The Gentle Ladies of NoHo…

We always say, “NoHo is only as great as its people.” Meet the Gentle Ladies, a group of talented young women in the NoHo Arts District who are all about dance and supporting the creative spirit.

What is Gentle Ladies?

The Gentle Ladies is an all-female collective made up of nine women. Our goal is to inspire creatives of all sorts to develop their artistic identity through dance education and connection with strong female role models. We just want to continue building the art community towards being uniquely themselves.

Why did you start it? Like how did the idea come about?

KiLeigh Williams started creating the idea two years ago when she was trying to submit as a dance teacher to some of the bigger studios in the valley. Due to a lack of “following”, it was really challenging for her to get into the mix of subs. She was also looking into the people who were teaching weekly, and at the time, men were taking up about 80% of the slots. KiLeigh had been teaching for years prior. She taught throughout the country at multiple studios, and worked as a tap instructor at Point Park University during the summers. The problem was she couldn’t get an “in” anywhere where she was living and training. So she reached out to her closest friends who were all trying to do the same thing, and next thing you know, the Collective was created. Sometimes you just have to create your own lane, and run with it!

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What will you do at Secret Rose for the #NoHoBlockParty?

Once a month we host an Open Mic Night at Secret Rose, and it honestly is such a beautiful event. Artists of all sorts show up and share the stage with each other throughout the night. This event has connected so many creatives together, and now we are super thrilled to call many of them our close friends. For the #NoHoBlockParty, we will be hosting a showcase consisting of dance, stand up and live music featuring many of those we’ve met through the event. It will be a variety show you won’t want to miss!!!

Don’t miss the Gentle Ladies at the #NoHoBlockParty!

WHAT:

The GentleLadies: Live Dance-Music-Comedy Variety Show featuring special guests artists.

“What these women are doing is amazing. They are all super-talented.”- Movement Lifestyle

WHEN:

Saturday, August 11 at 5PM.

WHERE:

Secret Rose Theatre
11246 Magnolia Blvd. NoHo Arts District

How did you choose the GentleLadies? What are some unique things they bring to the collaboration?

All of the ladies at one point in time worked at Movement Lifestyle. Movement Lifestyle is a dance studio and creative space here in North Hollywood that has changed the dance industry 10 fold since it started back in 2009. Shaun and CJ Evaristo are the founders and geniuses behind this miraculus space.

KiLeigh was a Workstudy the year of 2015 and met all the women through the program. She had been training for a full year with most of them and after graduating the program, they all had the same goal in mind: Let’s share EVERYTHING we’ve learned with anyone we can.

Each women is multi-talented and unique! We all dance but our creative process and the styles we have worked to master are all different. The styles we teach for our intensive consist of : Hip-Hop & Grooves, Jazz Technique, Stage Choreography, Modern, Contact Improv, Tap, Heels, Yoga, Pilates, Strength & Conditioning and more. We like to dabble in it all!!! 🙂

What projects are you working on?

Right now our main focus is teaching and creating content as a collective. Since we each specialize in completely different things, we want to explore that through collaboration. We are also performing every chance we get and creating different events to bring the community together. Noho Block Party and the Movement Lifestyle Annual Workstudy Showcase are just two events we have on our plate for the month of August. We couldn’t be more excited!

Will you do the Night Out Series again? 

Of course! TGL Night Out ensures we are constantly working on our skills as teachers. We love to share our work with the community.

What are your intensives and will you do more in NoHo?

Our intensives are diverse zones where our top priority is to provide a safe learning environment for our students. We take pride in creating fun yet efficient classes in the North Hollywood dance scene.

What advice do you have for dancers coming to NoHo/L.A.?

As a collective of nine completely different artists, our wide-range of stories and experience creates countless answers to this question. To keep it short and sweet, the advice we have for dancers coming to L.A. is to be true to yourself, be kind, be respectful, work hard and the rest will follow.

Instagram: @thegentleladies

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**** For information on Los Angeles theatre, tickets to theatre in North Hollywood’s NoHo Arts District, theatre reviews, the NoHo Event Calendar, restaurants, news and local businesses in NoHo, or anything and everything about the NoHo Arts Community, bookmark nohoartsdistrict.com. Follow us on Twitter @OfficialNoHo. On Instagram @NoHoArtsDistrict and Facebook @NoHoArtsDistrict.