Popstarz is an adult-only dance experience that takes place every Thursday where Michael Frazier teaches a choreographed dance routine to some of the most iconic Pop songs. His current goal is to give adults (whether they have dance experience or not) an opportunity to be somebody that they are not every day, like a Popstar. The music is always fun and upbeat, the lights are low and it’s the perfect environment for people to let go and have an hour that’s just for them. I reached out to Michael Fraziers about having a conversation on his business and I’m excited that he accepted to discuss Popstarz.
Did you like dancing at an early age and was it a natural activity for you?
It’s something that just came naturally for me. As long as I can remember, I was just always obsessed with pop music, singing, and dancing. I would just watch artists like Michael Jackson and Madonna for hours and hours, like you couldn’t pull me away. When I got a little bit older, from a very early age, I always said I want to be a famous music star. I wanted to be a pop star, that was like my thing. This motivated me to get into singing, which was the primary thing that I was focused from an early age. Around that time, like middle school, I would just lock myself in my room and dance. I would copy routines that I would see artists doing, but I just kept it to myself. Being a young male who likes to dance, it’s not easy sometimes to put that out there. In high school, I was still doing this and suddenly, my mom walked in on me and was like what are you doing and wanted to see. I danced for her and she was just blown away, went and got my dad, and he asked, “why did you not let us know that you can dance like that?” From that point forward, I just started getting more comfortable with it. I was a superstar at all the school dances and every school dance I would have like four dates because all the girls wanted to take me so that they went out with somebody who could dance. Then with my friends in high school, they all wanted me to teach them all these dance routines and stuff. That’s how I realized that I could teach and I’ve kind of been doing that ever since.
I saw you were out in California for a few years. Did your passion for dancing bring you out there?
It wasn’t what originally brought me out there. Along doing the dancing stuff, I was still pursuing singing. I was doing things here in Dallas and I would sing at the Stars games, like performing the National Anthem. I started writing music at these types of events and I wanted to leave and go to California right after high school. My parents wanted me to get my education and handle other traditional responsibilities. I went to UNT and graduated from there and formed my own dance team there. I really moved out to LA after that to pursue singing and I wanted to be a recording artist. While I was doing that out there and performing, I was still heavily involved with dancing. I taught in LA and all my performances incorporated dancing as well as singing. And then when I got back to Dallas, I wasn’t really doing the music stuff anymore, but the dancing just stuck with me and I’m doing it for different reasons than I used to do it. I’ve always danced because I love to dance, but now I just feel like my purpose is to do it for other people.
Where did the Popstarz name originally come from?
It’s just so funny. It’s nothing really about my style or anything like that has changed over the years and looking back on it all, I’ve been doing this all along. But I just felt like it needed to be called what it is. A lot of dance studios that I taught at, you’re placed in a category and the category that they always put me in was like hip-hop because that’s all people really knew what to relate to. But it never was that, it was always like I’m basically teaching you for an hour to be sassy like a pop star, so it just kind of came organically. I was doing that at other studios and finally asked myself “what am I doing? Why don’t I just do this on my own? Why do I need to teach at somebody else’s studio and make everybody else’s dreams come true?” Not to say that I’m not grateful for all the places that I’ve taught before, but at the time when I decided to kind of step out, everything just fell into place.
What demographic did you primarily work with in your courses? Are they beginners or do they want to launch their own careers?
It’s a broad spectrum. I get this story a lot about people who have had dance experience in the past, like high school or college dance teams, and then moved into adulthood and get wrapped up in a career and everything. It provides them the space to kind of circle back to something that they once did or loved. And then on the other hand, I have people that have never taken a dance class before in their life. I have a range in my classes, but it just works well. I feel like I’m really a good teacher for all levels of dancers. I can have a small class, like 8 dancers or so, but I’ve had like 30 dancers in there at the same time on other occasions. It varies, and with adults, they have things going on and people travel for work and that kind of thing. But I would say on a normal basis, I deal with an average of 10 to 15 clients per week.
Do you have any upcoming projects related to the music videos?
I do. This has all just started coming to fruition within the last two weeks or so. I’ve been plotting and planning since we did our last one, which was in October. This time a big project is coming up in July and I am doing our next video somewhere other than Dallas, which I’m really excited about and we’re going to document the whole process and get to our destination. It’s going to be major.
What are the most featured songs in the Popstarz playlist?
It has been predominantly Britney Spears soundtracks. She is definitely the pop star that has kind of set everything on fire for me. Since she came out, I’ve just always gravitated towards her music and her overall vibe. And it’s just bizarre because the group of dancers that come to my class, it’s just all this mutual love and affection for Britney. It’s crazy when you think about it, a 36-year-old man dancing around Britney Spears, but it’s just fun music. Especially with everything that has gone on with her in the last few months, she just represents somebody that goes to another place. Music and dance and stuff just kind of sets her free. I would have to say Britney is the key part of our playlists.
Do you have any personal shoutouts to anyone in your journey?
The talented young man that’s been doing those concept videos of me, his name is Michael Lark and he’s well known in the dance world. His talent level is just incredible and he’s going to be coming with us and documenting our weekend and putting together the video. Michael is just incredible to work with and such a great person. And then the space that I rent for my pop stars class is Sore Creative Studios in the design district. Those guys there have been just so generous to me and so accommodating. We love the space. I took a big chance going out on my own and everything, and that part of it has just been such a smooth transition. I was just going to say my husband Bryce, because he puts up with a lot of stuff. I’m just like constantly creating things and involving him. He is there at every video shoot and every photo shoot. He’s always behind the scenes and putting together content for me to have to post and stuff. I cannot not mention him for sure.
