There is this idea that some people are born with rhythm and born knowing how to dance, and some aren’t.                                                             There is also the misconception that memorizing choreography is learning how to dance. Patricia believe that                                                         dance is a form of expression that can help people from all backgrounds not only through exercise, but also                                                             find their own style in motion.

                                                       As a kid Patricia always had a passion for dance but her father who raised both her brother and her alone                                                                 couldn’t afford to pay for dance lessons. She did not know where or how to begin, so she watched and                                                                         imitated her brother pop locking, waving, and (as she would say) “his attempts to break dance” every chance                                                           she had. Patricia was around 10 years old when she saw her brother practicing in their living-room where                                                                 there was a mirror that covered up an entire wall. Her brother would repeatedly play the song practicing his                                                           dance to which amazed Patricia how cool and unnatural his moves were.

It wasn’t until 5th grade at P.S. 11 that Patricia had a chance to take a real dance class, a ballroom dance class. Even though it wasn’t Hip Hop, she wouldn’t have cared if it was a class on the “hokey pokey”, as long as it was still dance. After taking the class and learning the ballroom dance techniques, She was chosen to compete in a swing dance competition and won her first championship. Walking in with a crowd of about 10 different schools competing for the same thing was a bit intimidating but “the energy in the gym (where the competition was located) was simply mesmerizing” - P. Als.

When Patricia went off to middle school, her desire to dance was still there. Her passion for hip-hop, pop lock and freestyle dance was still in her, even though she was terrible at it (at the time). Around that time YouTube came about, so she started watching great dancers pop locking, breakdancing and bone breaking, to any song. Her other big inspiration was Michael Jackson, especially his Billie Jean performance, you know the one where he introduce the moonwalk for the first time and on top of that dancing alone on stage without any background dancers. Although my brother made fun of me when he caught me trying to do the wave and pop, she kept practicing and practicing. She watched  herself improve little by little until her wave and pop were on point.

Looking back on my story She realized she was never good at dancing until she started practicing and watching myself in the mirror. “Anyone can dance, it’s all about looking deep inside yourself and putting in the time to find your own style” - P.Als.

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