I'm driven by music and musicality and timing and tempo and the vibe.

I gotta take this into everything I do.

And that is me getting to live my life as a dancer.

When you get to say you're a dancer, that's a flex.

I really just tried to make the thing that I wanted to make, that I was scared to make.

I'm finding a sway.

I'm finding rhythm.

They're trying to take away all that I got.

But I can't let ‘em.

People rise up to help each other.

We have to.

We have to navigate this landscape just like everyone else.

When you walk in, people should know you are a dancer by the way you walk in.

There should be something about your swagger and how you carry yourself, that lets people know that you're there to be a part of the energy and the entertainment.

I was one of three girls.

We had one bathroom, so I was like, chair against the door, boombox in there.

And so either I was going to dance at home by myself or not at all.

And that's what I chose.

At 20, coming here to Seattle, I went to this performance with a friend that I had made, and there was a dance crew, and just seeing them walk in, like the way they carried themselves when they walked in, I was like, like salivating for them.

It was just so amazing.

One of the dancers, she was like, I can kind of tell you got something like, have you ever taken classes?

I was like, never in my life.

And she was like, you should come.

I immediately was like, this has been something my whole life should have been incorporated a part of.

It was everything like just being in that room with other people who also were going to challenge themselves to be outside of their comfort zone and try something.

It was awesome.

Next class I took was not.

Everyone was over there.

I was over there.

We're going to the front.

I'm going to the back.

I'm turned around.

Now were doing it facing each other I was just like, out of my mind.

I just left like I knew I shouldn't have been in there.

I knew I'm not a dancer and it took a lot in me to decide to go back and try it again.

And the big picture is that when I became a teacher, when I became someone who was leading a room like that, it motivated me to look for the person in the room also, that was scared to be there, that was struggling and maybe needed some feedback or needed some encouragement.

Two claps for Rylan.

Two claps for you.

Two for Rebecca.

And that was such an important moment of like it was supposed to happen.

It was not supposed to miss me, that I was not supposed to feel like I was in a space that wasn't going to push me, to elevate myself, to continue to try and to train and to work hard and to be patient and to get uncomfortable, to challenge my mind and my body to do things it had never done.

Dope is always a way that I have referenced anything that I just felt had a deeper meaning of like, cool, you know, something that it's creating the vibration Dope Girl is just continuing to give people these professional opportunities.

We're able to collaborate.

We're able to be anything that we want to be in our like creative endeavors.

So like, we can choose to choreograph if we so choose to, if we want to just dance, we can.

If we want to be creative directors of any sort, like Kisha really creates the space for us to be whatever we want to be.

And the opportunities are limitless.

I think this is like a dancer's dream job is to work with a collective creative group to create dance opportunities that dancers want to be a part of.

I danced on tour with Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.

I did that for two years.

I would have never dreamed when I was starting at 23 and taking this class and being like, oh, this is awkward, that I would be on a tour, that I would be doing Conan O'Brien and Billboard Awards and the movie awards and Rolling Stone and all these things that dancing for this group gave me.

And the confidence that I was like, owning my place makes me really, really proud that in Seattle, like, not as diverse as people may think, that someone who looks like me had one of the greater opportunities as an artist, that you could have.

I was pregnant with my son, who's now 13 when we first started.

And this was like, you know, we're dancing for a cheeseburger like, let's get it!

Loved it.

It was surprise.

We were like wow, we're out here.

This is awesome.

Because at that time, there was no other local artist that was bringing dancers to do anything.

I want to work with people who get to look like themselves and get to be themselves and get to represent their culture, their identity and bring that in.

Like there should be space for all of us to be excellent.

I want more big opportunities to perform and more creative ways to express ourselves.

I will only ever create a table that a lot of people can sit at.

When the tide rises, all the ships rise.

And I don't want to be on a ship by myself in the middle of the ocean.

You know, I want to see all of us out there swimming and soaring and sailing.

I want to see people winning, like, genuinely want to see people winning.

I love the position I'm in, and the reality is, no one else can do what I'm doing right now.

Like having time, resources to feel like I'm going to continue to find ways to pivot and get funding so that we can have amazing opportunities to present ourselves.

It's the only thing I want.

When I'm thinking about creating things, kind of creating the space that makes me start to fantasize about what music and movement combined makes me feel in that moment.

I'll kind of start there and then meditate on it a little bit.

I can sit and close my eyes, with my eyes even closed I'm finding a sway.

I'm finding rhythm to match my spirit.

Cannot separate it.

I got to take this in everything I do, and that is me getting to live my life as a dancer.

I do want to move through life and be the spark that I've been given.

From that moment, that first moment that I saw those dancers walking in and just knowing the way they were walking in was saying, like, I'm somebody who's about to take up some space and you're going to want to watch.

I do that today now, with everything that I do, I am so thankful I was able to experience that because it really does Allow me to move through this life differently.

When I see people dancing, I want it for myself.

I want that kind of life for myself.

That's what being a dancer is for me.