{"id":5136,"date":"2013-05-13T22:36:27","date_gmt":"2013-05-13T22:36:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dancemogul.com\/news\/?p=5136"},"modified":"2013-05-13T22:36:27","modified_gmt":"2013-05-13T22:36:27","slug":"leanna-forcucci-herron-b-a-in-child-development-and-family-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dancemogul.com\/news\/leanna-forcucci-herron-b-a-in-child-development-and-family-studies\/","title":{"rendered":"Leanna Forcucci Herron \/ B.A. in Child Development and Family Studies"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Miss L and ebdn – Jess Block Nerren<\/p>\n

\u00a0Leanna Forcucci Herron, A prime example of Arts and Education and a shining light of Female Empowerment. Dance Mogul Magazine is honored to present someone who represents what you should be doing once you attain your education, which is help elevate other people. She has perfectly\u00a0blended education and her knowledge of \u00a0Hip – Hop to help inspire the kids around her and help guide them to\u00a0success. We hope \u00a0other dance elders in the\u00a0industry\u00a0and\u00a0community take\u00a0head to this\u00a0example and start to embrace the waves of the future, our children.<\/p>\n

Leanna Forcucci-Herron is the Co-Owner and Co-Director of CF Dance Academy (rated the #1 Dance Studio for kids in Orange County) and has been teaching dance for over 25 years.\u00a0 She has taught for several dance studios in Orange County and even worked as the lead ballet teacher for a competing dance troupe in Austin, TX, where she also worked as a professional hip-hop dancer.\u00a0 Miss Leanna has taught many different dance and movement forms including ballet, tap, jazz, hip-hop, and tumbling.\u00a0 Her specializations are in hip-hop dance and teaching advanced hip-hop technique to young children.\u00a0 She currently trains with industry recognized hip-hop choreographers in Los Angeles and tours her CF Dance Academy Hip-Hop Crews, Bring the Noise, K-mot10n 2.0, Pandemonium and Fortissimo throughout Orange, Riverside & LA Counties.\u00a0These crews that she directs are award winning, have gained professional recognition and have received numerous awards for their crowd pleasing productions. Currently she is director of the largest Hip Hop program in Central and North Orange County and has put CF Dance on the map for hosting professional hip-hop choreographers in master class workshops and weekly classes at the academy. She has her B.A. in Child Development and Family Studies from Cal State Long Beach, where she also attended graduate school to work on her Multiple Subject Teaching Credential.\u00a0 During the past ten years, Leanna has also directed and taught CF Dance Academy dance programs at preschool and after school programs in cities throughout Orange, Riverside & LA Counties.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0KMO WOD 2013 – Efren Ochoa<\/p>\n

Dance Mogul: When did you develop a passion for the arts?<\/p>\n

Leanna Forcucci Herron: The “CF” in CF Dance Academy stands for Cathleen Forcucci, my mother and founder of CF Dance.\u00a0 I would have to say that the arts have always played a role in my life since before I can even remember.\u00a0 Besides my mother being my first dance instructor, she was always taking us to local concerts for orchestras and small theatre productions of plays and musical.\u00a0 My passion for the arts was not something that had to be developed, it just always existed as a major part of my life.<\/p>\n

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Dance Mogul: Were your parents supportive of your dancing?<\/p>\n

Leanna Forcucci Herron: Yes.<\/p>\n

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Dance Mogul: How did you balance pursing higher education with your dance career and how do you use your degree with dancing now?<\/p>\n

Leanna Forcucci Herron: Right out of high school, I moved to Austin, TX to teach full time at a large studio.\u00a0 When I was 21 years old, I moved back to CA and started college.\u00a0 During my first two years of college I took advantage of taking a lot of dance classes at the Junior College level and concentrated mostly on my ballet & tap training.\u00a0 I still taught dance for about 8 hours a week at this time.\u00a0 Once I transferred, I wasn’t able to train much during my last two years of college.\u00a0 I received my degree in 2000- a BA in Child Development and Family Studies.\u00a0 After graduation, I went into the Multiple Subject Credential Program to become a school teacher, was subbing Elementary School and teaching about 4 hours a week.\u00a0 In the winter of 2002, my mother’s cancer metastasized and I quit work\/school to help the family.\u00a0 She lost her battle with cancer in August of 2003 and at that time my sister and I took over her studio.\u00a0 When we became the new owners\/directors, the studio had 50 students.\u00a0 We now in our 28th year of operation and have over 900 students in all of our programs.\u00a0 Most of our students are children, so my degree is very fitting; especially in the way we have designed our dance programs for children that are 3-5 years old.<\/p>\n

