Hip-hop pioneer uses his experiences to teach Calgary youth about the culture behind the dance

Hip-hop artist Sho-Tyme's career has taken him from Queens, N.Y.,toL.A., Toronto and Vancouver. He hasworked with artists likeP.Diddy, Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z, Katy Perry, Shakira and Gwen Stefani, and on films likeYou Got ServedandThe Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

Calgary wasn't exactly on his radar as somewhere to settle.

But partly thanks to a program of classes called Gateway at Pulse Studios in northwest Calgary, he's been here since 2019, teaching youth about hip-hop culture and preparing them for professional careers in dance.

"I learned that there's a community of dancers that are really into hip hop. They just don't have the full awareness and the full knowledge of what hip hop is because they just see little, little bits and pieces of it," Sho-Tyme said.

'Born right into it'

In Queens, N.Y., hewas "born right into it your environment is hip hop."

Dance was an everyday thing for him, in the streets, clubs andhouse parties before he formally entered the industry about 30 years ago.

Part of the culture of hip hop, he says, is that it is an outlet to express what you're going through, and a way to deal with adversity.

"When you know you understand exactly what dance is about, when you understand the origin of it.It gives you an opportunity to tell your story through movement because not everybody has an opportunity to speak," he said."Not everybody has an opportunity to be heard."

At Pulse,he sees parts of himself in a lot of the kidswho use dance as an outlet to dump off negative energy when there are problems at home or school, he says.

"I've been there," said Sho-Tyme. "So when I see thatI know how to help them."

A gateway to a career

For Gateway student Myla Daem, it means a lot to have "one of the pioneers of hip hop" teaching the class about the culture of the dance.

"Being able to have somebody that can teach us about how things got started, how club life was and how it actually grew, that's a huge part of being able to understand the movement and where it came from," said Daem. "You have to know the roots in order for it to grow and start from there and learn it yourself."

Daem joined the class to learnto becomea teacher.

As the class name suggests, it'sa gateway for people who want to pursue a professional career in dance, whether that's as a performer, teacher or choreographer.

"I originally had, you know, realized that there are so many talented youth in this city that just don't have access to good training when it comes to hip hop, and there was just no place yet that was doing this at a high level," saidTara Wilson, director of Pulse Studios.

Once kids graduate from the program, the hope is that they have developed as artists.

"They have the skills to get paid as a dance teacher, they have skills to get paid as a dancer, but also they have the skills to know that they can accomplish something that's really challenging, that requires a lot of commitment, that really requires a lot of maturity," said Wilson.

The other goal of the program is to create professional opportunities for dancers right here in Calgary, so that aspiring artists "don't have to leave Calgary in order to pursue a life that's fulfilling for them," said Wilson.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.