Today we’d like to introduce you to Tatanasia Hightower.
Hi Tatanasia, 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?
My name is Tatanasia Hightower, known in Krump as FoulPla3 (foul play), brought into this world and named by Ms. April Weems and Mr. Kevin Hightower. I was born and raised on the eastside of Detroit where I first began my dance journey with the old school Hip-Hop move called the Bankhead Bounce. I had the pleasure of being raised in the 90s and early 2000s; a time in which AOL, floppy, disk, rotary phones, etc. were still in use. In my family, those luxuries were not child-freedom-friendly (if you understand). Instead, I was REALLY outside, with my cousins, neighbors, friends from school, and so on. On both my paternal and maternal side of the family, a group of music lovers raised me. My paternal grandparents loved smooth Jazz and soulful Blues. My maternal grandmother loved gospel and Snoop Dogg; both would get played at the same blaring volume level. My mother (a 70s baby) loved all music and danced all the time; in fact, she and my godmother would go out dancing as often as possible. My godmother was known for her heavy hitting Jit skills. My sister is an amazing dancer. My aunts and uncles were very much into base, old school HipHop, and R &B; their car/truck speaker would rattle my little body in their back seats.
The Ghetto Tech sound entered the chat after the old school hip-hop club bangers emerged. I grew up battling other dancers to those genres. I also spent time learning/doing line dances and Detroit Hustles in the living room with my family. Artists, Wife, and Mother Ciara Wilson provided my first hip-hop/r&b choreography session. I received her Album “The Evolution” as a gift from my mother who knew I was a huge fan. I ripped the plastic off of that CD case, popped the bonus disc into the dvd player, and did not leave the living room until I had the choreo down. Yes, I can do her matrix limbo lean! Soon after, I found myself performing on stage in front of the entire Guyton Elementary Community. I continued performing in front of ever-growing crowds from middle school to present day.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
If you find anyone who has had a purely smooth road, trust me when I tell you, life will come with its obstacles eventually. Adversity has been all around me from my childhood to present day. As a child, my family did a great job of allowing me to experience a childhood that made me feel loved, one that brought me joy no matter what traumatizing things were happening. As I matured and traveled with my family, I began to understand how digressive my city was. The sound of gunshots and emergency responders quickly became a norm. Sometimes, I would be riding in the car and randomly see gang fights in the streets. I remember being in the window at my mom’s house, and seeing my neighbors shoot at one another with children around. That same exchange turned into a 3am emergency evacuation from our house because our neighbor’s house was dangerously ablaze. I was about 3-5 years old when I experienced my first example of domestic violence. I of course did not learn about trauma until my adulthood and how that affected me. The news stories of crime in Detroit became more and more treacherous every year. They also began hitting close to home at an early age. As family members were dying/being killed in the neighborhoods, the number of abandoned houses began to grow. Heavy sorry filled our communities. Crooked religious leaders were exposing themselves in between time. Depression and addiction to unhealthy habits grew. It was a mess.
In my adulthood, I have experienced three wrongful arrests while being out in the world without my parents. During my final example, I was able to find a new stillness in the midst of chaos. I quickly figured out why I was so out of place and in that horrifying experience. It was so I could later relate to the youth and families who come from those very same experiences and worse. An unrelatable leader is almost useless when attempting to advocate for at-risk families.
Today, I struggle with the aftereffects of grief and trauma. When I experience loss or depression, it takes what seems like forever for me to complete tasks and communicate with people. It is something I had been working through with a holistic therapist. In fact, it took me two weeks past my goal to even get this interview done because I lost my grandmother right before the holidays. Grief and trauma have been a hindrance on me completing important tasks like getting my degree. I have lost friends to murder, family to health conditions, and progress to mental stagnation.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Currently, I coach a legacy dance team called Dv8 at a Pre-K through 8th grade level school. I also travel and perform both solo and with groups including DirtyGloveBvck (buck), the Michigan Krump Movement. During the summers, I work in the community with Motor City Street Dance Academy where we perform at popular summer events and provide programming and mentorship in schools, parks, and recreational centers. We have partnered with a vast number of brands including BGCSEM, Detroit Pistons, Detroit Parks and Rec, Arts and Scraps, Arts Beats & Eats, Redbull and more. We also host public events at our nonprofit studio and around the city. I own Selective Ave., LLC. in which we first started with fashion goods and have integrated my creative direction, networking and social media consultation services. I also have a new initiative of providing mobile mentorship where I and other speakers visit youth-driven spaces and give youth the safe space to think aloud and exchange thoughts/ideas on growth and mental health support. I look forward to partnering with more Detroit-based brands on this initiative. All contracts and partnerships are negotiable with specific sliding scales depending upon which service a potential partner is seeking.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
I am a huge fan of my city, I have been “reppin” Detroit since I could talk. I love our hustle, creativity, and overall “sawce”. Sawce, is a word I use to describe the dapper legacy of our Detroit OGs in the way they dressed and carried themselves like naturally born rich and famous folks. The men have sawce, the ladies have sawce, and today that has been passed along to our government officials; as well as our professional sports mascots. Our hustle is encompassed with our ability to succeed through adversity. The creativity here is historical and worldly known and loved.
What I like the least about our city are all the results of systematic racism. There are too many neighborhoods ran down, too many obese families and health issues, too many corrupt police officers and other courthouse staff, too many neglectful leaders in education, too many unsafe and unproductive schools, too many undiagnosed mental health issues etc. There is no reason Detroit cannot thrive to its full potential. There is a lack of care and confidence to make change amongst the original families of Detroit. Now we have outsiders coming in and making it beautiful. Simultaneously, we have lost some of our originality and some historical spaces that should have been preserved.
Pricing:
- Classes (per person)
- Classes (per group)
- Performances (freestyle 1min-10min)
- Choreography (per videoshoot)
- Youth Empowerment Conversations
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @naythedancer
- Youtube: @naythedancer and @motorcitysda
