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Professor Samuel Reyes instructs his Hip Hop Dance class in Taylor Gym. Reyes has had a 25-year dance career in choreographing, teaching and touring with Disney. (Will Smalley\/B&W Staff)<\/p>\nOver Samuel Reyes\u2019 25-year dance career, he\u2019s choreographed, toured for Disney and now teaches hip-hop to college students.<\/p>\n
Raised in Brooklyn, New York, he first discovered hip-hop when two girls from his high school taught their classmates. But becoming a professional dancer wasn\u2019t what Reyes first planned.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always say dance chose me,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t choose it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reyes enrolled at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia in 1997 to pursue his dream of becoming an animator for Disney. To earn money, he took dance gigs and soon realized fine art wasn\u2019t for him. He switched to an acting major, training in musical theater and classical movement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Remembering how much he loved dance growing up, he began asking Philadelphia dance companies if he could take free classes, but was often met with pushback.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was coming out at it as a very naive person, but I just wanted to learn,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Many of his peers had trained in dance since childhood, but Reyes didn\u2019t let that deter him from pursuing it in his college years. He said he doesn\u2019t like time stamps.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He focused on learning hip-hop directly from its creators, including Michael and Janet Jackson\u2019s dance teachers.<\/p>\n
Reyes went on to choreograph for Disney while touring with the actress Raven-Symon\u00e9 from the show \u201cThat\u2019s So Raven.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that moment in his career helped him find a stronger artistic voice and purpose. The pace was intense, but he said he thrived and enjoyed the challenge.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After nearly three years on tour, Reyes sought a slower work environment and turned to academia. It took three years for him to agree to become a hip-hop professor at Lehigh, despite mentors pushing him to teach earlier.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI found that to be the biggest insult of my whole entire career,\u201d he said. \u201cI was like, \u2018Are you trying to tell me I can\u2019t dance?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Professor Samuel Reyes instructs his Hip Hop Dance class in Taylor Gym. Reyes has had a 25-year dance career in choreographing, teaching and touring with Disney. (Will Smalley\/B&W Staff)<\/p>\n
Reyes said he agreed to the job because he felt Lehigh respected hip-hop culture and offered a variety of related courses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said he strives to build camaraderie in his classroom. Reyes\u2019 course is personal \u2014 different from a traditional student-professor dynamic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt may freak the students out how quickly I know their names, but I feel like when you show value to people in the room, they\u2019re going to show up,\u201d Reyes said.<\/p>\n
Nina Vecchione, \u201826, one of his students, said Reyes values conversation, not quiet nods and blank stares.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u2019s also direct when dancers need correction. Robert Kleckner, \u201828, said he appreciates that criticism.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what I like because it makes me a better dancer and makes the class a better class altogether,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As someone with no former experience, Vecchione said she once felt silly dancing in class, but Reyes created an atmosphere where mistakes are welcome.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wants us to be confident,\u201d she said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if we\u2019re wrong or right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reyes said he loves seeing students transform throughout the semester and pushes them to strive to be better.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s also been open about his struggles as a queer man in the dance industry. One of his career highlights, he said, was inspiring a student to come out to his parents.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the biggest moment in my whole career,\u201d Reyes said. \u201cThe fact that my class promotes strength, confidence, and also respecting and celebrating who you are is so beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reyes further developed his teaching skills by founding Sanbrooka Productions. While auditioning in Los Angeles, he wrote down the company name before it existed to seem more professional \u2014 and then decided to bring it to life back in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
Sanbrooka\u2019s mission was to ensure hip-hop remained inclusive for people of all sizes, ages and ethnicities.<\/p>\n
He shut the company down when he moved to Allentown but hopes to relaunch it in the Lehigh Valley to build a similar inclusive community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That same impact is felt in his courses.<\/p>\n
Kleckner said if he hears a song used in Reyes\u2019 dances later in life, he\u2019ll think of his class.<\/p>\n
\u201cProfessor Reyes built our hip-hop dance family, and these songs will be memorable forever,\u201d Kleckner said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over Samuel Reyes\u2019 25-year dance career, he\u2019s choreographed, toured for Disney and now teaches hip-hop to college students.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[5877,153,155,154,1197,523],"class_list":{"0":"post-53052","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-4-minute-read","9":"tag-bethlehem","10":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","11":"tag-bethlehem-news","12":"tag-feature","13":"tag-people"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}