Going head over heels for BREAKDANCING

HARLINGEN - From the streets of New York, Joey Perez brought a dance form here that's booming across the country.

"It came from the streets," Perez, 25, said of breakdancing. "I grew up around hip-hop. It was the culture I grew up with. It's in a totally new light now."

In January, Perez and a U.S. team won an international competition in Paris that's helped make him a rising star in the dance form.

"It's worldwide now, almost at a sports status," said Perez, who teaches hip-hop and breakdancing at Rio Grande Valley Arts Studio.

"Hip-hop has come a long way."

This month, two finalists of the hit show "So You Think You Can Dance" will hold a class at the Harlingen studio.

Dominic Sandoval, known as Dominic, and Hokuto Konishi, who's nicknamed Hok, will teach a master class in breakdancing at 4 p.m. April 26 at the studio.

"They're coming here is a lot of inspiration for younger kids that anything's possible," said Perez, a friend of Sandoval who set up the class at the studio.

The program will help introduce Valley residents to the dance form, said Lori Read, the studio's owner.

"I'm very proud to be able to offer it," said Read, who traveled to California for the finale of "So You Think You Can Dance in 2006 and 2007."

"It's one-on-one instruction," she said. "We don't have a lot of dance down here so you've got to travel to see them. That's why we're lucky to have them come here."

In the Valley, a growing fan base has taken the dance form into nightclubs, said Elcira Ibarra, a hip-hop dancer from Edinburg.

"It was kind of an underground movement that expanded," said Ibarra, 21, a dancer in the group Golightly Project.

When she was about 15, she began competing in "battles" in dance parties, she said.

"You show off your talent," she said of the battles that heat up on many of the Valley's dance floors. "You try to make yourself better."

Today, hip-hop's taking over as the hottest dance form in many Valley nightclubs, Ibarra said.

"In my eyes, it's the main entertainment for youth," she said. "It's fun and it's interesting to the audience because it's easy to catch on to. It's energizing - the moves are just full of energy. It's my passion."

Like many dancers who've studied ballet, Madeline Luaces sees hip-hop and breakdancing as emerging art forms.

"It's creative," said Luaces, who's teaches ballet in schools and at Read's studio.

"It's different and cool. You dance what you want. You move your body in ways you never knew you could. You make up a move and call it a name and that's it. It comes from the heart."

April 26, she and her 12-year-old daughter Katarina will take the class.

"I want to dance with them and learn some of their choreography," Luaces said about Dominic and Hok. "It's important that we get this exposure in the Valley. I'm excited we're getting exposed to other styles."