We sat with Copenhagen dancer Emilie Brooklyn, who turned a lot of heads a few weeks back when she showed up on A$AP Ferg’s Instagram feed, Harlem Shaking to his single “Plane Jane.”
In part one of a two-part exchange Brooklyn explained the story of getting into dance at the age of four, an effort to combat an asthma diagnosis. She started out taking hip-hop dance classes and fell in love from the style from the first class.
She noted that while she grew up listening to jazz and was turned on to hip-hop artists like Nas by her brother, Remy Ma, The Game and DMX were the first rappers she identified deeply with.
She came to New York for the first time when she was 11-years old and said at first she was disappointed by the City but within two weeks fell in love and went on to return throughout her teens.
She explained her main style of dance has always been hip-hop freestyle, but she added additional styles as time went on, including Voguing, House, breakdance and Lightfeet.
A knee injury limited her ability to study Lightfeet, which lead her to learn how to Harlem Shake, which she describes as “not a dance but a culture.”
Image via Jordan Naheesi.
Check out the interview below.
“Plane Jane”
