His L.A. pop star dance classes help people find confidence

In early April, 31-year-old social producer Kimberleigh Anderson joined a group of about 60 in the mirror-lined studio at the Pickle Factory dance studio at the Frogtown Creative compound, removing her shoes and stretching on the black-padded floor.

She was there for an Intro to Popstar Dance class led by self-described Gay Choreographer Alec Cohen. In just 90 minutes, Cohen promises to help participants “realize they have permission to be fabulous in their everyday lives and the benefits, joys and lessons that dance can teach everyone.”

Anderson hadn’t danced in a studio setting since elementary school and was eager to find her rhythm.

Cohen has a background in musical theater but performing in Lady Gaga re-creation drag shows helped him discover a certain gratification that came with pop music.

(Kit Karzen / For The Times)

“I want to explore moving my body in a way that’s new to me,” she said.

Cohen kicked off the $25 session with what he calls a “communal pump,” a classwide strut across the floor. Anderson followed his instruction, counting eight beats of one foot in front of the other and ending in a pose. Later she tells me it’s a movement she wants “to implement into daily life,” to move “with intention.”

Every Intro to Popstar Dance class unfolds the same way. Before leading students step by step through an original dance routine, Cohen details a narrative arc to inform the energy he wants to elicit, while providing a hint of context for the pop hit that he will play at the very end.

It’s only in the final few minutes of the course, once the room comfortably twirls to embrace metaphorical sunshine and assertively sashays to leave the negativity behind, that the song is triumphantly revealed.

Each Intro to Popstar Dance class revolves around learning a choreographed dance for a single pop song, which Cohen reveals at the end of the session.

(Kit Karzen / For The Times)

“What attracts me to pop stars is the complete conviction that they have, and I love how comfortable they are being seen,” Cohen said. “It’s this sort of mentality where you don’t even entertain the possibility of you not being completely, 100% fabulous.”

(Kit Karzen / For The Times)

For Anderson and her fellow dancers, Cohen related the day’s song to “The Wizard of Oz,” specifically Dorothy’s journey of realizing the ruby slippers’ power was within her all along.

That sense of self-assuredness that he sees in Dorothy’s story, he also sees in the many singers who dominate the Billboard Top 40 list.

“What attracts me to pop stars is the complete conviction that they have, and I love how comfortable they are being seen,” Cohen said. “It’s this sort of mentality where you don’t even entertain the possibility of you not being completely, 100% fabulous.”

Cohen is steeped in the art of projecting confidence onstage. He began his career as a dancer in musical theater, which included a two-year ensemble role in the national Broadway revival tour of “Hello, Dolly.” Between auditions in 2022, Cohen began performing in Lady Gaga re-creation drag shows, where he discovered a certain gratification that came with pop music.

Cohen appreciates pop songs because within the music, “There’s room for individuality and freedom of movement.”

(Kit Karzen / For The Times)

Cohen teaches weekly classes, typically rotating between locations in New York and Los Angeles.

(Kit Karzen / For The Times)

“There’s room for individuality and freedom of movement,” he said. “If you mess up, there’s not going to be a pile of cards on your dressing room station saying, ‘Your foot was not pointed when it was supposed to be.’ You can just be yourself. Be flamboyant.”

Shortly afterward, a friend connected him with Chrissy Chlapecka, a queer pop singer with more than 5 million followers on TikTok. Cohen started out dancing alongside her in videos, but once he saw how clearly their visions aligned he volunteered to choreograph both her live performances and music videos.

Around the same time, an idea began to percolate. Whenever Cohen discussed his career, people would often confide they had a secret desire to learn how to dance as well.

“I realized everyone had this story with dance and a lot of times that story [came down to], ‘I really wanna learn how to dance,’” Cohen said.

Inspired to provide lessons, he posted an Instagram story gauging interest in taking an intro-level pop star-inspired class. Fifteen signups later, he led the first session in the basement of the Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn in August 2023. The anthem of choice was “Hair Body Face,” a song sung by Lady Gaga for her role as a budding pop artist in “A Star Is Born.”

Alec Cohen, a.k.a. the “Gay Choreographer,” leads his Pop Star Dance Class.

(Kit Karzen / For The Times)

Cohen’s classes typically feature music from pop stars like Britney Spears, Rihanna and Charli XCX.

(Kit Karzen / For The Times)

Students soon began commenting on Cohen’s Instagram posts, raving about the course and asking when the next would be held. So Cohen kept arranging for more.

Cohen now teaches weekly, traveling between Los Angeles and New York, with occasional stops in San Francisco, Chicago and, once, Yale University for its community-wide masterclass dance series. (His next Los Angeles class will be May 4 at the Pickle Factory in Frogtown.)

Cohen typically features music from pop stars like Britney Spears, Rihanna and Charli XCX, though occasionally he will branch out to subgenres that cater to a certain fan base. In March, he led a Gay Guy Intro to Popstar Dance class to Ricky Martin’s “Livin’ la Vida Loca” in New York City. After several requests for Lana Del Rey songs, Cohen created an Alt-Girl Popstar class, which focuses on more lo-fi artists like Del Rey, Lorde and FKA Twigs.

Back at the studio, Anderson and the rest of the class were glistening with sweat, having spent the last half of the class spinning with their arms open, sashaying across the floor and blowing kisses in the air. It was finally time: Cohen’s big song reveal.

Ballet-trained Cohen leaped across the floor to press play and there over the speakers, the class heard the first few notes of the 2008 pop hit “Pocketful of Sunshine” by Natasha Bedingfield. “Oohs” rippled through the class as students began to kneel down in position to begin the choreography. “Ahas” were heard as the embracing twirl coincided with Bedingfield’s voice singing, “Take me away / A sweet escape.”

Mikey Harmon, left, hugs a fellow attendee at Cohen’s April 6 class in Frogtown.

(Kit Karzen / For The Times)

Cohen frequently reminds class attendees, “There should be no shame in your body’s natural response to music.”

(Kit Karzen / For The Times)

“An absolute classic. … Being able to actually process the words and feel the emotion of the song with the movement was really incredible,” Anderson told me after the class. “The way Alec encourages everyone to feel fully free to move without judgment is a huge part of this. It was a truly supportive environment.”

No matter the theme or city, during the class’s warm-up and cool-down, Cohen reiterates, “There should be no shame in your body’s natural response to music.”

No shimmery bodysuit necessary.

(Kit Karzen / For The Times)