GHM Classic ♡. I returned to this intensive because I wanted to explore how to put more of myself into my dancing. I’ve grown a lot this past year, and I’m dancing more in the ways that I want to, but I’ve been feeling a lot of frustration lately around - I don’t want to just be the “clean” dancer that parrots back what I think the choreographer wants.
Before Day 2 of the intensive, I watched my choreo footage of this piece from Day 1 and I thought to myself - this is fine 😐. I have most of the steps and it’s pretty clean, but I don’t feel anything watching myself. I was circling back to the same challenge/frustration that brought me back to the intensive.
That’s when it really hit me; If there’s nothing behind my movement (feeling, motivation, character, idea), even if I’m going for it 10/10 it’s never going to look or most importantly *feel* fully satisfying to me.
So on Day 2, I changed my approach. I thought of a character and story that would challenge my comfort zone and require me to really use my face. I stopped thinking about getting the movement exactly right and instead I thought of the different moments in the piece and ideas that could motivate the movement.
I used to feel like - I just have capacity to get the steps and maybe work on movement quality too. But this experience taught me that I have capacity for so much more. Coming up with ideas and motivations freed me up so much to explore and play with those ideas. I had so much fun and felt true flow too!
I’ll need to keep exploring and integrating changes for things to stick, but I feel so much more clear on how to bring myself and my creativity more into my dance.
Thank you for another incredible experience Galen. The Intensive was exactly what I needed. It’s been almost 6 years of intensives and learning from you, and it’s not an exaggeration to say that I truly wouldn’t be who I am today without you. Thank you for helping me grow as a dancer and human too ♡.
🎼 Bury A Friend @billieeilish
“Promise to get a little better as I get older”
I’ve never been a big birthday person, but this year (with all its beautiful ups and downs) has been my favorite chapter yet. I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate it and welcome the next chapter, than to dance with so many of the people who have been such a big and beautiful part of my life lately.
Thank you @sj.qamar for teaching a birthday class for me, and sharing this piece with us - one of my absolute favorites. It meant so much to me and made me feel so cared for 🥹. Thank you for your mentorship, friendship, and for being such a beautiful influence in my life. I’m beyond grateful to know you 🫶🏻.
Thank you to the friends who came and celebrated with me and shared so much love 🥹. I was truly thinking - maybe half of the people I invited would come - but so many friends showed up and danced and celebrated 😭😭. It was a healing moment in a chapter of healing, shedding and growth and I’m so grateful for all of you. Watching everyone dance this piece was such a DREAM too.
Thank you to @andrio.jordan for filming!!! What a gift to have you in the space too, and capturing this night 🫶🏻.
🫂🫂🫂 @bomi_kim530@skinkelstudios@miss_amylee_@mbmayeda@mil_tal@tttalula@scor9io@shoehands@zettemartinez@emeraldjonescollective@thexinyichen@solelysaul@theellenreport@ericarudolph@naomi.cyan@karl_g_smith@sharifabsl@alivelgado@kayerrueche@sharifabsl@nor.bae@fengtastics
Thank you for making me feel so loved. Cheers to the next chapter 🥹🫶🏻🫶🏻
Sharing a recap of my 2025 Dance Chapter - my favorite experiences, reflections, favorite pieces I learned, and things I’m thinking about for 2026 ✨!
It was originally just going to be a recap post on my favorite pieces I learned this year, but if you know me, you know I love a reflection post 😂🫶🏻!
I’m so grateful for this year - the teachers who shaped my journey, friendships that deepened, new friends that have become great friends in just a year, and all the lessons.
Cheers to the next chapter 🫶🏻!
Choreo by @iamsaliimm 🔥🔥!! I first learned this piece back in January of this year. I forgot how challenging this piece was for me, going into the reteach last night, which was a good thing!
I decided to do a side by side just to see if I could notice any differences in the 3ish months between classes. I think the biggest change is my commitment. In the January video, that was my second class round and I had also had a private to work on the piece, but I can still see a lot of hesitation and uncertainty. Last night I was still fighting for so many things (and having to let some details go), but I wasn’t letting that hold me back so much. I felt more game.
