At age 51, I’m an anomaly in advanced hip-hop classes. Most students are in their 20s and younger. I work super hard to be able to keep up.
I am fortunate that St. Louis has a lot of great instructors, including one of the best hip-hop instructors in the country, Anthony “Redd” Williams , that I have been able to train under. What has kept me going through raising three children, working as a reporter and my arthritic knees is my intoxicating love for dance, how it makes me feel free and powerful and open and just .
.. happy.
I owe that to Janet Jackson. Really. I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, taking classes at my mom’s dance studio and dancing on cheerleading and dance squads.
But nothing compared to Janet Jackson and her dance videos. I graduated high school in 1990. I was a teen during Jackson’s most iconic dance albums — “Control” came out in 1986 and “Rhythm Nation” in 1989.
I was obsessed with her songs, style and moves. These were days of MTV, so I would wait until her music videos played, and hit record on the VHS. Then I would spend countless hours hitting the rewind button, trying to learn and perfect the steps to songs like “What Have You Done for Me Lately,” “When I Think of You,” “Nasty,” “Pleasure Principle,” “Miss You Much” and of course, “Rhythm Nation.
” Reporter Michele Munz (center, black tank) in a dance class at the Center of Creative Arts in St. Louis led by Janet Jackson's dancer Denzel Chisolm. Video by Garrick J.
