"We all start in ballet," 18-year-old Nia Parker says. "The way we approach Hiplet is that we don’t let just anybody do it, because you have to have strength training in your ankles, or else you’re going to hurt yourself, guaranteed. In traditional ballet, you’re very lifted; your center of gravity is higher off the ground. With Hiplet, you learn to dance towards the floor more, so you kind of reverse your center of gravity from what you’ve been originally taught. But, you still have some classical elements in it as well. If you cut your body in half, it’s like your legs and your arms are doing opposite things, but the entire picture makes sense. It’s like a puzzle."

The concept of Hiplet may seem oxymoronic: How can something as rigorous and position-driven as ballet mesh so well with something as free-flowing and gritty as hip-hop? But, as 18-year-old Nia Lyons explains, “Ballet tends to be more traditional, more strict, and more demanding. And hip-hop tends to be more of a social movement; it’s how you feel and how you interpret the move. Hiplet is the perfect world of both: You need to have the technique and discipline in order to get, and be able to move freely, on pointe, but not to the point where you can’t express yourself."