Feliciano Pablo Ortiz

Coming from a place like Vallejo, CA, it is really hard to find a space to dance due to the studios being some distance from that area. It takes a dancer with a lot of drive and hunger to thrive as a dancer in a city like this which is what Feliciano Ortiz did. Also known as Pablo, now age 25, got his start in dance at the age of 12 during a school assembly where a choreographer by the name of Greg Chapkis reached out to him and advised

Aggie Loyala – Use Me

This weeks concept video of the week comes from the one and only Aggie Loyola of the Company. Aggie has been a choreographer for The Company for quite some time but did not get the recognition she has now until she released her Girls Like You concept video.

Robyn Nariyoshi

Coming all the way from Honolulu, Hawaii, Robyn Nariyoshi began dancing at the age of 5 where she was classically trained in ballet. She made the decision to stop ballet right before she made it to pointe, and from there branched off into jazz which eventually led her to hip hop in 6th grade. Nariyoshi enjoyed the style of hip hop due to the freedom it possessed and the limited constraints it had but living in Hawaii, the dance scene was not so big so she was very

Prelude Overview

As with every year November starts off the competition calendar, and this year Main Stacks had the honor of continuing the tradition of hosting Prelude NorCal. Main Stacks is the premier dance team of UC Berkeley and has been hosting Prelude since 2010, 2 years after their debut performance where they took home third place. The competition took place on November 12, 2016, at the Chabot College Performing Arts Center. All in all there were 23 performances throughout the night, following the tradition of starting with the Pre-Show which showcased some of UC Berkeley’s other dance teams, and ending with Main Stacks as

Allyson Del Rosario

San Jose native Allyson Del Rosario got her start in dance after finding inspiration in her older sister at the age of 5. As she was old enough to enroll in classes she quickly jumped into her sisters shoes and began making a name for herself in the world of dance. The first studio she ever trained at was Sheri’s Born to Dance studio in San Jose where she got her first taste of competitive dance. Eventually the owner of the studio passed down the keys to one of her students being Tawnya Kuzia who renamed the studio Norcal Dance Arts and is the current owner. Through Norcal Dance Arts (NCDA) Ally was able to train day and night joining the Hip Hop Dance collective and later dipping her feet into community dancing by training with Hungry Bumz which was led by Randy Van Le and Kyle Limin.

NorCal Vs. SoCal

The divide between NorCal and SoCal is extremely different. All in all dance will generally be the same except with a different feel of styles, but aside from just the styles the energy and feeling of classes is completely different. As mentioned by Milo McManus, he describes NorCal as more comfortable, meaning that it is more of a safe feel. NorCal tends to be at more of a slow pace, everyone that takes class here generally does it to dance, or as an outlet which is why class seems more relaxed up here.

Milo McManus

Photo by Rocko Luciano

Born and raised in San Jose Milo McManus took his first dance class on accident by attending his brothers rehearsal at the age of 12 in flip flops learning to DMX’s “Party Up” Slowly after taking his first class he fell in love with hip hop dance and joined Future Shock, and competed at Hip Hop International in Vegas. He continued dancing in the Bay Area joining teams like Culture Shock Oakland from the age of 12 – 16 and was part of the first class of Funk Beyond Control (FBC) from the age of 16 -18. Shortly after ending high school McManus moved to Los Angeles to pursue his dancing career where he was contracted by Bloc Talent Agency in 2007.