When Traequan Middleton was rising up within the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, New York, it wasn’t uncommon for him to corral his pals and design intricate dances on them. “I used to be at all times the particular person to steer the pack,” Middleton remembers. At present, his knack for management hasn’t waned. Actually, he created and directs one of many metropolis’s hottest youth dance ensembles: Secret Society Dance Firm.
Like Middleton as a toddler, the dancers of Secret Society reside in Astoria public housing, so when he seems to be at his college students, he doesn’t simply see their faces—he sees himself. That sense of connection has made his work as a instructor and mentor deeply private. “What the youth can really get now, I didn’t actually have that once I was introduced up,” he says. “So since I’m put able to indicate the youth be the following technology of change, why not go for it?”
Together with championing their greatest desires, Middleton additionally ensures that if his college students need to have careers in dance, they’ll. And relating to coaching, Middleton runs a decent ship. “That is their second [home],” he says with fun, noting the heaps of time the dancers spend within the studio. Over at the very least 4 days every week, the dancers, ages 11 to 21, rehearse and take lessons weekly in a variety of kinds, together with hip hop, up to date, and step dance—they usually appear to like each minute of it. “My favourite half about dancing with Secret Society is experiencing development,” says Ramiyah Anderson, 11. As a dancer who hasn’t had a lot expertise performing, Anderson says she values that Middleton and her friends need to assist her turn into a stronger dancer. And because it stands, that arduous work is paying off.
The 25-member group, which Middleton based in 2014 and is a part of the HANAC Astoria Cornerstone Youth Programming, has gained quite a few dance competitions within the tri-state space, popping out on high in two classes in 2022 on the Battle for the Belt occasion in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A part of what makes these victories so candy, in accordance with considered one of its latest members, is the group’s ethos of care. “I’ve been in loads of dance firms,” Amiyah McArthur, 17, says, who joined the corporate in September. “Some dance firms are very aggressive inside the dance group, however Secret Society has been very welcoming.” From her first day with the troupe, she seen that she was in a position to specific herself freely with out feeling judged. She attributes this inclusive surroundings to Middleton, who, she says, emphasizes that “we are literally all on this collectively to construct one another up and to offer again to the group.”
That target group has made Secret Society a significant creative power in New York Metropolis, permitting the dancers to leverage their reputation to assist elevate consciousness round points affecting their households and friends. Middleton, with the dancers, curates bimonthly performances for the group, every with a special theme. Their most up-to-date efficiency addressed intracommunity violence. “We’ve got members on the crew who’ve misplaced their family members and fogeys to mindless acts of violence,” Middleton says. “So I simply attempt to give the children the chance to study what any person could also be going by means of.” The group has additionally tackled points like voting rights and LGBTQ+ equality, partnering with different dance groups all through the town to amplify their messaging. Typically, these messages transcend metropolis strains, spilling out to folks everywhere in the world by means of social media. In considered one of its in style YouTube movies, the group dances to a medley of songs to advocate for the safety of Black life. Sporting Black Panther Get together–type berets and variations of white and black tops and bottoms, the dancers transfer with depth and emotional vary, encompassing sharp, full-bodied actions and smaller but charged gestures.
Performances like this have helped the dancers admire how liberating dancing, and group, could be. “It’s at all times a plus when your friends [support] you expressing your self, as a result of some folks must have a bit of push,” Anderson says. “I believe it’s very nice that we not solely specific ourselves, however specific the matters which are happening in the neighborhood.”
Past growing rewarding motion practices and deep group ties, the dancers say they’re studying life classes from Secret Society that they’ll apply to their on a regular basis lives. “I’ve discovered be extra affected person,” McArthur says. “I’ve discovered that issues take time, and there’s a course of to every little thing.”
However they’re additionally witnessing what a mixture of laborious work, stamina, and imaginative and prescient can produce, a recipe that has helped Middleton get to the place he’s in the present day. By him, the scholars say, they see that their objectives are inside attain. “I can see many people having skilled dance careers due to the coaching that we get,” McArthur says. “Secret Society provides you a way of self-discipline for the true world.” Artistically, she says, Middleton and the corporate are pushing her to assume outdoors of the field, to transcend the boundaries she places on herself, and to “be comfy with the uncomfortable.”
For Anderson, her time with Secret Society has taught her the significance of a stable work ethic. “Whenever you dance, it’s a must to work laborious to get what you need,” she says. “You need to do a number of steps in life to get you to the place you need to be.”
Middleton guides the dancers by means of the ups and downs that outline these classes, however nonetheless, the endgame for him is evident: constructing group. “It solely takes one one that believes in them for them to proceed to push for these which are developing after them,” he says. “It’s actually about making a second household, a house, unity.”
