Blair (she/her)

Blair (she/her) grew up in Detroit, Michigan where she began her first ballet class at 7 years old through a program at her childhood church. This inspired an upbringing of opportunities in expressive movement leading to minoring in dance in college and studying at The Ailey School in NYC. With training in Modern dance (Graham, Horton), West & Central African, Ballet, Jazz, Improvisation, Methods in Teaching, and Creative Dance – she has continued dancing till today and is thrilled to share her love for freedom in dance with you.

Stacy (she/her/hers)

Stacy eagerly started dance classes at age 3, falling in love with tap, ballet, jazz and eventually bellydance (thanks Hipline!) She stayed active with tennis, track and dance team in high school, and continued her pursuit of dance and choreography in college, including 2 years as a Tap teaching assistant in the UC Berkeley PE dept. She found Hipline in early 2009 and was inspired by the amazing classes and supportive environment. After a 6 year move to NYC she returned to the Bay Area and into the open shimmy embrace of Hipline in 2016 and never looked back. She's excited to share her love of movement with this strong women-centered community she so dearly loves.

Em (he/she/they)

Em (he/she/they) didn't discover dance until 2016, when she first stepped foot on the Hipline dance floor and found their life forever changed. Dance was a way to fuse Em's lifelong loves of music, creative expression and physicality. Over the past years, Em's been a dancing fiend and a devoted student of movement, taking lessons in Jamaican dancehall, hip hop, bellydance and more to add finesse and artistic dimension on top of his background in kickboxing, martial arts, wrestling and rockclimbing. Em is beyond excited to join the Shimmy Pop team and hopes to share her warmth and passion with dancers of all skill levels.

Talia (she/her)

Starting at a young age in the worlds of Ballet and Modern, Talia also found love in Jazz, Hip Hop, Contact/Improv, African, and various latin dance styles. After getting her B.A. in dance, she has been performing, choreographing and teaching for the past 13 years. In addition to Power Pop, Talia teaches various dance classes, Zumba, Yoga, Pilates, PIYO, strength training and is excited to bring her passion for movement, music and health to the Hipline community!

Kat (she/her)

Kat (she/her) has been dancing her whole life. She trained in Jazz, Ballet, Tap, Hiphop, Contemporary, and Modern dance and has taught and performed with local companies in Alabama, South Carolina, and the Bay Area (since she moved here in 2012). Most recently she taught a virtual, fat-positive dance class promoting body liberation. Kat knows that many dance and fitness spaces can be exclusionary and harsh on the body and body image. She wants to tap into the side of dance that is self-care, catharsis, embodiment, pleasure, and empowerment. Her Shimmy Pop is low impact on joints, but high energy and expression. Kat loves biking, cats, being an aunt, and learning more about her Assyrian Lebanese ancestry.

Lisha (she/her)

Lisha Yates is a Virginia native and gymnast-turned-dancer. She has performed and choreographed contemporary, jazz, and hip hop styles over the years for her college dance team and several adult dance companies on the East Coast. After 3.5 years in the Bay Area, she has finally gotten her dance groove back and loves shimmying with the Hipline community!

LOVE CLUB

Hipline is committed to ensuring everyone feels welcome on its premises regardless of economic status. If our class pass pricing is a barrier to joining, please consider applying for our Love Club Membership. Love Club Membership qualifies a Hipliner to purchase classes at the rate of $8 per class for one year.

If you would like to participate in LOVE CLUB, please fill out this <strong><em>form</em></strong>.

Christie (she/her)

Christie Makanna is a East Bay native, an OG Hipliner, a classical yoga teacher and a staunch believer in our innate power. She has been practicing and teaching yoga for 20 years while dancing and healing through physical enterprise her whole life. Christie focuses on movement and strength training based on feminine power. She believes physical awareness is a steadying force in an unsteady world. Come explore, you’ll leave rejuvenated, centered and strong.

Emma (she/her)

Emma (she/her) started gymnastics at the age of 4 and fell in love with dance (mostly hip hop) and musical theater through the following years. She was in her high school's theater company and was dance team captain, and with the exception of learning TikTok dances during the pandemic, had lost touch with her passion for teaching and performing over the past decade. She credits Hipline for bringing her closer to her love of movement and music, and is absolutely thrilled to be part of this inclusive community. Her favorite things include delicious Asian food, comedy, live music, and exploring a new national park or foreign city. Emma was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada and moved to the Bay Area in 2014 to pursue a career in marketing and events.

Gabriela (she/her)

Since I was little, all I ever wanted to do was dance. I guess you could say that I had to patiently wait until I was 27 for the stars to align and the opportunity to really present itself. Sure, I got my dance in at The Sound Factory with my fake ID way before I was 21, and maybe you even saw me at City Nights in my halter top and clunky black shoes; I lived for jumping in the car with my girlfriends, crossing that bridge and getting into the city to dance all night. And now, (many) years later, as a grateful mama of two tiny dancers, the magic isn’t lost on me that I get to be a part of Hipline seven days a week. I’m proud of what we’ve built over the last ten years. I am a first generation Lebanese Peruvian, and it has taken a lot of hard work to build a sustainable business in the Bay. I have a deep respect and love for everyone that comes to try us out and all the clients that have been with us over the years. I believe with all my heart (and my heart is huge) that we gotta keep dancing to make the change we want to see in this world.

Archaa (she/her)

Archaa's earliest memories of doing yoga involve a sheet spread onto her carpeted living room floor and comfy pj's- no yoga mat or yoga pants in sight. Archaa spent 6 years as a classroom teacher and teaching yoga combines 2 of her greatest passions. Yoga - and its associated postures and breath techniques - tie deeply to her cultural roots and help her connect to her spirit.

