The Boogaloo Beat of NYC

It’s trendsetters like Safi Thomas that are put on this earth to help build our confidence to pursue and follow dreams. For Safi, spending time developing a curriculum for the first and only Hip Hop Dance Conservatory in the world is something that gratifies his soul. The pedagogical standards of hip hop dance are riding on his shoulders and we’re here to make sure you know about it. So the next time you think about popping or locking or dressing the part; you can rest assured there’s someone out there building hip hop’s path for the next generation-right here in NYC.

It all began when Safi was a child. Everything he saw was dance. “Music awakens something within me that must be released.” Due to his mother’s insistence, he studied dance and sharpened his gift to find clarity in expression through movement. When he saw what commercial representation of hip-hop was becoming and realized the average dancer’s restraint to higher education, he was motivated to instill a knowledge base of self worth to dancers via teaching.

Since hip hop dance has its own movement vocabulary, history and codification, it must be taught. There’s breaking, popping, locking, boogaloo, rocking and social dances; all of which one must be proficient in. Dancers often ignore this in pursuit of their profession. (Tisk, tisk.)

Safi’s mentors gave him the courage to establish his own teaching methodology (The BLADE Dance Technique®). It's taken him as far as selling out the theatre at Lincoln Center. If you missed it, you can always see this summer’s 4 hour montage of works at the Baryshnikov Art’s Center’s Jerome Robbins Theater. 

gendancers, a trendsetter is not afraid to stand alone, even at the risk of ridicule from others in their field. Safi Thomas found the power to refuse fate. All too often, as dancers careers are left to “chance”, we encourage you to gain a solid education, which further empowers you to change the things that you want.

It works. Just ask Safi. Learn hip hop now at www.hdcny.org. There is more to MTV videos. We promise.

We also promise to inspire you with this trend-setting documentary. Please watch in awe... at how dreams are made.