Dance
This is how dance opened the world for Angyil McNeal
Meet Angyil McNeal, the prolific freestyle popping dancer who uses dance as a tool to understand life.
As the saying goes, “It’s a small world, after all.” This couldn't be truer for anyone but Angela 'Angyil' McNeal. The prolific dancer is on a mission to inspire the world through her art and on the way she’s getting to see quite a bit of it.
Kansas City, Missouri is an unlikely backdrop for someone with big dreams of being a professional dancer. It’s probably not the first thing the average person would associate with the city, but Angyil isn't an average person. She worked hard and made the effort to graduate early from Paseo Academy Fine and Performing Arts so she could move to New York and begin to study dance and start her career at the age of 15. It took her mere months to be signed to Bloc NYC Talent Agency – and that’s where the excitement began.
Her very first booking was for designer Rachel Roy’s lookbook, a job that was also aired in NYC taxis. Angyil’s popping style separates her from many other dancers – she stands out in a crowd that features the same movements and basic techniques and ventures out to really feel the music and respond to it in unique ways. Thus, it's no wonder that her career spiralled upward so drastically and quickly. After the lookbook, Angyil’s next jobs included features in Adidas commercials and music videos for artists such as Naughty by Nature and Krizz Kaliko. It was then that she ventured into dance battles and competitions.
Watch her showcase with Kyoka below:
3 min
Kyoka and Angyil showcase at BBIC 2019
The two female Red Bull Dancers showed their skills in a mixed-style showcase at BBIC 2019 in South Korea.
She said of competing and battling, “I didn’t really think about it, I just did it because I wanted to dance as much as possible and spend time with people. I love and doing things I love, but after [I started battling] it became my way of life and I look at it as a way to sharpen my sword and keep me on my toes.”
Not only has it kept her on her toes – it’s kept her on the go. In the past few years, Angyil has won a variety of prestigious dance battles like Juste Debout Experimental (New York City), The Notorious IBE (Netherlands), the 2016 World of Dance world finals, 2018’s Payback (Korea), RF Jam in Singapore in 2019, best dancer in Toulouse France 2019 and Pura Calle in Peru in 2019. Angyil has also toured around the United States competing and showcasing her talent and prowess in other dance styles like ballet, as she performed at the Kennedy Center in Outside the Bachx, a ballet piece directed by choreographers Kwick and Rokafella. She also competed on the show So You Think You Can Dance, as well as participating in World of Dance on NBC, shows where dancers are challenged to learn and perform choreography from renowned choreographers in every genre of dance.
Angyil dancing outside of the BBIC venue
© SonStar
Dance has far surpassed a hobby or just a career for Angyil. She says it's taught her more lessons than anything else through her experiences of meeting new people, sharing personal stories and learning about other cultures which, in turn, have taught her more about herself.
“Dance has helped me explore layers of problems and that I can understand life if I can understand dance. Also, dance has brought me physical pain from growing muscles and stretches, so my tolerance has increased and made me calmer. It’s my way of seeing a therapist… but less expensive.”
A spiritual and emotional experience instead of just a physical one, Angyil has developed rituals to prepare herself to perform and to battle. She draws from her ballet training to prepare her spirit, mind, and body, and gives advice to those who want to follow in her footsteps and become professional dancers. She guides them on how to protect themselves from discouragement and really connect to their craft, as she herself has managed to do to create such a prolific, global career for herself at such a young age.
“I usually like things to be extremely quiet before I go to battle. I like to eat only fruits or vegetables, preferably mangoes or berries. If I don’t dance alone, I have to enjoy the [other] person’s company equally to mine. Don’t let insults hurt you and don’t let compliments distract you. Following trends only lasts so long. Don’t take shortcuts because you will miss lessons if you do.”
Don’t take shortcuts because you will miss lessons if you do
Angyil welcomes lessons through the difficulties she's experienced as a child, leaving home so early and learning to fend for herself and create a successful dance career that has seen her featured in prestigious places like the Kennedy Center and won her titles as the only hip-hop contender in 2014 for a Bessie Award, the Hip-Hop and Popping category for 2014’s Ladies of Hip-Hop Festival, as well as 2017’s Freestyler of the Year at the World of Dance Awards. She said dance is the only life she could imagine and she never wants to forget the feeling of working. Even on her off days, she can be found working in local quiet places. Angyil is forever grateful for what she does, and we're sure to see her pop up around the globe showcasing her talents.
Angyil, Ami, Dassy and Kyoka at the Red Bull Dancer Tour Japan 2019
© Little Shao/Red Bull Content Pool