Dance Thursdays | K-Pop (All Levels) with Sassi Fran

Rae Studios is honored to be the 2025 programming partner of Mission Rock SF to provide continue FREE CLASSES to the Mission Rock neighborhood located at China Basin Park. Outdoor classes will feature rotating dance classes at 5pm every Thursday. Join us this summer with an updated scheduling featuring class styles like Hip Hop: Grooves, Shuffle, Salsa and K-Pop. All classes offered will be FREE and easy to follow. We encourage all participants to sign up in advance as spots are limited. We are overjoyed to be a part of this amazing addition to San Francisco’s newest neighborhood. Join us at the waterfront, let's move!

A huge thank you to our amazing instructors who led our spring launch! We really value the time and effort brought by our team and the impact they continue to have in our surrounding communities. We're excited to continue growing our community of dancers in Mission Rock and making dance more accessible to all.

Hosted By:

• Rae Studios | @raestudiossf
• Mission Rock SF | @missionrocksf

Union Square Class Program (April-June):

Every Thursday 5pm - 6pm at China Basin Park

Every 1st & 5th Thurs: Hip Hop: Grooves (Beginner) w/ Olivia

Every 2nd Thurs: Shuffle (Beginner) w/ Raymond

Every 3rd Thurs: Salsa (All Levels) w/ Sara

Every 4th Thurs: K-Pop (All Levels) w/ Sassi Fran

All Mission Rock classes are outdoors at Located near the Willie McCovey Statue.

MUNI:

Buses #30 and #45
Metro Subway:

Lines N Judah exit 2nd & King.

Line T exit 4th & King.

Caltrain:

Exit 4th Street then walk 0.5 miles to destination

Restrooms are accessible right behind the location.

Class Description:

​​​​K-Pop, short for Korean popular music, is a form of music originating in South Korea as part of South Korean culture. ​​As a dance genre, it is influenced heavily from many genres around the world, such as Pop, Hip Hop, R&B, Experimental, Rock, Jazz, and Electronic Dance on top of its traditional Korean music roots. Modern K-Pop "idol" culture began in the 1990s and has grown into a global phenomenon with groups like BTS, BLACKPINK, Stray Kids, TWICE, and more. K-Pop instructors will teach choreography from various music videos or create their own choreographed influences from various styles of dance. Students should expect to learn fun combos and increase their performance quality.

Meet the instructor below:

Francesca Balagtas, aka Sassi Fran, was born in San Francisco but raised in Las Vegas. The styles they trained in throughout childhood and adolescence included tap, ballet, jazz, hip hop, street jazz, Hula, Tahitian, and Maori. At the age of 18, Sassi moved back to San Francisco to attend San Francisco Art Institute to receive her BFA in Sculpture. Although her studies were in visual arts, she always hungered for dance. In 2015 and 2016 she began dancing with various dance groups in San Francisco such as Bay Area Flash Mob, Sexitude, and Bay Area Dancers and began teaching her own original street jazz, pop, and hip hop choreography at BAFM and BAD. In 2017, Sassi and her close friend, Patrick Santos, founded K-Pop-Up, a K-pop dance class and group as a way to find other K-Pop lovers who also want to dance. Today Sassi continues to train herself in more styles such as pole, heels, vogue, and waacking to enrich her own repertoire. Throughout Sassi’s near decade of teaching, it is always their goal to create a safe, welcoming, and inclusive learning environment that is friendly to people of all dance levels. In addition to teaching dance around the San Francisco Bay Area, Sassi is a local drag performer who incorporates K-Pop and her own original choreography into many of her drag performances. Sassi produces and hosts NUNA, a bi-annual queer K-Pop dance party/drag show at The Stud in the SOMA district.

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Host or Publisher Rae Studios SF