Rie Hata AKA the “Queen of Swag” is a professional choreographer, dancer, and teacher widely known for her unique swag style. She’s choreographed for Kpop artists BTS, TWICE, Red Velvet, NCT U, BoA, and danced with singers Chris Brown, Omarion, and Lady Gaga.
Rie Hata was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. She is half Filipino, half Japanese. Growing up, Rie dreamt of becoming a professional singer and dancer. She would copy dances in music videos from her favorite performers like Britney Spears and Destiny’s Child. When she turned 11, Rie started taking dance and voice lessons. Soon after, she quit vocal training and zeroed in on dance, training mostly in Old School Hip Hop and New Jack Swing for the next few years. She was inspired by American music artists like Missy Elliott, Usher, and B2K and aspired to travel to LA or New York to learn to dance like them.
When she was 15, Rie quit school and began making trips to LA to train at Millennium Dance Complex and Debbie Reynolds Legacy Studios. She saw that many of the dancers in LA trained in styles outside of Hip Hop, so she too took Ballet, Jazz, and other studio styles. People started to notice Rie’in classes and online, as she began posting videos of her dancing on YouTube. Rie thinks her unique fashion sense probably contributed to the attention. Around this time, she also met her peers Lyle Beniga and Shaun Evaristo and got even more eyeballs on her in the dance scene. She was also dancing and performing in a crew with the Sh*tkingz in Japan.
Rie Hata loves combining styles and inventing new moves; her versatile training allowed her to build on top of her Hip Hop foundation training. She did Jerking, the Dougie, and other moves mixed in with her unique brand of swag. When Rie injured her knee in 2014 and had to go through surgery, her doctor told her she wouldn’t be able to dance again. Wheelchair-ridden with a newborn son, she was devastated. ”But I never gave up.” Now recovered and as a mother of 2 sons (King and Prince), Rie trains mostly by herself by listening to music. ”When I listen to a song, I always get new ideas, inspiration, by imagining myself dancing to that song.”
Beyond her work in the Kpop industry, Rie directs a small group of dancers called Rie Haha Tokyo. After having taught workshops with hundreds of students at a time, she now wants to hone in on quality training for her dedicated dancers to pass on the knowledge and style she’s developed. Rie teaches EmpireDance Studio classes with the same intention to carefully, thoroughly nurture her students.
Cart is empty