{"id":13178,"date":"2015-11-17T08:05:42","date_gmt":"2015-11-17T13:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quantumnew.esu.edu\/insider\/?p=13178"},"modified":"2015-11-17T10:36:22","modified_gmt":"2015-11-17T15:36:22","slug":"walker-dances-his-way-to-missy-elliot-music-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/walker-dances-his-way-to-missy-elliot-music-video\/","title":{"rendered":"Walker Dances his way to Missy Elliot Music Video"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"float:right; margin: 0 0 15px 15px;\" width=\"310\" height=\"174\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RYC_BmEwLRM\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>At five years old Juwaan Walker was busy performing dance routines between couches in the middle of his family\u2019s living room. As his skills began to improve, Walker realized that his passion for dance was enhanced by his undeniable talent. Competitions came, and Walker conquered. Now, years later, the East Stroudsburg University sophomore from Piscataway, N.J., will be dancing on a bigger stage with Hip-Hop Queen Missy Elliot. Elliot has been making music since 1994, received hundreds of awards, and was featured in last year\u2019s Super Bowl half-time performance. Come December, Walker will receive his own spotlight when he is featured dancing in one of Elliot\u2019s music videos. <\/p>\n<p>Dancing has always been an important hobby in Walker&#8217;s life. He started young with guidance from his cousins. But when Walker was only in sixth grade his cousin, Edward \u201cEddie\u201d Griffin, passed away, and that became the catalyst that made Walker pay attention to the evolution of new dance styles he could master. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe and I were very close, and dancing brought us together,\u201d said Walker.<\/p>\n<p>Though coping with the death of his cousin was difficult, Walker did not give it the power to discourage his focus. Dance became even more of an influence in his life, and he thrived on it. After competing in numerous competitions, Walker decided to go for something big. Over the summer, he came across the \u201cSharaya J &amp; Missy Elliot Banji Certified Dance Competition.\u201d The competition gives unknown dancers a chance to perform in an upcoming Missy Elliot music video. Without any hesitation, Walker drove to New Jersey for the audition process. The following weeks were spent waiting by the telephone. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI started to feel like I hadn\u2019t gotten the part. Hundreds of people auditioned, so the odds weren\u2019t really in my favor,\u201d Walker said.<\/p>\n<p>A couple of months later, he received news that made \u201chis entire world stop.\u201d The part was his.   Walker was told that he would appear in a Missy Elliot music video.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was insane. I was holding the phone and felt at that moment everything was perfect. I gave it my all, and it paid off.\u201d Walker said.<\/p>\n<p>If there ever was a testament to \u201cdoing it all\u201d while in college, Walker would be its cosigner. He wears many hats at East Stroudsburg University. If you see him around campus, there is a good possibility that he will be dressed in football gear, walking with his books for class, ready for a track meet, or attending a step team meeting. He admits that his busy lifestyle comes with its own set of challenges; however, he knows where his priorities lie.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSchool is always first. If I don\u2019t do well in school, I am unable to do the other things I love. ESU has allowed me to branch out in the best way possible,\u201d said the athletic training major. <\/p>\n<p>Walker\u2019s practices will intensify during the upcoming weeks to prepare for his video debut. Understandably there is a great deal of pressure, to which Walker says \u201cI will do my best, and that\u2019s good enough for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Walker Dances his way to Missy Elliot Music Video<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20,22,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-esu-success-stories","category-facebook","category-slider"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13178"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13178"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13195,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13178\/revisions\/13195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}