EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW | HIP-HOP | WHERE ARE THEY NOW
Erik “TomaHawk” Sandoval: Teaching Real Hip-Hop and Discipline That Will Last a Lifetime
In 2013 a young Southern California dancer told Dance Mogul Magazine why he built a youth crew he wished he’d had growing up. His full interview, restored — and an honest look at the mission he left behind.
By Dance Mogul Magazine | Originally featured March 2013 | Updated and expanded 2026
Erik “TomaHawk” Sandoval and the Smurf Kids crew | Photo: Dance Mogul Magazine Archives
ARTIST SPOTLIGHT — 2026
Erik “TomaHawk” Sandoval founded the Smurf Kids youth dance crew in 2009 to give young dancers in Southern California the mentorship and discipline he wished he’d had. Beyond the crew’s roots in the Tustin / Orange County area, we could not independently verify Erik’s current activities through public records — and in keeping with Dance Mogul Magazine’s practice, we will not invent an update where none can be confirmed. What we can document is the mission he built and the words he left for the next generation.
In the spring of 2013, Dance Mogul Magazine featured a young Southern California dancer whose story stood out not because of a viral moment or a television credit, but because of what he was building for kids who came after him. Erik “TomaHawk” Sandoval had started dancing at age four, trained across ballet, contemporary, and hip-hop, competed with some of the region’s most respected crews — and then turned around and created a youth team designed to give young dancers the structure and follow-through he felt he’d been promised but rarely received.
More than a decade later, we’re restoring that original interview in full — every question, every answer, and both of the performance videos that ran with it. Because some of the most important stories in our archive aren’t about where a dancer ended up in the industry; they’re about what they gave back on the way through. This is one of those stories.
The 2013 Interview
The Smurf Kids | Photo: Dance Mogul Magazine Archives
Erik Sandoval began dancing at age four, training under many master teachers. He received his ballet training from Lisa Thorngren and Elizabeth Huebner, as well as contemporary instruction from Leona Morimune. He has been a part of Team Millennia under director Kenny Jones, The IV League under director Austin Fernandez, and Academy Of Swag under director Jay Chris Moore over the past few years. During his career with these crews and instructors, he has performed at various competitions such as Tremaine, Showbiz, Showstoppers, Spotlight, Kids Artistic Review, Rainbow Connection, VIBE, Fusion, World of Dance LA, Ultimate Brawl, and Body Rock. In 2009 he created the Smurf Kids dance crew. Smurf Kids is a team consisting of young people that compete across Southern California. They have placed first at Max Out and second at Urban Street Jam. Erik also puts on his own charity show called Dancing Upon Injustice where many hip-hop crews from the community come to perform for a great cause (World Vision). Dance Mogul Magazine is committed to shining the light on those who are a part of guiding the next generation of superstars. We are honored to showcase Erik, his team, and organizations that are empowering the youth, as we all should be doing.
Dance Mogul: What made you develop a passion for ballet at a young age and what kept you disciplined enough to learn?
Erik Sandoval: I was always interested in learning many styles of dance. Ballet taught me the discipline of my body and structure of movement. I also knew it would be good for me down the road as my career progressed.
Dance Mogul: Were your parents supportive of you?
Erik Sandoval: My parents and grandparents were very supportive in my pursuit of dance as my passion. It was also a good outlet for me growing up.
The Smurf Kids on stage | Photo: Dance Mogul Magazine Archives
Dance Mogul: You performed with various crews on many stages — what have been some of your favorite experiences?
Erik Sandoval: I have had many incredible experiences on the stage. My favorite experiences had to be with both Team Millennia and Academy of Swag. My favorite experience with TM was our set at Vibe XVI. We had a tribal set that was really awesome. Academy of Swag at SIO VI was amazing as well. The buck piece was absolutely incredible.
“Growing up I was promised so much from studio teams that never followed through. I wish that there had been a Smurf Kids in my life growing up.”
Dance Mogul: Tell us why you created the Smurf Kids?
Erik Sandoval: Growing up I was promised so much from studio teams that never followed through. I wish that there had been a Smurf Kids in my life growing up — teaching real hip-hop and discipline that will last a lifetime. Another aspect is that I wanted to teach a new generation of dancers. All of my kids are so driven, they have a passion that you rarely see, and I want to foster that in them.
Watch: The Smurf Kids in performance (2013)
Dance Mogul: In what ways do you help empower them for the future — not just with dance?
Erik Sandoval: I think that there are a lot of values and future skills that can be taken from Smurf Kids. First and foremost would be responsibility — responsibility for yourself as well as your team. I want them to be disciplined but also humble. They are also empowered to pursue their own goals with all their might. There is nothing out of their reach as long as they put the time and effort into pursuing it.
Dance Mogul: Are their parents involved with you?
Erik Sandoval: Yes, the parents are involved. My parents care about their kids and many of them are incredibly supportive.
Watch: Erik Sandoval and the Smurf Kids (2013)
The Smurf Kids | Photo: Dance Mogul Magazine Archives
Dance Mogul: Tell us about the different dance charities you are involved in?
