The SOULdier’s company was created to share founder/artistic director Kim Sato’s passion for hip hop culture with other dancers. She noticed that there were a lot of dancers that were very talented in learning choreography but had little or no understanding of the actual hip hop culture. She wanted to provide an environment that would inspire students to study and understand its history and further research the movement that influenced hip hop and video dance as seen today. A main goal of the company is to hone the skills of young dancers so that they have an easy transition into the professional industry. They receive training in many different styles of hip hop and video dance as well as foundational funk styles and get exposure to the other elements such as graffiti, mcing and djing. Many different guest teachers locally and from the US are brought in to work with the dancers and resident teachers work with them on foundational techniques. Another goal of the company is to outreach to the community and share the positive attributes that hip hop culture can provide to it unlike how it is negatively portrayed in the media. They share their love of hip hop culture through performing at various events around town. Kim hopes to travel with the company and learn about how the culture influences people in different places around the world. The company stands for the Zulu Nations rules of “Peace, Love, Unity and Respect