole life. I just need to be there for her. I’m ready to be a support system.
8. What message do you want to give others when they take their favorite dance class?
Allow yourself to feel it. I remember in technique classes, in ballet you are so hard on yourself and focus on just doing that movement. Live while you are doing it, I remember some things were so grueling. Like training, some people can live through that and for some people its grind. I feel that what we have here is a little freer to be expressive. It’s not about what someone tells you to do, they will tell you the movement, but they are not telling you how to do it, you get to do it your way. I think that’s a freedom. Let yourself be free to experience what it is you need to experience when you step into that dance class.