About New York City's Top Rated Private Dance Lessons

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 believes 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, 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 introduced the moonwalk for the first time and danced alone on stage without any background dancers. Although her brother made fun of her when he caught her 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 her story, she realized she was never good at dancing until she started practicing and watching herself 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.