Igniting the learning experience through play and communal celebration is fundamental to my teaching philosophy. During my graduate studies, I quickly recognized that the way I have been taught and the way I have been taught to teach in formal classroom settings are the exact reasons why I left mainstream dance institutions. Indeed, I rediscovered my passion for dance through alternate learning practices not widespread in dance schools, in a learning setting where the notion of education does not correlate with the Western academy. This place is the dance club, a place where learning is a constant happening without anyone telling you what to do. In fact, there is no instruction at all—a wordless place of play—yet you come out of a learning experience as if you were in a fun game holding on to something that is purely self-driven. This self-drive in combination with the joy of social engagement pulls you back and back into the space where curiosity sparks new founded motivation to continue playing.

As an educator on the forefront of representation of Hustle--a club dance form barely existent in higher education--I am constantly conscious of how I am engaging this dance through education in ways that honor its cultural integrity. When learning Hustle in a non-academic setting, the club is the classroom. Hence, I have created a methodology in my college dance courses where the dance studio is converted into an environment simulating influential clubs of the 70s (when Hustle was born) as a lab. No verbal instruction is given, nor any predetermined framework superimposed on the event. Students are on their own to freestyle and improvise based on club and party-based concepts discussed in non-lab classes where we pratice cypher/circles, soul train line, freestyle, line dancing, and partner dancing. With a fun, playful, engaging, and communal tone of my transformative pedagogical approach, the club essentially becomes the classroom.

Though daunting to some at first, providing the freedom to explore and play with ideas became liberating for many. Students begin to trust themselves and others in spontaneous exchange, thereby developing a strong sense of community. It is significant to note that spontaneous exchange is fundamental to African diasporic social dance forms. Also foundational to those forms are the ritual of communal celebration and one’s contribution to the greater whole. My pedagogical approach to the learning of Hustle honors its roots while continuing to develop emergent strategies for continual evolution. Just as bell hooks, I too enter the classroom with the assumption that we must build community in order to create a climate of openness and rigor and firmly believe that community creates a sense that there is shared commitment and a common good that binds us. This is the underlying cord of social dance forms from communities of practice that nurture contributive citizens of society that is essential to my classes and centered in transformative pedagogy. I apply these concepts to other dance forms I teach such as Graham technique and other Western contemporary/modern based genres where the student is encouraged to find their own meaning through self-exploration, inquiry and communal practice. 
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I have been teaching professionally for over sixteen years and it is clear that dance is an expressive tool that transforms and empowers students. Expressive arts practice offers students the opportunity to discover strategies for breaking through social, economic, and cultural hierarchical barriers. In my current university and community classes, I create an inclusive environment by catering to a variety of learning styles through a fluid lesson plan where movement, performance, self-expression, and community building are effectively embodied. Dancing community building helps students practice mindfulness with respect to all members of the class while actively engaging in their own health and well-being. By exercising these objectives of increasing cultural awareness, self-awareness, transformation and community building, students are given the opportunity to practice assessing their global citizenship.