Thomas is a California native (SoCal Latino) born in 1958 and raised in Reseda. Thomas is an OG (original generation) dance master and a co founding member of the legendary dance group
Chain Reaction. Since 1973, he has been both an originator and pioneer of the dance forms of Crossover Locking, Zig-Zag, Popping, and Funk Boogaloo, which have influenced millions worldwide in what the many refer to as Hip-hop dance. He has choreographed and performed in countless TV shows, videos, commercials, and feature films. This includes choreographing
James Brown in the Heroes of Rock’n Roll and a featured dance performance with
Gene Kelly in Olivia Newton John’s 1980s classic Xanadu. In 1984, he formed the
United Street Force and became the only urban street dance company to have ever performed at the
White House. Numerous universities have adopted his study, which began in 1993, as the accepted authority on Urban Dance Studies in the late 20th century. He is a proud member of the board of advisers for the
American Heritage Dictionary, responsible for
23 new words and definitions in the new American vernacular. In 2008 he was the recipient of the prestigious
Christena L. Schlundt Lecture Award in Dance Studies at U.C. Riverside and honored as a key speaker and presenter at the Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association
PCA/ACA conference in San Francisco California. Thomas who has taught outside studies for UCLA, Cal Tech is the only resource since 1996 for all academics and non-academics that teach or lecture about the history Urban Street Dance. He has continued touring the world teaching and inspiring young dancers as a leader in the future and perpetuation of Urban Dance.
—Written by Robert Kubilos Thomas Guzman-Sanchez IMDB
