Today we’d like to introduce you to Randi Freitas
Hi Randi, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I grew up in the Bay Area, CA. All my younger years were spent playing soccer and basketball, but The Bay has its own music, dance and house party scene. In my high school, regardless of what else you did, most of us danced. No formal training, no dance classes, just fun, at lunch, between classes, warming up for games and definitely at house parties and school dances. It wasn’t until I was 20 that I actually started ‘training’ dance. I found a group of Bboys at a Roots Concert and started going to their training sessions at a Rec center. I fell in love with breaking, and pretty much dropped everything else to dive in. Through my first crew I also learned some popping, locking and house. We used to hit (street preform) at this weekly street festival during the summers, and I got approached by a studio owner who was looking for a breaking teacher for kids 5-8. That’s how I first ended up in a studio. Because I taught there, I got free classes and started taking anything and everything, Through choreo friends I made at the studio, I got inspired to move to LA and four of us made the move in 2014. I have now been in LA for 10 years, and it’s been a wild ride. I was fortunate to meet and be taken in by The Beat Freaks, who helped show me the ropes of LA and introduce me to the industry. I had no resume, no headshots, knew nothing about make up, and had done very few choreographed performances, but they saw something in me and gave me some of my first opportunities, including getting me an agent. I will forever be grateful to them! About 5 years into living in LA I started noticing a lack of breaking classes that were accessible to people who didn’t want to throw themselves on their head immediately. At that point I had also taken all the different styles I had studied and started to mix them in with my breaking to become more of a hip hop Floorwork type approach. I realized no one outside of the contemporary world was teaching a class just to get dancers/movers comfortable with the floor, whether that was for their battles, their freestyles. or their jobs. So I approached ML (this was in 2017 I think) to propose an open level Floorwork class. They took a chance on me and this, without my knowing at the time, would kick off a huge part of my career. Fast forward to 2020 Pandemic when everyone was stuck at home and feeling isolated. I decided to create a program online based off these Floorwork classes. I called it Omega Flow Floorwork, and it was a monthly program consisting of two Floorwork classes per week, a weekly guest class taught by women in styles that had influenced my Floorwork style, and practice sessions/hang out. This was all virtual via zoom, and the teaching line up was entirely female. The courses were open to all, but I wanted to normalize seeing an all female line up of educators without it being only for women. We see all male line ups all the time and never assume it’s only for men, so why should the reverse not be true as well. I also made it a point to create a safe space for the LGQTB+ community. I employed over 40 female educators and had hundreds of students from all over the world. It was bigger than I could have ever imagined it getting!! And the Omega classes and community still thrive today!
In more recent endeavors, since the world has opened back up, I created a program called Dancers’ U. I won a grant from the California Arts Council and Long Beach Arts Council to partner with No Easy Props (A local hip hop non profit) to produce a 2 month program for 10 street style female and gender-expansive artists seeking to be professional dancers in LA. The program was two-fold. The first half was focused on business resources such as courses in taxes, branding, nutrition, etc. The second was resources for each artist to create a piece to be performed in a theatre at the culmination of the program. It was such a beautiful thing to watch their pieces go from ideas shared in the room to full pieces of art in a live show! As this grant was a one time thing, my goal is to continue finding funding to make this a bi-yearly program for young dancers, specifically dancers who did not come from a studio/competition background.
In the underground and battle world, I have also remained active! I was in the running for the Olympics as breaking made its debut in Paris 2024. I placed 5th in the nation. I also worked with Nike as one of their consultants on the nike ‘Jam’, the first breaking shoe, and the first athletic shoe to ever focus its testing on women! I also have won regional Redbull BCone’s as well as made it to the finals in Nationals both in Redbull BCone and Redbull Dance Your Style.
Throughout all this I have made the bulk of my living off being a performer and choreographer. I’ve worked with numerous artists such as Justin Timberlake, SZA, Travis Scott, Karol G, Channing Tatum, performed at Coachella, Hollywood Bowl, AMA’s Grammys, Kids Choice, and more. For the past 8 years I have been the Associate Choreographer/Director of the Hip Hop Nutcracker, a national touring dance theater show. My most proud achievement, however has been most recently!! I was Creative Director and Choreographer of a show called Passing The Crown, that I helped my partner, the incredible Juliette Jones, produce for Lincoln Center last summer. This show was a tribute to the queens of hip hop who are often overlooked or pitted against one another. With a DJ, all female 20 piece orchestra and 10 female breakers (Breakdancers) and hip hop freestylers, we put on an hour long performance and celebration of the music of the female MC’s of New York. It wasn’t just a show, it was truly a party. I only have been in a room fo that many Bgirls (female breakdancers) if we were at a battle in competiton with one another. To share a stage and perform WITH each other was a feeling I could never put into words! We recently presented Passing The Crown at APAP in New York and are booking it for the 2025/2-26 season to continue the work!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I don’t think anyone following their artistic passion has a smooth road at all times. The world, and certainly the U.S., is not set up for that. First and foremost, the struggle of keeping your art authentic and still making a living. I know myself, as well as many other dancers who don’t conform to industry standards when it doesn’t fit who they are, don’t work as much as our talent would have allowed. I don’t fit the industry standard of what a woman should look like, dress like, move like. I have nothing against this standard, but it is often the only option and not a full representation of women. Also, in a world seen as queer friendly, gay women learn very quickly that it’s not actually very lesbian friendly, and the type of queer they’re looking for sits on one side of the spectrum. Being a woman in breaking also has its challenges. There are not many of us and we deal with quite a bit of sexism. But rather than focus on the struggles, I’ve concentrated on creating the spaces I didn’t see such as Omega and Passing The Crown. I think we talk about struggle often, but don’t always follow it up with solution. The solutions aren’t easy, but they’re possible.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I believe I answered this in the first question. Maybe I wrote to much there, but please refer to that for my projects and what I’m most proud of (Passing the Crown, Dancers’ U., Omega).
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
Now is more important a time than ever for art and artists.. In a world filled with lies and fake news I feel we only find truth in art.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rascalrandi/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@bgirlrandi
Image Credits
Danny Amoros
Jalen Wright
Diyanna Monet