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Mardi Gras with kyle – Hope Forcucci<\/p>\n

Dance Mogul: You have managed to stay involved with youth throughout the years\u00a0assisting\u00a0them with their passion, why do you feel that is so important and do you feel that more assistance is needed when it comes to helping the youth pursue\u00a0their\u00a0passions?<\/p>\n

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Leanna Forcucci Herron: Working with the youth is everything that I am about.\u00a0 We strive to always make CF Dance a place where our dancers can feel like it is home.\u00a0 We have encountered so many situations where dance has become a child’s only positive thing in their life and we have the responsibility to ensure that these children are supported.\u00a0 We give thousands of dollars of scholarships to students and their families every year.\u00a0 We have multiple outreach programs for at risk youth in the community.\u00a0 We have also just started a program for special needs dancers.\u00a0 We know that dance speaks to the heart for so many people and we take our responsibility of being a place where the youth and their families can turn to for support VERY seriously. I know that working with children is calling.\u00a0 While working with the most talented children is so fun and exciting, the real reward is working with the children that have low self-esteem, body issues, depression, social anxiety, a learning disability, problems at home, etc and helping these dancers grow to have more self confidence and enjoyment of life through dance.<\/p>\n

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Dance Mogul: You have been blessed to train and work with top\u00a0choreographers, what have been some of your favorite experiences?<\/p>\n

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Leanna Forcucci Herron:I LOVE all of the people I have worked with and it has been a blessing to be able to bring these choreographers to my studio multiple times and to see their pride in ownership with our CF Dancers…they always say how they love how CF is a family and they feel the support and encouragement.\u00a0 As much as I love being able to employ these individuals and bring their talents into my studio, I am also very passionate about going to their classes, events and\/or performances to support them and their craft.\u00a0 They always say how much it means to them that I come out to LA to be a part of their world. My favorite experiences involve conversations with them regarding the way I am training my higher-level hip-hop dancers.\u00a0 There have been multiple times when I have been told that the care and attention that they are getting in the walls of CF is so special and that these dancers are actually being trained instead of just learning how to do someone else’s choreography.\u00a0 Our mutual support of each other is what it is all about!
\nDance Mogul: Why do you feel your teaching skills have been so\u00a0sought\u00a0out, is their particular method to how you\u00a0engage\u00a0your students?<\/p>\n

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Leanna Forcucci Herron: My students call me their dance mom.\u00a0 In the same class\/rehearsal I will tell them how much I love them and how awesome they are and then will also be REALLY tough on them, yell at them like a football coach and expect more out of them than anyone else.\u00a0 I am even like this with my regular weekly students, not just my crew classes.\u00a0 There is definitely a lot of tough love happening.\u00a0 You will always here me say something like- “I know you got more in you- you can do this- push yourself harder- I believe in you, so make it happen!”\u00a0 It is all done out of love because I believe that each child has talent, they just have to find it in themselves.\u00a0 Parents love this approach…they want to know that their child matters to you and they can see how much individual attention we give to all of our dancers at CF.\u00a0 I have VERY high expectations of what children can handle.\u00a0 We have 5 year olds that train for over 12 hours a week…we have 9 year olds training over 20 hours a week.\u00a0 We have dancers that have grown up in our studio that are 18 years old, training over 10 hours a week, teaching over 8 hours a week and directing and assisting with our crews.\u00a0 The new parents see our work ethic at CF, but even more importantly, they see the results of our work in how amazing many of our dancers are.<\/p>\n

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WOD video shoot – Joy Min<\/p>\n

Dance Mogul: What have been some of your proudest moments that dance has brought you?<\/p>\n

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Leanna Forcucci Herron: This is a hard one, but probably seeing my twin daughters, Faith & Hope Forcucci, become amazing dancers and teachers.\u00a0 To have it happen for 3 generations is awesome.\u00a0 This year they assisted me with directing K-mot10n and Hope directed Pandemonium Crew herself.\u00a0 In March Pandemonium took 2nd place at Urban Street Jam pretty good for her being only 18 years old.
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