In the past Salim would talk to me about building my full out approach and he would always say that it was going to feel uncomfortable now, but one day it would become my baseline or normal. It’s proven so true!! We’ve worked together on pushing my approach for 8 months now and it really does feel like my baseline has changed a lot. What I’m doing now would have been a 10/10 for me in the past… but now the bar has been raised and I would say it’s like a 7 😅! I know I’m capable of even more commitment.
Thank you Salim for class and the push!!!! Always so grateful to learn from you 🫶🏻!
🎼 @tameimpala
Sharing some clips from my first PW! I had the best time being a part of @iamsaliimm PW. I’ve been training so closely with Salim for about a year and a half now, and this felt like another great way to dig in with him, this time on performance.
I used to question if I actually liked performing on stage like this in dance. I’m realizing though that when I was doing team leadership, I was doing so much of the labor and team management that my brain was in so many different places ensuring that everything went smoothly. I never got to focus on, or just enjoy performing.
So I think the biggest gift of this experience was realizing - wait, I actually really enjoy being on stage! I felt excitement and confident going on stage for every show, in a way that I haven’t experienced in a very long time.
Thank you Salim for such an amazing first PW experience! I learned so much from you around performance and execution throughout the PW, and really appreciate how you showed up and directed us 🫶🏻. This set was so much fun to perform too 🔥🔥!!
And thank you to all the dancers who were part of this PW too! It was so nice having this experience with you 🫶🏻.
Creating again ❤️. Sharing my Week 2 Homework from Craft Mentorship.
Before I started choreographing this piece, I spent a lot of time listening to the song and connecting to the feeling of it. It made for such a beautiful process. Once I started choreographing, I felt so in it, in a way I have rarely experienced. I took almost a year off from choreographing. I wanted to come back to it in a healthy headspace. I wanted it to be fully on my terms this time. It’s going to be for me this time, I feel it .
Thank you @iamsaliimm and @jaroncwong for cultivating this space. Both of your spaces have been such healing spaces for me as a dancer, and I’m so grateful to be in this choreographing mentorship space now with you too.
Also really grateful that I took @thegalenhooksmethod Classic again before starting this mentorship. I really feel like I had the lightbulb moments I needed to return to choreographing in a healthy headspace.
🎼 @sabrinaclaudio ❤️
Choreo by @iamsaliimm 🔥🔥!! I love this piece so so much!! I was fortunate to learn it in a pop up class last week and asked Salim if we could dig into it in a private too.
It ended up being a great lesson on feeling first (and not separating feeling from the effort of working on execution), free movement, and also expressing through my face. Not new lessons for me, but definitely things I’m still working on consistently applying. Salim is being a great accountability buddy for me when it comes to continuing to apply my takeaways from the recent GHM intensive I took - which I am really grateful for!!
Thank you Salim for sharing this piece and for another great private. I always get so much out of every lesson with you and appreciate how you challenge me, but always in such a supportive way 🫶🏻🫶🏻!
🎼 @ravynlenae
Choreo by @iamsaliimm 🔥🔥!
I had a private with Salim to work on this piece (vid 2) and it ended up being a big lesson on chest/core. Salim had me doing runs of the piece with just my chest/core and runs with chest/core and legs. It was such a challenge!! I really felt how little the piece was in the muscle memory of my core. I’ve definitely gotten better at using my chest/core but can still grow a lot with it - and really fight for that part of the movement when it’s a fast piece. It was a very good lesson for me!
Before Class Round 2 (vid 1), I took a little time each day to go through the piece, focused on chest/core. I don’t see a gigantic improvement, but I do see improvement. Plus it was much more in my awareness throughout class 💡.
Thank you Salim for working with me on this piece 🙇🏻♂️! This piece and the lesson gave me an even deeper admiration for your musicality and how meaningful each movement is to the expression of the piece. Always learning so much from you 🫶🏻!!
