Former SKIP dancers watch as their kids embark on their SKIP journey

When SKIP dancers become SKIP parents, the legacy continues.

“You’re with such a supportive network, you work so hard to get there, you know it's a big moment, but right before the lights come on, you're heart's racing, but you know that you’re where you're exactly meant to be,” said SKIP alumnus and now SKIP parent, Dee Perez Damian.

Damian was five-years-old when her parents signed her up for SKIP in 1986, hoping to break her out of her shyness.

“I think she saw them performing at the Ypao Pavilion, and she was like, I need to put my daughter in something that's gonna bring her out of her shell,” Damian added.

The journey for Damian's daughter, however, was completely different.

“She is very outgoing and outspoken. SKIP was gonna be the right fit for her from the start,” she said. 

Damian said she wants her daughter's journey in SKIP to be her own, adding, “It touches me so deeply, when I see her pouring her heart into a dance, when I see her come home and rehearse and get down a dance and see her perform on stage it's so moving.”

For Teena Quichocho, who also joined in 1986, she said the running joke with alumni is you never really leave SKIP.

“My two daughters have been dancing since they were two, and they're 14. To me, I think SKIP is a lifetime commitment,” said Quichocho

Quichocho said her parents signed her and her sister up for SKIP because they couldn't keep still.

“SKIP was that outlet for us to really to explore dance, we'd been dancing even before we got into SKIP, once we got in we found a dance studio but a family,” Quichocho said. 

Being a product of SKIP, both Damian and Quichocho know the benefits their kids will enjoy.

“You experience all the magic that it has and when you become a parent, you want your child to be a part of that and experience that,” said Damian. 

“I tell the kids, not just mine but everyone, you're building some core values, in relationships, and life skills that you'll have for the rest of your life,” said Quichocho

Speaking of experience, both have special memories. It was back in 1996, SKIP was invited to perform at the Jazz Dance World Congress in Washington DC.

“We were performing with the best of the best of the best. And just to have that honor,” said Damian. 

And for Quichocho, she always gets a kick out of telling people she was in the circus.

“We've done so many different things that one of things I could check off was that I was in the circus,” said Quichocho.

Now as parents looking on and watching their kids take the stage and giving it their all, it's a full circle moment.

“If you ask parents from the past and now,  it really is that moment when they step on the stage and perform. It doesn't matter if they won or not, it just solidifies all the hard work, the money, and everything we did to get them there, it’s just so special,” said Quichocho. “We're more than a dance studio. To be a part of a dance family for 40 years is absolutely amazing. Dancers that come in and out of the program when we see them out in life later,  they're doing amazing.”

“For me, it is my legacy. I'm so happy and proud that she has found a home in SKIP just the way that I did,” said Damian.