User:Vrlmuzic/Thomas Guzman-Sanchez

Thomas Guzman-Sanchez
Author | Filmmaker | Musician | Urban Street Dance Historian/Anthropologist | Choreographer

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Street Dancer | Choreographer
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Thomas is a California native (SoCal Latino) born in June 1958 and raised in Reseda California. Thomas is an O.G. (original generation) dance master and a co founding member of the legendary street dance group Chain Reaction. Since 1973, he has been both an originator and pioneer of the dance forms of Crossover Locking, Zig-Zag, Popping, and Funk Boogaloo, which have influenced millions worldwide in what the many refer to as Hip-hop dance. He has choreographed and performed in countless TV shows, videos, commercials, and feature films. This includes choreographing James Brown in the Heroes of Rock’n Roll and a featured dance performance with Gene Kelly in Olivia Newton John’s 1980s classic Xanadu. In 1984, he formed the United Street Force and became the only urban street dance company to have ever performed at the White House. Numerous universities have adopted his study, which began in 1993, as the accepted authority on Urban Dance Studies in the late 20th century.

He is a proud member of the board of advisers for the American Heritage Dictionary, responsible for 23 new words and definitions in the new American vernacular. In 2008 he was the recipient of the prestigious Christena L. Schlundt Lecture Award in Dance Studies at U.C. Riverside and honored as a key speaker and presenter at the Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association PCA/ACA conference in San Francisco California. Thomas who has taught outside studies for UCLA, Cal Tech is the only resource since 1996 for all academics and non-academics that teach or lecture about the history Urban Street Dance. He has continued touring the world teaching and inspiring young dancers as a leader in the future and perpetuation of Urban Dance.

