Miami Northwestern teacher uses dance to motivate students
For almost two decades, Traci Young-Byron has been at the head of one of Miami's most iconic high school dance troupes, the Miami Northwestern G Girls.
Young-Byron has taught hundreds of students, with many going on to have professional dance careers. Her TikTok videos of the dancers go viral, some have over a million views.
In those clips, you don't often see her, but you can certainly hear her. She's a dance coach taking on the role of a dance mom, cheerleader and their loudest supporter—all in one, rooting on her girls from the sidelines.
Talaiyah Bradley is one of those students. She's a senior at Miami Northwestern Sr. High. She says, "She's been riding me since I was like 7 honestly, so I'm pretty good with it. I like it, it pushes me to where I need to be. It's pushed me to who I am today."
Where Bradley is today is a 4.0 student who will enter college having already earned enough credits to be considered a college junior.
Young-Byron has been leading PAVAC, the Performing and Visual Arts Center Magnet program, for 19 years.
The G Girls are a subset of PAVAC. She's a former student of the program and it's that unique perspective her students say helps her reach them.
Keziah Robinson, also a senior, says it's empowering.
"It's therapy without words. You can express so much through dance—whether you're angry, you're sad, you're happy, you're frustrated—whatever it is, you can leave whatever situation you have at the door of the dance room."
These young women aren't just good in a dance studio; they hit the books equally as hard. Young-Byron boasts that her students have a 99 percent high school graduation, college acceptance and college graduation rate.
Robinson says she wants to be "an automotive design engineer."
Kiayra Stevens, also a senior, says her goal is to one day be "a behavioral analyst for the FBI."
The students admit that Young-Byron's toughness is what helps them dream big.
Stevens says they know what they're getting is passion. "Some people think Mrs. Young-Byron is a mean person, but she's very passionate about dance."
Young-Byron has been dancing since she was three years old. She says she fell in love with dance at the age of nine and has been teaching since she was 16. Her drive grew out of being told no.
"I call myself my moniker 'Supa Black Girl,' and I think because there's an invisible cape that I wear. I'm a chocolate girl and I know when I grew up, it wasn't deemed as beautiful to be a chocolate Black dancer back in the '90s. So I've taken the things that people have thrown against me and made it something beautiful."
Now, at 45 years old, Young-Byron says seeing her students accomplish their dreams keeps her motivated.
"Everybody's into gentle teaching and parenting. I'm a little old school, so for me, that doesn't really work. But I get on them because I see the potential—sometimes I see things in them they don't see in themselves."
Young-Byron's students' résumés are impressive. Her alumni roster includes Broadway performers and backup dancers for Ciara and Beyoncé. She also has dancers who have performed for every major sports team in South Florida, including the Miami Heat, Miami Dolphins cheerleaders, Miami Marlins and Florida Panthers.
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Refinery29
an hour ago
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Do Me A Favour And Stop Sending 'Happy Birthday!' Texts In The Group Chat
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'Adults' star Malik Elassal: Add Canadian comedian, actor and writer to the list of comedy sensations
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"So we'd have takes where we got to add things in there, and that was always really fun." A particularly hysterical moment in the show is Episode 6, where Billie is hosting her boyfriend, and her former high school teacher, played by Charlie Cox, for dinner. As Billie tries to get all of her roommates in line with the hopes of a more sophisticated evening, things quickly take an unexpected and hysterical turn when Cox's character shows up high on a "pony dose" of ketamine, and Paul Baker's friend, who happens to be Julia Fox (who's playing herself), comes over for the meal. "We were block shooting the whole series, so every episode was over the span of like four or five days, or so. And usually we have different locations and we were going to different places, but ... for like four or five days in a row we're just in this house, basically," Elassal explained about that epiosde. "And I'm in this giant suit looking ridiculous and running around, and it just felt like a day that never ended." "It really kind of led into this dreary, looming feeling that the episode has. ... Charlie would show up, and then me and Charlie would have scenes together at like 2:00 a.m., after everybody went home, and he was kissing me on the forehead. It's all just very surreal. ... And then one day they're like, 'Oh, hey, Julia Fox is coming today.' ... You see my reaction to Julia Fox being on my couch in the episode, ... it's basically just how I felt." In terms of what drew Elassal to a career in comedy, there wasn't necessarily a specific "breakthrough" moment, but he can identify the time that he understood the feeling of being able to make someone laugh. "I remember a moment watching my older cousin, when I was younger, stand up and do an impression of his dad to all of the aunts and uncles, ... and him making them all laugh so hard," Elassal said. "And I was like, 'Oh, this is the coolest person I've ever seen.'" "I think something from that time might have gotten in my head of like, that's a real, worthwhile thing to do in your life, is to be able to make a group of people that happy." While a Canadian making the move to the U.S. always feels like a big professional step, it was a "culture shock" for Calgary-raised Elassal. "It's insane. It's such a culture shock," Elassal said. "You're going to the airport in America and they have signs up like, hey please don't bring your gun on the plane. And I'm like, are people doing that? Like, accidentally?" "I mean, there's a craziness to America. And it's fun to live there. But whenever I come back to Canada, I still feel at home, even though New York is home right now." As Elassal's career progresses, from stand-up comedy to TV, and even joining projects from other famed comedians, like Pete Holmes' podcast, "You Made It Weird," we certainly can't wait to see what Elassal does next. "It's unbelievable. I'm consistently so happy to get to meet all these people that I was already such a fan of, and it's amazing to get to work with them," he said. "It's such a dream come true. ... I'm really lucky that I get to have my dreams come true."
