Boogie Zone has become an online community where dancers can gain exposure with other dancers, agents, choreographers, studios and even fans. A dancer can update his or her profile, adding information, such as upcoming events one will be participating in or if a company represents one, he or she can optionally state it.
“Boogie Zone is primarily an online community for dancers, kind of like MySpace but for dancers,” Bunyi said.
Bunyi has been interning for “Boogie Zone” since last July but, taking classes since 2006.
“I go to Hype Studio’s in old Torrance, that’s where I teach,” Bunyi said. “We’ll get to Hype about 30 minutes before class and set up the tables, collect the money, and make sure everyone (dancers) get stamped. At the end we count the money and divide it up with us and the studio.”
Elm Pizarro is an accomplished choreographer and the creator of Boogie Zone, which started in Irvine around 2003. Anyone can have the opportunity to intern for them for as long as they’d like, as long one is 18 and over. Interns also have to be free on days classes are in session and cannot miss more than two class sessions in a row.
“There’s a different choreographer for every wee,” Bunyi said. “There are choreographers that have worked with Britney Spears and Pac Modern. We’ll make sure the choreographer is comfortable and sometimes they’ll bring helpers.”
During class, the intern plays music and records every class session, followed by putting that video on YouTube.
“We know a lot of people (who compete) like Twitch who was in ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ season 4 and Irvine season 2; one of our members was in Quest Crew season 3 from ‘America’s Best Dance Crew’,” Bunyi said.
“I’ve thought about going into those competitions but I haven’t found anyone who I can mesh with,” he said.
The majority of the classes are hip hop, while the contemporary classes are in Irvine. Boogie Zone has expanded tremendously from cities like New York, New Jersey, New Zealand and to London. Classes are every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. They are about two hours long and $10 a person.
Boogie Zone is still growing with so far having about 13,800 registered members. According to boogiezone.com they are still a company in the making and are still in the process of fine tuning the concept idea, and testing it’s functionalities in hopes of getting it ready for an official introduction.
