Brooke with students from her studio. Photos: Supplied.
Brooke Napalan never imagined her casual Friday afternoon hip hop classes at Balgownie with a handful of students would blossom into a thriving dance studio 15 years later.
But that’s exactly what happened when the then teenager followed her passion for street dance and built the region’s only dedicated street dance studio Street Beatz Hip Hop that now boasts more than 350 students in North Wollongong.
This month dance students from toddlers to grandparents will take to the stage to perform end of year concerts, including a special The Lion King show.
Brooke had only just discovered her passion for hip hop and teaching dance in Queensland before arriving in Wollongong as a 17-year-old.
However, when she couldn’t continue her hip hop dancing in Wollongong due to limited classes in the region at the time, she began travelling to Sydney to dance and eventually teach.
“My friend who was coming up to my classes in Sydney, he said, ‘Can you start classes in Wollongong?’” she said.
“I didn’t set out to start a dance studio.
“I just thought if I could have my own little crew from Wollongong – because that’s what I grew up with being part of a dance team and going to competitions – then that would be super cool.
“I didn’t think it would eventuate into a big studio.”
She said in 2009 she started casual Friday afternoon classes at Balgownie Community Hall, with numbers low, including only five in the teenagers class.
“Now three of them are actually long-term friends and students that are now teaching and have helped me essentially build this,” she said.
“Now the studio has over 350 students and we’re in a bigger commercial space.”
In its 15th year, Street Beatz Hip Hop teaches four street dance styles – hip hop, breaking, locking and popping.
“When I came through, I only learned hip hop as that was the umbrella term,” she said.
“But as I’ve become a little bit more educated and gone and travelled and learned a lot more about the origins of this style, now street dance is the umbrella term.
“Hip hop is one of the styles, but we also teach breaking, locking and popping here.
“We’ve had a couple of other styles that are closely related to street dance brought in to be taught on a workshop basis.”
Street Beatz Hip Hop students.
Brooke remembers the moment she decided she wanted to do hip hop, attending an under 18s disco.
“There was a hip hop group on stage, and I was just in awe,” she said.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s what I need to do.’”
She even ended up auditioning and getting into the crew that she saw on stage.
For her studio, students started street dancing anywhere from two and a half years through to grandparents and often because they wanted positive, healthy movement that was fun.
“We have a lot of people that come to our concert and see the adult beginners and realise, hey, I can so do that,” she said.
“Even though it has structure, it’s a social dance.
“It embraces that individuality of movement, but it’s structured enough for you to feel like you’ve learned how to use your body or to stay on beat.”
Brooke has seen the impact of the dance style on students, having her own six-year-old daughter dancing now.
“She’s always had a little bit of shyness, but just recently she started to really show heaps of confidence and wanting to be picked for things,” she said.
Brooke said they encouraged freestyle as well as teaching choreography for shows, with freestyle involving battles against fellow students, which her daughter had also started to do.
She said while she backed out of her first battle, she was now asking for opportunities.
“Even just watching her own confidence journey – and we’ve seen it so many times in our other students – it’s one of the most fulfilling parts of what we’re able to give to young people and older adults as well,” she said.
“Seeing it in my own daughter is really special.”
Brooke showing the fun side of street dance with students.
She said two-and-a-half- to five-year-olds were performing on 7 December and the bigger theatrical production of The Lion King would be split into two age group shows on 15 December, with students having to audition for parts.
“We’re doing a little hip hop version of The Lion King and so that’s really fun, and gives everybody a little bit more of a theatrical creative outlet to be part of,” she said.
Select groups also take part in competitions, including having competed in the world hip hop dance championship each year, gaining silver in 2022 and 2023, with often 70 teams competing in a division.
She said while they usually didn’t run school holiday programs, they were looking at possibly incorporating events this coming holiday.
Street Beatz Hip Hop is located at 8/83-85 Montague Street, North Wollongong.
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