*When twerk instructor Kelechi Okafor reached out to the owner of the white-owned Bodybarre dance studio in Manchester (England) about the opportunity to teach a class, she was rejected and told her black style was too “basic.”
Kelechi teaches twerk workshops around the United Kingdom so she found it laughable that she was dissed by a dance studio who credits Miley Cyrus for popularizing twerking.
Okafor posted about the experience and shared a video of the studio’s advanced twerking class, along with a comparison video of her own tweaking class – calling into question which style truly should be classified as basic.
The rejection message Okafor received from the dance studio said:
“Our twerking is a very different style to yours. We get the knee pads on and throw it down..! I’m sorry but I don’t enjoy your style it is too basic for my students but thank you for the offer.”
Kelechi told BlackGirlLongHair.com, “I’ve always danced. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t. People told me I was good but I just thought everyone could move in a similar way. When I discovered that people couldn’t. I set about wanting to help them to connect with that inner space where I believe all my movements come from. I’ve been teaching dance for around three years. I’ve been a Personal Trainer for longer and it made sense to bring the two together to empower women but most especially WoC. For me, twerking is an act of resistance. I teach twerk because I refuse to have this art form whitewashed.”
The video Okafor posted of the studio’s class has receive numerous negative comments, and the studio has since accused her of inciting a “gang of haters.” Bodybarre’s owner took to Facebook to complain about being targeted by “racist” bullies.
“The way this woman behaved when I contacted her about collaborating just goes to further prove how much the mainstream love to commodity blackness whilst simultaneously despising black people,” Okafor said of the experience.
Check out her full Twitter account and videos of her style versus what the studio teaches below.
So I’m currently planning to spread my twerk workshops around the UK. I wrote to a pole studio in Machester called Bodybarre.
— kelz (@kelechnekoff) January 12, 2016
They have a twerk class that’s 30 minutes ONCE a week. So I figure they can’t cover that much in that time but it could work.
— kelz (@kelechnekoff) January 12, 2016
The studio’s response:
On their page it says “Miley Cyrus made twerk popular” but this is their reply about one of my videos ?? pic.twitter.com/c5Idj3jHaf
— kelz (@kelechnekoff) January 12, 2016
This is what she called basic… pic.twitter.com/NtfK4Elsep — kelz (@kelechnekoff) January 12, 2016
This is what happens when black women try to be present in a genre that they created.
— kelz (@kelechnekoff) January 12, 2016
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