Tucker Barkley got his start at his mother’s studio, Carla’s Dance Studio in Amarillo, TX. From tap to jazz to clogging, no genre was off-limits for this burgeoning B-boy and his older sister Kelcee. “I kind of grew up inside the studio,” Tucker remembers. “My mom put me in dance classes as soon as I could walk!”
Dance quickly morphed into one of the only constants in Tucker’s life, as his family moved from Texas to Kansas and finally to Florida, where Tucker began hitting the competition scene with a vengeance. “He brought home a scholarship almost every time,” his mother explains. (See “Trophy Case” on p. 52 for Tucker’s comp kudos.)
One convention that made a lasting impact on Tucker’s career was Monsters of HipHop. At age 11, Tucker got his first real exposure to the form while attending a regional event in Dallas. “Once I did Monsters of HipHop, I was hooked,” says Tucker. “I met Brian Friedman, Gil Duldulao and Rhapsody, and their amazing hip-hop choreography just stuck with me.”
Tucker made a big first impression on Friedman, who says Tucker’s dancing was “brilliant” even at a young age. “He was one of those raw talents that doesn’t come along very often,” remembers Friedman. “I saw something special in him—he was a little bit crazy and spastic and wild, but it’s great to have all those qualities because you can harness that into something really incredible.”
