Page 38 - Flathead Beacon // 3.23.16

EVENTS 40 MOVIE REVIEWS 41 SIDE DISH 44 FACES & PLACES 45 PAWS & CLAWS 46 Arts&Entertainment
BUILDING A HIP-HOP LEGACY
Dance Elements studio in Kalispell continues to grow as one student hits it big on stage with Justin Bieber
BY MOLLY PRIDDY
AT A MERE 10 YEARS OLD, CODY Bingham has achieved the dream of many teenagers, and frankly, adults: To be on stage, surrounded by thousands of screaming fans, perform- ing with one of the biggest pop idols in the world.
On March 13, Bingham went on stage in Portland with Justin Bieber to dance during the pop star’s Purpose World Tour. He was the youngest dancer on stage by far, and de nitely the only one from Montana.
His status as a 10-year-old, along with the fact that he trains maybe 10 hours a week compared to the 36-hour weeks the teenage dancers on stage with him expe- rience, made Bingham a bit of a wonder backstage.
“It was an experience for both of us,” Tawnya Bingham, Cody’s mother, said. “All of the other kids were industry kids, with agents and connections and classes six hours a day. Their parents kept saying, ‘Where are you from?’”
Dancing has pulled at Cody since he developed a sense of coordination. His parents were both collegiate athletes and were excited their son wanted to pursue a physically challenging hobby, but they quickly realized they were out of their league when it came to teaching him.
But when Cody started working with Amy Arriaga at Dance Elements, a dance studio in the Glacier Business Center on U.S. Highway 93 north of Kalispell, the Binghams knew it was a match made in hip-hop dance heaven.
Arriaga began teaching dance, speci - cally hip-hop, about 15 years ago, shortly after moving here from the Bay Area in
Cody Bingham poses with instructor Amy Arriaga at Dance Elements. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
Arriaga works to give her students struc- ture and build a solid work ethic.
“It’s so intricate and challenging,” she said of hip-hop. “These kids work their tails o . I feel like I’m giving those kids con dence.”
And when her students start ltering in for the rst post-school class of the day, it’s easy to see they are eager and enthusi- astic, especially when Arriaga and Bing- ham start freestyle dancing in the studio.
The Dance Elements spring show, taking place April 14-16 at the White sh Performing Arts Center, has sold out for the last few years due to its popularity.
Arriaga also takes her students to dance conventions around the country, where they have the opportunity to learn from an array of accomplished teachers, which is an important aspect of having a well-rounded dance education.
But in the Flathead, her studio is experiencing some growing pains. With so many kids seeking out her classes, Arriaga said she’s looking at building a new facility with more space, and plans on adding new programs to her dance classes as well.
The Dance Elements squad goes to Monsters Dance Conventions – Cody’s rst one was at age 8 in Seattle – which also happens to be the Facebook page on which Tawnya Bingham saw the oppor- tunity for her son to dance with Bieber.
In a video on Facebook, Bieber’s cho- reographer Nick Demoura challenged anyone who wanted to dance on stage during the world tour to submit a video of themselves dancing to the choreog- raphy. Dancers could only enter for one stop on the tour, and only four kids would
California. She’d been dancing since 6, professionally since 15, and had been teaching since 18.
When she and her then-boyfriend, now-husband Joe Arriaga rst moved to the Flathead, hip-hop dance o er- ings were nonexistent. She worked at a couple of studios, but soon realized the kind of dancing she wanted to teach kids in the Flathead would have to come from herself.
“Kind of on a whim, I thought ‘Maybe I can do this on my own,’” Arriaga said in her studio last week.
It was a challenge at rst, she said, because there was some pushback against the idea of hip-hop in rural Montana.
Even 15 years after she began teaching, she still gets asked when her students are going to perform a country number.
“It’s been a long road,” Arriaga said. “I think I have tried to push limits. That’s my goal every year.”
Several locations and years later, Arriaga is now the sole dance teacher to 200 students, of which Bingham is just one of the standouts. At a recent compe- tition in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, the Dance Elements team sent 51 kids to dance, and brought home 52 trophies. The kids danced in hip-hop, jazz, lyrical, and tap styles, and Arriaga choreographed 49 of the 51 numbers.
In the studio at Dance Elements,
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