INTERVIEW: Move 2B Moved with Latisia Johnson
**This article originally appeared in our May 2026 issue**
Photos by Elissa Ebersold
“I gradually became known as that girl who was probably going to be a dancer for the rest of her life.”
For some, dancing is an involuntary action. For others, the idea alone is daunting, preying on their deepest insecurities. But at its core, dance is simply movement. Actions we take everyday, combined into different programs and routines based on unique rhythms become dance — or at least that’s how Latisia Johnson sees it. The longtime dancer, instructor, and proprietor of the Colonie-based dance studio, Move 2B Moved, Johnson sees the world of dance through an entirely different lens.
Johnson’s journey with dance started at five years old, when her mother thrust her into ballet and tap dancing classes, though, after the first few, she ultimately decided it wasn’t right for her. Growing up in a Puerto Rican and Dominican household, her mother was frequently playing Spanish music, leading to the two of them dancing various Latin styles together for fun.This inspired Johnson to begin doing things her own way. Soon enough, she had started her own dance group at Brown School in Schenectady.
“There weren’t really any clubs; it wasn’t very diverse, there weren’t a lot of other kids that looked like me. So I started my own dance group with some friends I made there and we started performing in school,” she recalls. “From there, I gradually became known as that girl who was probably going to be a dancer for the rest of her life.”
Dance was what kept her calm and focused, quieting any other noise, despite the fact that others interpreted her constant movement as signs of ADD or ADHD. As she got older and life’s pressures and responsibilities mounted, dance continued to be a relief. It was therapeutic; as soon as she heard music, she started moving. When she saw that creative arts and therapy were options for her to pursue at Russell Sage, she was thrilled to see her own experience reflected back as a real life path.
“In my mind, I thought I made it up. I wanted to do dance as therapy, because that’s what it meant to me, and that's been my way of connecting with people — acknowledging how they’re feeling through movement,” she recalls.
Along with her education, Johnson also had opportunities in performance that expanded her perspective and skills. Her first formal opportunity was with a local improv theatre company called “Too Deep Entertainment,” which she joined in 2007 under director Mark Bobb-Semple. Performing all original work in a family setting, they would put plays together based around real-life scenarios, from teaching kids Spanish to dealing with poverty and drug use. The group performed throughout the Capital Region at the Palace Theatre, African-American Festival, and beyond.
Johnson credits this experience as building her performance confidence, as she tells me:
“I was able to become the dance choreographer. I was working with people who had no dance experience, some people who could count to a beat, but it gave me the opportunity to learn how people learn.”
It was then through Bobb-Semple that a new opportunity arose for Johnson: the chance to audition for a two-week program at the world-renowned Garth Fagan Dance Center in Rochester. Fagan was the choreographer behind Broadway’s Tony-award-winning Lion King, amongst countless others. Much to her excitement, Johnson was chosen for the scholarship. The program, taught by company members, led to an even more exclusive opportunity for Johnson.
“They invite certain students they see potential in to be able to join a company class. At the time, I was wearing a knee brace from some soreness, but had gotten close to a member of one of the companies. She said, ‘You should really take the knee brace off, because they’ll see you as injured and they are interested in getting you into a class.’ I took her advice and ended up being invited into a class a year later.”
As it would happen, it was Johnson’s informal background that made her stand out, as Fagan himself has said he sometimes prefers dancers without formal training. To him, they can be too rigid and unable to flow freely and break out of their molds. Of course, Johnson has thrived outside the mold her entire life. It was through all of this that she realized that while she loved performing and creating dances and routines, she also loved teaching others how to move, including children.
“I do regular enrichment in schools through a workshop where kids learn dance concepts through creativity,” she elaborates. “‘Let's act like a bird. Let’s act like we see someone playing basketball and try to mimic their movements.’ Just connecting on everyday things so that it doesn’t feel like dancing, even though it is.”
Johnson has also built on that through her Move 2B Moved studio. While her specialty in that setting is private lessons with adults — helping to build confidence and comfort in movement and dance — she has also started to expand into helping others pursue their dance goals and dreams. One such way is her Move and Groove program she’s held at The Palace Theatre since 2024, focusing on using social media trends as a way to garner interest in dance. It also allows up-and-coming dancers to have a paid platform to perform — something she’s quick to tell me is extremely important to her.
While Johnson doesn’t perform as often these days herself, she is regularly involved with the fundraising event, Capital Region Dancing With The Stars. Having won 1st place for performance at the inaugural edition in 2021 with Eddie Fyvie, she has since become the choreographer for the annual alumnist dance — creating and teaching alumni a dance routine created specifically for that year's event.
“The sisters that put it together, they’re amazing. Their organization is ridiculous. I don’t know how they do it, but I volunteer every year now choreographing an alumni piece.”
In a world full of movement, rhythm, and sounds, people like Johnson are going by the beat of their own drum and bringing others out of their shells in the process. Everywhere she goes, she is opening up hearts and minds through the positivity of dance — leveraging the endorphins that help to shape a happy self.
To learn more about what Latisia Johnson is all about, check out move2bmoved.com