🎼 @kelela
GHM Classic ♡ Freestyle
In the past with freestyle prompts, I would often find myself thinking and questioning through the whole exercise.
On Day 2 of the intensive though, I found myself getting an idea and jumping on it and fully exploring it. I remember one prompt I spent almost the whole time exploring looking at my hands and I didn’t worry at all if I was spending too much time on the idea. I got to experience true flow during the intensive and it was the best feeling!
I think one of the things that really clicked on Day 2 is that, in the same way I have been training my physical approach with dance and not overthinking or holding back, I can (and should!) use that same approach with my ideas too. Take one idea, fully explore it, and allow it to lead me to the next idea.
I’m so grateful I had some really good lightbulb moments throughout this Classic Session. Things Galen said definitely resonated with me in new ways.
Going into the intensive I set 6 intentions for myself and I feel like they helped me show up more in the ways that I wanted to this time:
- I will show up with openness, trusting I will be guided as needed.
- I will show up with curiosity and playfulness.
- I will remember that this is an opportunity to learn more about myself and go deeper into who I am and who I am becoming.
- I will commit to the exercises and feedback but not take myself too seriously.
- If fear visits me, I will breathe, feel the floor, affirm myself, and close my eyes if needed.
- I will take up space.
Thank you again @galenhooks and @thegalenhooksmethod ❤️! I’m so grateful for this experience!
🎼 @rachelchinouriri
I’m so grateful to be 🏳️⚧️. It is just one aspect of who I am, but I wouldn’t change it even if I had a magic wand and could.
I don’t know that I would have ever found this path to love and acceptance for my whole self, had it not been for dance and the dance community. Dance has always been the most beautiful (and sometimes challenging) mirror. Dance has helped me see the parts of myself I once needed to hide, in order to stay safe. And it’s through dance, and the beautiful friends I have made, that I have found safety and am unlearning hiding those parts of myself.
My friends and community want me to be the most authentic most real version of me possible - period! Sometimes that’s scary too, after many years of hiding. Lately though, when I feel a little scared to show up in wholeness, I think about the people who see me, love me, and support me, and I feel a little braver each day.
No matter what this government legislates, trans and GNC people will still exist - and I plan to not just exist but to bloom this year too. Happy #transdayofvisibility 🏳️⚧️.
Some moments of being, of becoming, of Joy, and community…
1 - Birthday class with so many beautiful friends!
2 - AOM moment
3 - Private with Salim, who encourages me all the time to be the realest version of myself
4 - Friends!
5 - Class with Jaron, the most supportive person you will ever meet, and a person who always makes me feel so seen
6 - my 🫶🏻
7 - Jia, the best friend I could have ever asked for
8 - Doechii Inspo for this year
“Unhinged” choreo by @sj.qamar 🔥! So challenging, but I love this one so much!
I had a private last night to work on this piece. Around the halfway point, Salim gave me the prompt to be really messy with it, and gave me multiple runs to explore and try it. I was really trying to be messy and I felt messy during the runs but when I saw a video that Salim took, I wasn’t truly messy…but I did look more free, my core was more relaxed, and I looked less controlled. I liked it.
It was definitely a ‘felt’ lightbulb moment for me, which are always the best ones. When I released some of my control, I was able to execute more in the way that I really want to, and also was having less issues with the speed. I’m going to need to keep exploring this lesson for it to truly integrate and definitely want to keep playing with being “messy” when I can.
During this final run I was trying to carry some of the earlier prompt with me, but still trying to get the details and notes.
Thank you so much for the training and guidance Salim!! Thank you for always finding such creative ways of helping me understand concepts/lessons. I’m forever so grateful that I get to learn from you 🫶🏻.
🎼 @masego
Choreo by @danieljkang10 🔥!! Thank you for class Dan! I loved having one more round of this one 🫶🏻.
It’s been a week 😮💨, so I went into class with the intention of enjoying class and dancing through the piece. So fun dancing with this group @skinkelstudios@jonisha_cross@svogeldance 🔥.
🎼 @wstevun
