Street-Dance Stars from Down South
Diving deep into the personal history of dance, and the larger narratives we build through movement, office went 1:1 (although not in cut-throat competition) with pioneers and stars-on-the-rise Weezythephoenix, Sina the Doll, Myles Yachts, and Sohlid Gold. Sharing their own experiences, approaches and unique styles, each dancer stands as a testament to the complex, and multi-faceted creative engine of the South.
Check out our interview with the Southern stars below.
Tell me about yourself, how did you start dancing?
Weezythephoenix—Dad's military, mom's a paralegal so as far as like livelihood growing up, we just always learned to adapt. That's what it is, is that adaptation regardless of whatever the height of the social climate is where we live and the introduction of dance really came about more like solid training species and stuff like that. But my grandma was really big on the movies are black and white films and all that good stuff. So it's kind of how the inspiration came to dance. Because I was really inspired at a young age to figure out why there was no sound in film all the things people say. So it kind of worked out that way.
Sina the Doll— I basically started dancing when I was like four or five It was just something no it was just like within the family that we all did. My and my sister just used too make like choreographies and you know go show our family downstairs when we had like Thanksgiving or something. I’ve been dancing for eight years and it's still kind of like, you know, a pinch myself feeling. I still don't feel like it’s real. It's like it's so surreal you know? I really didn't think this would happen to me or that I would get this far.
Myles Yachts— I've been dancing for about 15-16 years. And yeah, it's, it's my passion. I’m also a rap artist. I love music and music producing. And yeah, just I just grew up always around music. You know, I caught on to dance pretty late, come on to dance party, like when I was in high school. And, and I just, I don't know, I just always like seeing it always was one that was just like, wow, this is really dope. I wish I can do that. until I started practicing or doing that. And now it's my profession.
Sohlid Gold— I can't pinpoint how I got into it. I can say I took it serious at 17. I feel like there is this art, there is always a part when people just decide to take it serious. Because depending on the type of art, you want to express, depending on your family, your college or where you live, people may make you feel bad about it. So that caused me to suppress it. And now I can mark the date on when I finally broke free and said screw what people think I'm going to do it.
How did your environment impact your creative expression?
SG— I grew up in an area in New Orleans, where everybody was a thug, it's like if you're not doing that, then it's not cool. So dancing was shunned where I was from. There wasn't many dancers that were successful. So people were like, what's the point of it? And I believe them, but I couldn't stop dancing. And I was like, screw it. WP: I grew up in different parts of Nashville. I grew up more the east side of Nashville like Inglewood and then also south side of this bar so we moved around a lot because again My dad was in the Navy so we figured it out and made it work with dance. My introduction to it that was really from the silent movies and all that good stuff and just seeing how you could move people without having to say any words and sometimes not even having music.
Do you have any early musical and dance influences?
MY— I've always had like a wide range of music that I always listened to because my dad ran. My dad ran a rehearsal complex called Memphis rehearsal complex that was downtown. And there was like, so many studio rooms in there and basically like salon, GTO experience. I would listen to like Linkin Park, Evanescence. Also rap music like Three 6 Mafia, Yo Gotti. T Love or like Project Players like Gangsta Boo. So I listened to all these rap artists, you know, when I was young, I just mixed the things. I would never be like, I only want to listen to the hood shit. You know, I want to listen to everything. So I feel like that really helped me in my musicality and to see music differently.
SG— I would listen to stuff that was weird for a young black guy. I would listen to Queen, to Fleetwood Mac. I will listen to Al Green. You know, a lot of pop popping music. Funk, James Brown. So growing up, I was always different.
WP— You can grow from any type of dance style. It doesn't matter, I had the same love for ballet that I would have for waack. I have the same love for West African that I would have for watching a jooker, because at the end of the day, regardless of how anybody puts it style or not. It's all dance. It's all a dance. So you have to try to respect it on a productive and positive tip.
How does it feel seeing Southern styles become trends on Tiktok, like the walk through you choreographed, Myles?
MY— This is I'm from where it comes from. So by me being from here and to see the world on it. It means everything, you know, it’s like, okay, we went out for the city. You know, we have a dance style that's from our city, that's blowing up. So that's the love, you know, we do we do these things to put it out there and to receive the love back. And that's what we're doing. And as soon as beautiful. It's a great feeling to get your city recognized, you know, because there's so much talent. You know, it's a lot of talent.
SD— I do love to see it. It’s really exciting, but its also like, I’ve been doing this forever. You know, doing it the right way putting the real energy into the real spirit and like someone who just does it one time and don't really do it right just go viral. And I'm like, Damn, what about me? I'm actually putting in the work. There’s just a certain way like, there’s a bounce to it. Most people just don't have that bounce in it. You just gotta come here and be here for a minute, then that’s how you catch on.
SG— So there's one thing I do respect about life is never get angry. Just work hard. There's many choreographers that I've met that came to New Orleans with a promise of taking New Orleans Dancers away to show the style, but instead they come record us and then they show the style. That's why I like Meg Thee Stallion a lot, because she ended up coming and talking to some people herself about the Body video. Those were all New Orleans dancers. Some people make sure they pay homage, others they just try to snatch and go. Tell me a bit about the origins and influences of dance in the South.
What are some of the origins of the Southern style?
WP— All dance, for me, originates from people who were oppressed or had to deal with something and figure out a way to navigate and not feel that hurt. I feel like, traditionally, especially when we talk about street dance, it’s more of a Black and Latino type thing. I won’t speak for other people because their story is just as valid as mine. In the South, we have a completely different way that we hear and move to music. It’s a lot more rhythmic. Especially even, if you get into like the Atlanta culture, stuff like that. It was a lot more live instrumentation, so you had to know, like, what the horn was going to do. You had to know what the drum and bass was going to do. So people had to know what the Lord was going to do. People had to know what the drum and bass was going to do. That’s where it came from for me, and as a waacker, I also had an understanding of like disco, Soul Train type vibes.
SG— The style of dancing is unique compared to the rest of America. I would always say that New Orleans is not a part of the US. It's like a third-world country. Well as the years went on, and I did my history, I learned that a lot of Haitian patient slaves came there, you know, and that's how we get that Creole tongue. The lingo that people love about New Orleans when we say baby, buku you know, it's all mixed in. So what happens is that the style we call bounce, and then the second line dancing we have which is the jazz parades, we call it a second line. All of those styles of dancing show you the culture.
How would you describe your own style?
SG—That’s my style. Mixed in because that's where I grew up. So I'm a part of that culture but I do love hip hop. I love what the world love. I love Michael Jackson. I do all of that. It's like one big gumbo style of what I do—a mix of the Haitian style and like African dance, that’s the dope part about it, and jazz. I don't know how jazz was introduced to the different slaves but if you’ve ever seen a second-line dance, and when I took jazz and ballet and I learned the proper terminology for certain moves, I was like hold up we do that but in the street way.
WP—My style it's very hard to summarize my style because I feel as though, I look at dance as a constant evolution, and it's constantly growing.
SD—When I'm hanging out, I'm a different person. I'm more like introverted and shy, but when I'm jookin, it's just like I turn into Sina like I'm Jesina when I’m out in public and then I’m Sina when it comes to dancing. She's more confident, like she don't care she'll just be herself, you know?
And what about the Memphis style in particular?
SD— I wouldn't necessarily say cocky. We're a little cocky but humble at the same time. We’re just much more like confident with our style
MY— You have to come to Memphis to understand, you know? Like, if you want to learn French, you got to go to France.
