He did meet someone, eventually marrying his partner, Valerie Bergman, one of his teachers when he was working toward his master's degree in performance and choreography at the University of Hawaii between 1991 and '93. He is a dance professor at Western Oregon University, where he teaches hip-hop, West African dance and modern dance technique. He said hip-hop is gaining more respect as more people teach it in the schools. In years past, hip-hop was not respected as an art. It has been regarded as a folk art.
Teaching allows it to become a concert form, and more now, ballet is seeking to revitalize itself.
The big companies in New York will never lack an audience, but some regional companies are using anything possible to keep people interested in ballet, and they're looking at hip-hop. It's so unusual to see men on stage. And, he says he's looking forward to being with the guys. Espiritu echoes his sentiments. Whenever you get a group of men together, they get competitive.