Hip-hop instructor Troy Stephens dabbles in break dancing as well. Stephens has been actively involved in raising awareness about sexual violence and sometimes uses his classes to spread information about the cause.
What makes a good teacher great?
It’s what makes students more adept in the subject and more well-rounded. It’s a quality that people can feel but can’t quite put their finger on.
Whatever it is, Troy Stephens has it.
“He makes you feel like you belong there. … When you go once, you figure it out. It’s indescribable,” said Zack Torres, a junior cross country runner who has taken Stephens’ hip-hop class.
Everyone knows that noise ““ in the last minute of class, backpacks come out, notebooks and computers are packed and students prepare to leave, even if the teacher is still making one last point.
Not so much in Stephens’ hip-hop class at the John Wooden Center. According to Torres, when class ends, he and his friends will often put on music and dance with Stephens, even though the classes usually end around 10 or 11 at night.
Torres originally encouraged him to start teaching at Wooden. “I told him his personality would make people come back ““ not just the dancing,” Torres said.
Stephens spent his high school years playing football, and it wasn’t until his junior year when he took his first dance class.
While attending the University of Virginia, he got more involved with hip-hop and eventually joined the dance team.
His teaching career began when he started teaching P.E. classes at local schools, eventually moving out to Los Angeles to teach a class in Beverly Hills.
He learned from a friend that the Wooden Center was seeking a hip-hop teacher, and by August 2010, Stephens was teaching Bruins.
Stephens has not limited himself to the classrooms of the Wooden Center, however. He was introduced to a sexual violence prevention group after joining the Bruin community, and he began to dedicate his passion toward it.
“I’m really passionate about spreading awareness, especially to men because so much of what happens could be prevented,” he said. “I just want to spread the word.”
He is also involved in the Clothesline Project. Though he does not directly combine his dance classes with the cause, he does use them to tell students about events and to wear T-shirts promoting awareness.
“He’s always involved,” Torres said. “That’s really one of the reasons why he grows on people.”
According to Michael Moses, a second-year graduate student in African American studies, Stephens even put on a flash mob last year in coordination with Clothesline.
It was put on to acknowledge a case that was going on in Italy at the time where a woman’s rapist was released from jail because of the clothes she was wearing when she was attacked, Moses said.
It helps his students connect and relate to him, Moses said. “He’s a really strong part of the community.”
The hip-hop class is a forum for both students who have been dancing since they could walk and to students who have never boogied in their life. No matter their level, Stephens wants to teach them.
“Everyone can pick up something from the class,” Stephens said. “Even if their timing isn’t exact, they can always pick up a few moves.”
When students who have never danced before leave his class, they often exhibit not only heightened dance ability but also an all-around higher confidence level, Stephens said.
Though Stephens loves teaching ““ he would love to one day teach a world arts and cultures class at UCLA ““ his ultimate goal is to become a psychologist and to perhaps combine that with his love of movement.
“Dancing helped me through so many tough times ““ the concept of expressing yourself through dance could maybe give someone psychological help,” he said. “A workout stimulates your mind. It helps you come out of yourself.”
Although it is impossible to pinpoint just one quality that makes Stephens a great teacher, his students have nothing but praise for him.
“He’s a teacher on a different level,” Torres said. “I’ve never gotten that from another teacher at Wooden.”
“He comes down to the students’ level; there’s no hierarchy. He makes sure that everyone learns from each other,” Moses said.
Stephens says has no idea why his classes are so popular. He says his main philosophy comes down to only three things:
“I only have three rules: Listen to the music, make it your own and have fun.”