Rhapsody James

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Teacher Bio

Rhapsody James began her career as a choreographer after receiving her BFA Purchase College (NY). Born in Brooklyn, her first job was at Sony Music as an Executive Assistant, which planted the seed for her foray into the Commercial Dance industry. She quickly became a lead choreographer for the NBA New Jersey Nets Dance Team and a principal dancer in the acclaimed, Put You Hands Where My Eyes Can See music video by Busta Rhymes. Keeping up her flair for busin...read more

Rhapsody James began her career as a choreographer after receiving her BFA Purchase College (NY). Born in Brooklyn, her first job was at Sony Music as an Executive Assistant, which planted the seed for her foray into the Commercial Dance industry. She quickly became a lead choreographer for the NBA New Jersey Nets Dance Team and a principal dancer in the acclaimed, Put You Hands Where My Eyes Can See music video by Busta Rhymes. Keeping up her flair for business and chorography, Rhapsody parlayed those roles into appearances on the commercial dance world’s leading stages: MTV's The Grind, VH-1 80's Dance Party, VH-1 Fashion Awards and Lip Service.

Rhapsody's accolades in the commercial world opened the door for her to begin teaching at Broadway Dance Center. Today, she continues to be one of the most popular Hip-Hop teachers and has stewarded relationships between the commercial and concert dance within the studio’s walls. Rhapsody is also a member of the esteemed faculty of Monsters of Hip Hop Dance Convention and teaches master classes throughout Los Angeles, Miami, Japan, London, Finland, Switzerland, Germany, and Australia.

Her credits include: Beyoncé, Madonna, Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, J.Lo, Diddy- Dirty Money, Kalenna, SEVYN, The Jonas Brothers, The Pussycat Dolls, The Spice Girls, Cassie, Jay Sean, Donnie Klang, Step Up 2: The Streets, Making The Band: Season 4, and commercials for the NY Lottery, Citron Car Company, and ESPN.

Not one to limit herself or the students and dancers she works with, Rhapsody has several programs she continues to pursue artistic inspirations under. She is: the Artistic Director/ Choreographer of R.E.D. – Rhapsody En Dance; Director/Creator of a multimedia cabaret show Siren Assassins; and the Artistic Director of her Commercial Dance Training Program called Motivating Excellence.

All of these ventures allow Rhapsody the creative outlet to continue pursuing her unique fusion of various dance styles with all disciplines of art, beyond performance.

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Class Descriptions

Int Adv Street Jazz

Dedication and professionalism are a must for this class. The warm up builds cardio vascular strength while incorporating Yoga and A.I. Stretch Techniques. Music such as Hip-Hop, R&B, house, rock, pop and alternative take the class on a journey of discipline and strength. Class combinations integrate innovative choreography with the study of the techniques of staging, formations, use of props and musicality. You must have 2-3 years previous training in Hip-Hop, jazz and or ballet.

Adv Beg Street Jazz

Although structured the same as the INT/ADV class, the main focus of this class will be to build a solid technical foundation and to begin to develop performance quality and musicality. Discipline, the ability to “pick-up” choreography and dynamic execution enables an ADV BEG student to move into an INT/ADV class. You must have 1-2 years previous training in Hip-Hop, jazz and or ballet.