‘Power Woman: Parris Goebel On The Power Of Living Fearlessly’

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Parris Goebel By Jessica Vander Leahy for whimn.com.au’s Power Women series...  

The woman behind all your fave Justin Bieber and Rihanna dance moves has an amazing story to tell. 

The Power Women series celebrates the brightest names of the future on their paths to power. For more inspiring profiles visit whimn.com.au every Tuesday.

It’s only a matter of time before Parris Goebel is a household name. Already in dance circles, she’s an icon.

At just 27 years old the multi award-winning choreographer has literally twerked her way around the world, tapped on the shoulder to create unique dance works for some of music's biggest names including Justin Bieber, J Lo, Janet Jackson and Rihanna.

While the Kiwi native's resume is exhaustive, as the head of the all-female hip-hop squad ReQuest, Parris is not ready to rest on her laurels.

Joining whimn.com.au on the phone from New Zealand—she’s only home for a hot minute, putting together a tour before jetting back to her base in LA—it’s clear she’s a woman in demand. But now her dance pulling power only further justifies her radical decision to quit school at 15 to pursue her dream.

“As soon as I could walk, I was dancing and performing so I think at a very young age, my parents could tell that that's what I was going to end up doing,” she tells whimn.com.au.

While you're here, want to find out about Yumi Stynes and the power of bouncing back? Or the power of a single act from Holly Ransom.

“I ended up dropping out of school and my dad, he's a creative as well so he just understood. I was failing everything. I wasn't even going to school and he was just at a point where he was like, ‘Okay, are we going to do this? You want to dance so let's do it.’”

While she caveats her “ballsy” choice to ditch her formal education by saying it’s not the road for everyone, Parris says the move gave her a “head start”.

There’s more to this story. It was originally published on whimn.com.au — click the link to read the whole yarn.