POCA

Raw Element Dance Company for the Performing Arts founder , Tierra Poca Parham , raised in Fort Washington ,Maryland . Started dancing at the age of 12 at Expressions Dance Theater in Clinton, Md , studying different dance genres including Ballet , Horton , Tap and African . Shortly after she joined their Hip Hip performance company X-Vibe under the direction of Lionell Keitt . There she gained leadership qualities as well as performance skills and dance background work all before the age of 16. Poca auditioned for the Tom Joyner in the Morning "school edition " to dance for singer/songwriter Ciara in her upcoming music video "Get Up", beating out over 400 dancers and being in the top 5 pick for Washington DC , Poca was very proud of herself and what she had accomplished thus far. Although Poca did not win the competition, the lessons learned and the experience within itself was much greater in her eyes . After graduating from Laurel High School in 2009, Poca attended Coppin State University in Baltimore, Maryland . Where she joined the Fire and Desire dancers of The CSU band , and quickly re-ignited her inescapable love and passion for music and movement all over again. While in college ,Poca started developing a company full of community kids in Prince Georges County , Maryland that displayed a uniquely energetic edge and edgy form of hip-hop. She named the group "Raw Element" to reflect the individuality, style, personality and flavor of each dancer. Poca along side Dee Duffy , Jean "GiO" Wood , Diamond "Pepp" Duffy-Payne ,and Camal "C-Note" Pugh , combined the dancers elements from choreography with freestyle and created high energy entertainment dance productions for numerous events and shows in the DMV area which include "The Catwalk Classics" and "The Golden Scissor Awards". In 2011 , Poca started working with Duke Ellington alumni Donte Morrison on a stage play called , The Battle playing the role of Erica Brown , a Howard university tap dancer from Baltimore that transitions Into voguing . During her years of studying acting and vouging , she transitioned into modeling to start pursuing heel choreography. Poca began choreographing for a modeling agency and gained a new name " Popular Demand ". With hard work and dedication Poca found herself winning the title of Female performer of the year in 2013, at the Fashion Driven Awards in Washington DC . Poca realized that Youtube was a perfect road to display her work as a dancer and choreographer so with the help of Jean "GiO" Wood , they began to shoot dance concept videos to the music of current artist . One video caught the eye of Perez Hilton, an American blogger and television personality who discovered Poca YouTube videos , where she had recently done a video to Kat Graham a singer/actress (Honey 2 , The Vampire Diaries ) music video "Graffiti". Perez informed Kat Graham's team about the remake video , and they decided to do a video competition and told Poca to submit . A month later they announced that Poca was the winner of the VEVO "Put your Graffiti on Me "competition. They then flew her to Los Angeles,California to be apart of Kat Graham's new video "Wanna Say" directed by Benny Boom . While Poca was pushing her career, she studied the ins and outs of the industry and productions and applied this knowledge to her dance company, which started to gain recognition in both the DMV and the surrounding areas. Raw Element was rewarded the title of Prince George's Best Dance Crew (Season3 / Season8 ), the Overall Gold winners at the American Dance Awards in the hip hop division and 3 time award winners for "The Best Dance Troop Award " at the Titian Arts Awards from 2014 to 2016 . While not being signed to any dance agency , Poca continues to be sought out by label directors to provide choreography to artist, which lead her to become a principal dancer for Main Girl and tour with artist such as Tinashe on her Aquarius Tour as well as double platinum artist Ginuwine and X-Factor Contestants . Poca realized "talent will get you noticed but hard work and self-respect will get you further in life ,in your own time." In 2017 she was announced Choreographer of the year and is currently working with new upcoming artist as well as expanding Raw Element into 3 dance companies and being a Mentor to all her dancers.