Erik Sandoval: We are involved with World Vision and Stop Hunger Now. These are charities that are focused on the well-being of people all around the world. They help to raise up communities out of poverty and help kids across many different countries. You can also sponsor kids and help them through your donations. We are not involved with any strictly “dance” charities, but we do have a global worldview when it comes to helping the impoverished.
“You can’t go straight to the big time. You have to start with a strong foundation. Become well rounded and stay humble.”
Dance Mogul: What advice do you have for young up-and-coming dancers that want to become professionals?
Erik Sandoval: You can’t go straight to the big time. You have to start with a strong foundation. Become well rounded and stay humble. These have been keys to my success, and I think that if young people keep level-headed and stand on a strong foundation, they can go incredibly far.
Dance Mogul: Do you feel Dance Mogul Magazine is needed to help empower the next generation of dancer?
Erik Sandoval: I think that Dance Mogul Magazine can really help the next generation of dancers. They can gain a lot of insight by looking at the interviews and learning about people who have been in the community for a long time.
Dance Mogul: Is there anyone you would like to thank for helping you on your journey?
Erik Sandoval: First and foremost, God. Elizabeth Huebner — if she hadn’t sponsored me I would not have been able to afford dance lessons and would not be where I am today. I would also like to thank my previous directors: Kenny Jones, Jay Chris Moore, and Austin Fernandez. I was also inspired by Toy Box, Leona Morimune, and Michael Jackson — as well as my mother, father, and sister, Xochitl. My friends Chris Zou and Ryan Morris, and my assistant director William Shumaker.
What the Smurf Kids Represented
Read back today, Erik’s interview is a small blueprint for something bigger than one crew. The Southern California competitive scene he came up in — VIBE, World of Dance LA, Body Rock, Ultimate Brawl — was one of the most important incubators in American hip-hop and street dance in the late 2000s and 2010s. Erik trained in that pressure cooker, danced with respected crews, and then made a deliberate choice most young competitors never make: to build a lane for the kids coming up behind him.
Founded in 2009, the Smurf Kids were never just about placements — though they earned those too, taking first at Max Out and second at Urban Street Jam. What Erik described was a values system: responsibility, humility, discipline, and follow-through. He paired the crew with a charity showcase, Dancing Upon Injustice, that pulled community crews together for causes like World Vision and Stop Hunger Now. For a young dancer, that is an unusually mature understanding of what a platform is for.
It’s worth naming plainly: Erik built this while he was still young himself. The discipline he credited to ballet, the gratitude he expressed to the teacher who sponsored his lessons, the desire to become “the Smurf Kids he wished he’d had” — these are the marks of someone who understood early that dance culture survives only when one generation invests in the next.
Where Is Erik “TomaHawk” Sandoval Now?
Here we want to be completely straight with our readers. Erik was a young dancer when we featured him in 2013, and unlike some of the artists in our archive, he has a limited public footprint today. Publicly available records point to the Smurf Kids remaining associated with the Tustin and greater Orange County area, but we were not able to independently confirm details of Erik’s current work, whereabouts, or projects through reliable sources.
Rather than fill that gap with guesses — something Dance Mogul Magazine will not do — we’d rather be honest about what we know and don’t. We know the mission he articulated. We know the words he left for young dancers. And we know that the values he built the Smurf Kids on — discipline, humility, and a strong foundation — don’t expire, no matter what any of us go on to do next.
If you are Erik, danced with the Smurf Kids, or know where the crew’s story has gone, we’d genuinely love to hear from you and update this feature with verified information. This archive belongs to the community — and the community always knows its own history best.
Why It Matters to Dance Mogul Magazine
Dance Mogul Magazine was founded on the idea that empowerment in dance is generational — that the culture is only as healthy as the mentorship flowing from those who’ve made it to those just starting out. Erik “TomaHawk” Sandoval’s 2013 interview is a near-perfect expression of that idea, told from the ground up by someone who chose to teach rather than simply compete.
His story also reflects a promise we take seriously: we tell the truth. Not every artist we feature becomes a household name, and pretending otherwise would betray the community we serve. Some of the most valuable voices in our Exclusive Interviews are the youth-crew founders, the neighborhood organizers, and the mentors who never chased fame — they chased impact. Explore that full spectrum of movement culture across our Dance Styles Hub.
Erik understood, at a young age, that giving back is the point. That’s exactly why his story deserves to be preserved — restored, honestly framed, and kept alive for the next young dancer who reads it and decides to build something for the kids coming up behind them.
EXPLORE MORE
Discover the dancers, crews, and mentors shaping movement culture. Visit our Dance Styles Hub to explore every style, browse more Hip-Hop and Street Dance coverage, and read our Exclusive Interviews with the people building the culture.
The Story Continues
The Smurf Kids Erik trained in 2013 are grown now, and somewhere in Southern California there are dancers who first learned discipline, humility, and “a strong foundation” from a young mentor who built the team he wished he’d had. That is the kind of legacy that rarely trends and never fades — it just keeps passing quietly from one dancer to the next.
Dance Mogul Magazine will keep preserving these stories, the celebrated and the overlooked alike, and we’ll keep telling them straight. If Erik’s chapter has more pages, we’re ready to add them the moment the community writes back.
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