“Dancing is not just ballerinas spinning around in tu-tus on a stage. It’s a sport,” said sophomore Raul Cody about his passion of passions, dance.

The aspiring choreographer was inspired to start after watching the 2004 dance movie “You Got Served.” But he only began to delve deeper with classes in every type of dance at the beginning of this school year.

“I found out if I wanted to be a professional dancer I was going to have to take some classes and know every genre of dance.”He hopes to one day be a choreographer and tour with a hip hop group.

“My favorite’s hip hop, which is pretty broad. Popping and Electric Bugaloo are my favorite styles. I’m an intermediate break dancer, so I still have some stuff to learn.”

However, for now Raul hopes to be able to be as good as possible in all genres of dance.

For Raul, it’s about expressing emotion and escaping the stresses of life.

“Dance to me is really a way out. I dance when I’m mad; I dance when I’m sad. It’s my own little world filled with me and my things that make me happy.”

Like many other artists, Raul uses dance as a medium for expressing what is happening all around him.”It’s all abut the possibility of expression. You can portray anything that you see around you. You can dance in a way that portrays a chair or computer for example. There are different variations just like different languages.”

Dance also has its physical benefits.

“I’ve gotten more in shape and toned from the last nine months of serious dancing than I ever was when I was doing football and track. It’s not a sissy sport like some people think.”

And like any non-sissy sport injuries are common.

“It takes a toll on your body. I’ve been injured plenty of times. You can seriously mess up your back or ankles for the rest of your life. There are break dance moves that if done wrong lead to death.”

However these dangers won’t stop Raul on his road to dance stardom.

“I feel like I was made to dance.”