#satoriie

Anyway, I figured intersecting the coding stuff with something I’m passionate about would be a good way to start. So I started looking at different dance sites and I realized there’s a lot of information choreographers have in their heads, that as a dancer, you just kind of pick up along the way. They’re trying to teach you these moves and get this choreography into you, but behind that, there’s all this other knowledge, these other philosophies and ideas. And none of that was available in any kind of centralized resource.

For example, the very first article I wrote [for STEEZY] was, ‘5 Tips on Picking Up Choreography Faster.’ I started as a bboy so I was terrible at choreo, you wouldn’t even believe. But over time, I picked up all these tips and tricks on how to make it easier. And that’s something all dancers need to learn, but it’s never explicitly passed onto you. Even when you join a team or you learn from a choreographer, you just kind of have to figure it out along the way. And so thinking about that, it was like, ‘why doesn’t anyone try to pass on that knowledge?’  

And that’s basically how STEEZY was born. I reached out to a couple friends and had some friends reach out to me, and from there we just came up with content we thought dancers would appreciate, but in a way that balances Buzzfeed style with actual substance and knowledge.

I think that’s what’s helped ground us. We don’t try to be the cool kids. If anything, we’re the opposite. We want to make everything more accessible, more ‘human.’ Let’s say we’re writing an article. In that case, the ‘human’ part would be to think, ‘well, why would anyone else care?’ vs ‘I’m just gonna write this thing because I think it’s cool.’ And that’s what our focus is on, providing something that would be valuable to other people, rather than just being a cool name.

So far, feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Our readership right now is 60% in the U.S., 40% international, which is cool. STEEZY’s still pretty small, and sometimes we can’t churn out articles as quickly as we’d like, but with this, we can still provide a place to showcase what’s good from the community, as well as a platform for up-and-comers to share. So I started ‘Dance Video of the Day.’ Last week, some people from Indonesia emailed us, and were like, ‘we have a lot of interesting stuff happening in the Indonesian dance community, but we don’t really have like a platform to share it.’

And that’s kind of where we are now, experimenting with different ideas, trying to find a way to turn it into a sustainable business so we can continue to provide a good knowledge base for the community. My life is way better now. I enjoy what I’m doing. And it’s crazy. Doing something you’re actually invested in, your growth is so much more exponential than trying to do something just to do it. I’m constantly working, studying, reading, listening to podcasts, audio books. I just consume so much information about startups. It’s great, I’ve become kind of the poster child among all my friends for changing careers. I study harder now than I did in college, which is a great sign because I still enjoy all of it, and I love learning. Which is something I couldn’t imagine saying three years ago.

Which is totally crazy and probably the most irrational thing I've done. Normally I'm super organized and super type-A. My lists have lists. And for for me to just say yes. It was completely illogical. I mean, it totally worked out, but I always tell my little sister, 'don't go off doing the same thing I did, because there's only enough luck in one family for that kind of stuff, and I think I used ours up.'

Before Ryan and I started dating, I remember him saying that he didn't think marriage was for him and that it was just kind of like a business transaction. A brings something to the table, B brings something to the table, and that's what it is. And so when he was trying to tell me, 'I know you're the one, we're meant to be,' I was very skeptical. This was the same guy who was saying marriage was a business transaction. That's not romantic at all. But he was like, 'you changed my mind.'

And that's not saying I'm one of those super romantic, fall-in-love types. I don't know what it is, he swears he's charming, but we'll see. It was just one of those, let's go on blind faith things. If you think it'll work, I guess I have no reason to doubt you.

Believe me there were days when I didn't think we were gonna make it, but here we are two kids, two dogs, and a house later, and we're still here. I'm a true believer that everything works out for a reason, and that's just kind of our story. It's a little chaotic, but that's just the way it was supposed to be written, and it works for us."

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Photographer's note: "When you give a child some macaroni . . ."