Taking the state by street: former student of the college aspires to be professional street dancer

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Alex Nonprasit shows off his street dancing moves. Nonprasit is a self-taught street dancer, and even though he doesn’t compete he still enjoys showing off his moves at shows like Multicultural Night. Photo by Hannah Hunsinger

By Rachel Luchmun

Some teenagers want to become firemen, businessmen, lawyers or professional athletes, but a former student from the college decided that professional street dancing was his goal.

Alex Nonprasit, who left the college in August 2011, started dancing in late 2006.

“Back when I was in ninth grade, I saw kids my age in music videos,” Nonprasit said. “I thought that was awesome, I really wanted to do something like that. On the internet, I would see other dancers. At first I would just watch, but gradually I started doing it myself.”

Nonprasit is self-taught, practicing mostly at home. He said he draws his inspiration from different artists, copying their moves from YouTube videos. His favorite dancer is Mr. Wiggles, a street dancer who started his career in the 70s.

“I just copy someone on YouTube and practice it to the music,” he said, “just record myself, judge myself, see if it looks similar. It took a while, I didn’t really tell anyone. It kind of just happened, I would just show [my friends] randomly.”

While his friends were generally supportive, Nonprasit said his family took longer to come around.

“At first, [my family] was not supportive, most parents wouldn’t see it as a good career, there would be arguments here and there, but they just want me to do what I love now,” he said.

Nonprasit performed at Multicultural Night held on March 30 in the Polsky Theater, in an act entitled “Silent Ballerinas, Finally.” He also has limited experience outside of Multicultural Nights.

“I’ve done a fashion show in downtown Kansas City where I was a model but our group, we were all dancers but the audience didn’t know so, once they saw us, they were surprised,” he said. “This was around December 2010.”

Daniel Ferman, president, Invisible Children, became friends with Nonprasit in fall 2009 through their respective involvement with Multicultural Night.

“I met some of the performers, the performers didn’t always come to all the meetings but Alex was one that did, he was always practicing, rehearsing, and he was just a cool kid,” Ferman said. “So we became friends and ever since that year we’ve depended on his support. He’s always down to perform for us or to help out with anything we need.”

Ferman commented on Nonprasit’s creative endeavors, which extend beyond dancing.

“He’s one of those people that always is up to something,” Ferman said. “Every time I see him he’s up to something, whether that is a dance project or making a movie. One thing he does is making short movies that feature his friends. He has that relentless creativity that he’s always using and applying to something.”

Contact Rachel Luchmun, managing editor, at rluchmun@jccc.edu.

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