Olivia “Chachi” Gonzales is the perfect mix of sweetness and spice. Whether her hip-hop moves are hard-hitting or smooth, you can tell the 16-year-old beauty isn’t trying to look “cool.” She’s just being herself. “Hip hop is how I feel like me,” she says. “It’s who I am.”
Chachi first lit up the hip-hop scene as the youngest member of the crew I.aM.mE, winners of “America’s Best Dance Crew” Season 6 last year. But surprisingly, her first love was ballet. Growing up in Houston, TX, Chachi started
ballet at 6, before discovering hip hop at 9 and falling hard for its freedom. At her performing arts school, she took several dance classes during the school day. Then she spent all evening honing her hip-hop technique at Marvelous Motion’s studios. At home, she experimented with her own hip-hop choreography, which she’s taught since she was 12. Though she’s changed her focus to hip hop, she continues to train in all styles of dance, including ballet. “Ballet helps a lot with my hip-hop technique,” she says. “And it’s good to have in your back pocket. You never know what you’ll be asked to do at an audition or on a job.”
When Chachi’s Houston-based hip-hop crew was selected to compete on “ABDC” in 2011, she transferred to an online school. Each day, she and the other students would wake up early for “school” hours on set, before joining their older crew members to train until the early hours of the morning. Her work paid off: I.aM.mE gained international recognition, and Chachi suddenly had a devoted fan base. After “ABDC,” she and her family moved to L.A., and invitations poured in for her to travel and teach all over the world—from New Jersey to the Philippines.
Chachi with I.aM.mE on “America’s Best Dance Crew” (Sthanlee B. Mirador/PRPP)
Chachi recently performed in the Britney Spears tribute at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, on Disney’s “Shake It Up” and in an episode of The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers’ (LXD) web series. She also teaches and judges with...
