Once upon a time, there was a little girl with a big heart full of feelings. Lucia grew up in Kreuzberg, a lively neighborhood in West Berlin famous for street art and punk rock music. Surrounded by bright graffiti, bustling markets, and loud festivals, she brimmed with joy and excitement every day.

Then, when Lucia was five, her parents separated. She began feeling all sorts of heavy and upsetting emotions, like anger, sadness, and confusion. Sometimes, she felt all of them at the same time.

Luckily, when Lucia was 11, she found dance. Goofing off in the studio with her friends, she discovered she could work out her emotions — good, bad, and everything in between — with jumps, twists, and footwork. She especially loved hip hop because it gave her lots of room to improvise moves. On the dance floor, her big feelings were a strength, not a weakness.

“Dance helped me find my own way. I hope that I can help girls believe in themselves and become stronger and more self-confident.”

It didn’t take long for Lucia to discover krump, an intensely expressive form of street dance characterized by stomps, jabs, arm swings, and lots of chest pops. People tend to carry a lot of emotions in their chests, and for Lucia, krump set them free. “Dance helped me express and deal with my feelings,” she has said.

After college, Lucia wanted to help other girls discover their power through dance. She started substituting at local dance studios, and soon enough, she was landing her own teaching gigs. Today, she is a full-time krump instructor for pre-teen girls. She teaches them to dance from the heart. “Movement comes from inside,” Lucia tells her students. “Showing your true feelings makes your dance authentic and beautiful.”