We moved from the suburbs to L.A. and I picked up break dancing when I was 10. I joined a dance crew in high school and I was battling. I also took ballet most of my life until high school.
I do ballet and pointe work. I also do tap, commercial jazz and technical jazz, freestyle street dancing.
I didn't grow up on dance class. I was always natural. I've been in the industry since I was eight and I've always had a choreographer since then. But I never really took ballet or anything like that.
I'm not completely trained in any one area - I'm not a tap person or a ballet person. I don't have a big back-up of steps; I can't just fall back on what I know.
In high school, during lunchtime I would go in the room where the wrestling mats were and try different flips and different moves. Like windmills. I just started mixing martial arts with jazz and contemporary stuff and it would get mashed together and became my style.
My dancing is Hawaiian-inspired but I also get a little fresh when it comes to my faster songs.
Don Cornelius did not want to see how I really danced - I was doing hip-hop, and it was foreign to people out in California. They only knew about popping and locking, so they were not keen on hip-hop dancing.
Dropkicks are old moves, but I wanted to make a new version of an old move.
People misconstrue when I say I was a dancer. I was not classically trained. I was a street dancer, and I got to do what I did in the nightclubs of New York City.
I don't dab, bro.
All my dance moves are improv. I just make them up on the spot.
All through college, I did a lot of break-dancing and all kinds of different martial arts.
The simplest way to do something cool is the cross-turn. Like in the '80s - Michael Jackson did it. You jump and cross your legs together at the same time, and then spin out of it. That's it.
In break-dancing, you create your own style.
I was a freestyle dancer; I wasn't trained.
Rap and dance is pretty much what I want to be known for.
