SHEBOYGAN — Breanna Crump, 25, also known as “Mizz Bre,” said she can’t remember what age she started dancing. It seems like she’s been dancing her whole life.

She comes from a family of dancers and her journey began with dance competitions at parties and musical performances where her siblings and cousins ​​​​performed as background dancers.

Crump nurtured that passion throughout high school — assisting the dance teacher at Etude High School and running an after-school program for elementary, middle and high school students — and after graduation, built a social media following that led to more performances.

“It’s a way to show individuality, and it’s a way for me to be creative and express myself,” Crump said of dance. “I love music and I love dance and I feel like they go together perfectly.”

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Today, she is the founder and owner of Street Elite Dance Academy, bringing street and elite dances rooted in Black history, culture and community to Sheboygan. The studio offers classes for dancers ages 5 to 17 and hopes to offer more adult classes as well.

Crump teaches four dance styles: African dance (traditional and modern dance styles from East and West Africa with the opportunity to learn about African American and African history), majorette dance (a blend of cheerleading, marching dance, hip hop, jazz, and other dances that originated at historically African American colleges and universities), dance club (a blend of regional club dance and popular remixed music), and clowning.

Clowning – a hip-hop dance with improvised and exaggerated movements such as arm swings and chest lifting – originated in the 1990s in South Los Angeles by Thomas Johnson, also known as Tommy the Clown.

Crump grew up with African dance styles and street dance, and studied majorette dancing in middle and high school. She also explored the styles through various school projects, learning about their history and teaching the moves to others.

Bringing street dance to Sheboygan “is more important than anything else because I think representation is always important and there are so many kids here who need to see people who look like them,” she said.

Crump said she was a young black woman who had lived in Milwaukee and Chicago and experienced “culture shock” when she moved to Sheboygan.

“I went to Urban Middle School and wasn’t used to being different,” Crump said. “A lot of people would come up to me and ask questions like, ‘What are you?’ … And I thought to myself, ‘I don’t know how to answer those questions, I’m just a kid. No one has ever asked me that before.'”

“Even though moving to Sheboygan was a culture shock, I’m grateful for it because I was able to make so many connections and grow up with a wide circle of friends,” she continued.

Crump said opening a black-owned dance studio in the city of Sheboygan, a predominantly white area, could have a greater impact on communities of color than opening one elsewhere because it could create a place for children of color and diverse families to share a love of dance.

“They (the children) need to know there is a safe place for them,” she said. “My family and I dance in our homes, and there are so many other families in Sheboygan doing the same thing or having parties, but now we have an environment where everyone can come together.”

Dance team enters community spaces and schools

Crump and the dance team have performed at various events, including Juneteenth and Essence of the Arts celebrations and at Longfellow Elementary School. The team will perform a show at the Sheboygan County Historical Museum in March.

Photos: See 11 photos from Sheboygan’s Essence of the Arts Black History Month showcase

The team now has a studio outside of Crump’s home, as well as relatives. She has seen the students, who have so far been mostly girls, become more and more determined to master the choreography.

“From the beginning until now, I have seen that the children have learned the choreography faster than before. I have seen that they have finally learned to count while dancing,” she said.

For Crump, dance helped him discover an “alter ego.”

“When I dance, I feel like it’s a way to express myself,” Crump said. “In everyday activities, I’m actually super shy, super quiet, super introverted, but when I dance, when I perform, I’m the complete opposite.”

Crump would like to introduce adult classes and possibly organize a back-to-school tour of local schools, combined with a school supply drive.

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How to reach the Street Elite Dance Academy

Street Elite Dance Academy is located at 532 N. Eighth St., in the Core Connections Pilates building. Contact Breanna Crump at 920-377-0962 or [email protected].

Contact Alex Garner at 224-374-2332 or [email protected]. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @alexx_garner.

This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Sheboygan’s Street Elite Dance Academy promotes safe space