Akira Armstrong is a good dancer.
However, being plus-sized meant that she wasn’t making much headway in her career despite having appeared in two Beyonce videos.
That’s when she decided to make a change and founded Pretty Big Movement 10 years ago, a dance group featuring plus-size members in New York and who have performed abroad. Pretty Big Movement has eight core members and they train together two days a week.
Watch to find out more to this story below.
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They also give out monthly dance workshops open to women of all shapes, sizes, and ages. Their motto is that anyone regardless of ability should be given the opportunity to dance.
In all, the group challenges the common stereotype that you need to be petite in order to become a good dancer.
Akira says Pretty Big Movement is “her baby” and is a response to those who think that larger-sized women can’t dance.
She said: “What I would say to the critics who say that plus-sized women can’t do what the smaller women can do, is try coming on this side. Try living in this body and see how you can get it done. Can you do the same thing that we are doing? Do you have the stamina to do it?
“My main premise of doing Pretty Big Movement is that we are not taken as a gimmick because I am a professional dancer with a professional background. I didn’t just wake up one day and say, ‘I want to be a dancer.’
“I have been working as a professional dancer since 2007. My first major gig was with Beyoncé. I did two music videos, which was Get Me Bodied and Green Light. So that was an amazing experience.
“I definitely thought that after I did those two music videos that that will be my ticket to bigger and better things. But unfortunately, that didn’t happen.”
Various agencies kept telling Akira that her size was preventing her from being cast despite her dancing skills.
“They just said: ‘You know, she is good. But what would we do with her?’ And that kind of took me back to the little girl and how I felt of not being accepted,” Akira explained.
“I was bullied when it came to the dance world. I wasn’t bullied outside of dance and that was a problem for me because dance was my passion.”
At first, Akira decided to take a break from the industry and retrained as a makeup artist. She went back to New York but still found time to go dancing classes and auditions. But she soon got tired of waiting for callbacks and decided to start her own plus-size dance group.
Akira said: “It was still frustrating. I wasn’t getting chosen for representation. So I said: ‘You know what, Akira? I think you need to do your own thing.’ Because by the time I waited for somebody to give me a yes, I will be waiting my entire life.
“Pretty Big Movement is a full-figured, plus-sized professional dance company. It is my baby: I eat sleep and breathe Pretty Big.
“We have not only worked with Lane Bryant [plus size clothing brand] once but we have actually worked with them three times. Our pictures were up in stores and we had a huge billboard in Brooklyn.
“We did a tour out in Canada, which was amazing. We worked with artists such as Sage the Gemini, Big Freedia, Jazmine Sullivan and Jennifer Hudson.”
Three of their members even appeared in Janet Jackson’s ‘Made For Now’ video and the group has been to South Korea performing and running dance workshops.
Teece Camacho, the group’s administrator, said: “We are seen as athletes because we are dancers. It’s a physical activity. It’s strenuous. It requires precision, discipline and I think sometimes it’s human nature to judge a book by its cover or to assume a certain aesthetic visually and I think that when you look at us we oppose that.”
Raushaundah Wright, another Pretty Big member, added: “It feels good to be able to say that I am a plus-size or full-size professional dancer because this is the first group to do it and it’s really raising awareness across the globe that it doesn’t matter what size you are, as long as you have the talent, you dance from your heart, you dance from your soul.
“That’s what the people see and not the outside.”
And for Akira, things will only get bigger and better.
She said: “In the next five years we need our own Pretty Big Movement studio. I definitely see chapters in different cities and different countries. Pretty Big Movement LA, Pretty Big Movement Atlanta. I want to build my apprenticeship program – I would love to take that to different cities.
“A tour, definitely. And also Pretty Big Minis.
“We have done amazing things and I just want to get bigger and bigger. That’s why it is called Pretty Big. So always think big, think big in your heart, lead with your heart, lead with love and stay true to yourself.”
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