Lili (she/her/hers)

Lili’s interest in the arts started as a child - initially with drawing and painting, shortly after expanding into dance and theater. While she does not have formal training in dance, it has been a constant thread throughout her life. She is constantly inspired by the people and places she encounters. If there is music, there is dancing!

Community Commitments

BODY EMPOWERMENT / We believe bodies of any shape and size deserve to move in an empowered way. We are committed to combating anti-fat bias and toxic beauty standards by leaving diet and negative body talk at the studio door, and reimagining a movement space that uplifts all bodies.

GENDER / Hipline’s movement classes are open to all women & persons of marginalized genders. We welcome anyone on the gender spectrum who has experienced any form of gender oppression.

BIPOC / We are committed to providing an unequivocally safe space across all our classes for BIPOC bodies. We respect and value the pluralism of our community and we require that everyone here does the same.

ACCESS / Our space is not completely physically accessible. We are committed to improving our facility access and offering indoor and livestream classes that include members of the community with a visible or non-visible disability, as we believe this is a part of a community’s diversity. Service dogs are allowed.

CENSORSHIP / We are culture creators & culture keepers. We feel a responsibility to ensure that we all feel safe & empowered within Hipline's walls. With that in mind, we have a firm policy in place to unequivocally mute: Any lyric containing the "n-word" (in class / in the common areas) Songs by or featuring R. Kelly / Chris Brown / Michael Jackson

Tammy (she/her)

Tammy grew up in Ohio and moved to the Bay Area to explore nutrition, capoeira, and life! Teaching others to get in touch with their bodies: both through movement and nutrition is a passion that continues to grow and expand. She currently runs a private nutrition practice called The Nourished Belly and runs Capoeira Brasil East Bay in Oakland.

Nadia (she/her)

Nadia began training as a gymnast at the young age of 5, which gave her the confidence to try many sports and pursue dance. She has explored jazz, tap, and hip hop, but she found her calling in Salvador Bahia Brazil in 2008 when she tried Capoeira, Afro-Brazilian dance and Samba for the first time. She has been training capoeira for over 9 year has been pursuing her passion for Samba since 2012. Nadia has invested countless hours taking classes both here in the United States and in Brazil and all of that hard work paid off when she competed in 2017 at the USA national Samba King and Queen competition where she came in 3rd place winning the title of Diva Do Samba USA 2017/2018. Along with dancing weekly with the lovely ladies of Hipline, Nadia also teaches Samba Classes and is the assistant director of the Bay Area’s very own Samba Sensation, Brazilian Dance Entertainment Group. She had the honor of Parading in Brazil’s Carnaval in 2018 and looks forward to returning every year that she can!

Ariel (she/her)

Born and raised in the Bay Area, Ariel’s dance journey began when she took her first tap class at the age of 5. As she grew so did her love for dance, so she joined her high school dance team and her church’s praise dance team. After graduating, Ariel went straight into becoming the Captain of her church’s dance team, and a full time dance teacher at a studio for children. She also is part of a Bay Area hip hop group based out of Oakland where she serves as the Assistant Choreographer.

Vision. Mission. Values.

VISION Shimmy. Connect. Love.

MISSION Hipline is a community for multi-racial inclusive women and persons of marginalized genders. We come together and connect to ourselves and each other through dance, movement, fitness, and creativity. We are proudly woc-owned.

VALUES

Learning / We come to terms with what we don’t know and embrace the tension of growth, admit harm done, and commit to active healing.

Accountability / We take impact seriously and have a shared responsibility in reaching resolution and agreement.

Justice / We reflect on the privilege we bring to the space to create an environment of equity across gender, race, and bodies.

Community / We recognize that the community is our backbone. We work to create mutual understanding by bridging relationships across identities and upholding each person’s voice.

Pleasure / We value the healing energy of movement. We encourage dancers to tap into desires, joy, body empowerment and creative expression for the liberation of self and the broader community.

Isabelle (they/them)

Isabelle is an Oakland native and a first generation immigrant. With their mom born and raised in the Philippines and their dad from England, they struggled to find a place where they truly felt like they were seen, until they found Hipline.

Isabelle studied dance at Oakland School for the Arts but started living in their body when they joined Hipline in 2016. Isabelle encourages folks who come to her class to be the most “ dramatic ” version of themselves. Throw a tantrum, scream, cry, laugh hysterically and touch yourself. Isabelle firmly believes that vulnerability and emotionality is where community truly begins.

Tiffany (she/her)

Dance is one of the great joys in my life and has definitely shaped me into the person I am today. My dance teachers growing up always said to take as many classes you can from whoever you can. Thankfully I took their advice! From ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, modern, hip hop, pom/cheerleading, and gymnastics - each of these forms of dance and movement have made a lasting impression in my mind and body, each building upon each other, each making me fall in love again and again. I'm super excited and honored to share my love of dance with you!

Alicia (she/her)

Alicia Langlais is a Bay Area Dancer, instructor, and dance inspiration coach. Hailing from Bronx, NY, Hip-Hop and Caribbean culture were apart of her household and community which informed her passion for movement and dance, even as she began ballet training at the age of seven. In addition to over 15 years of dance training, teaching, and performing in New York and the Bay Area, Alicia also has a Master's of Education Degree in School Counseling and Master's of Art Degree in Transpersonal Psychology. Her M.A. degree concentration in Creative Expression with studies and research focused on Dance Therapy allows Alicia to meld her dance training, personal experience with dance trauma, and mental wellness backgrounds to help students slay dance related insecurities or trauma, which she calls "Dance Dragons."