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Catch ASA! with Kim
Sundays 2pm
Elements Urban Arts Collective
12015 Nebel St
North Bethesda, MD
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A native Washingtonian, I began training in and performing dance at 8 years old, and over the course of the next four decades, wound my way through modern, jazz, some ballet, martial arts (tae kwan do and later ju jitsu), cheerleading, stepping, and Latin Dances (street not ballroom). Informally, there was club training in DC Go-Go, House, Atlanta bass, Hip Hop, Reggae, and most recently Soca and contemporary incarnations of Afrobeat. Professionally, I pursued a career in Education, primarily teaching and studying English and History from middle school through university but never stopped dancing. My vocation and avocation merged at KIPP DC: College Preparatory where I founded and taught the Dance program -- as a survey and performance course in African diasporic music, dance and movement -- for 9th-12th graders from 2015-2019, and where I also taught and developed various English courses from 2011-2018. A lifelong dance and workout enthusiast, I came to ASA! timidly in 2012 with a multiple joint arthritic crisis unfolding in my body but continued to push through my training into the instructor levels for three main reasons: 1) it never gets easy: the more fit we are, the harder we can push; 2) it helped me transform my body and my health so that I age without feeling old; and 3) the rigor of it is a release, a celebration, and a mental and physical victory every single class I take or teach, happening in communion with everyone else in class!