Dua Lipa's choreographer invites you to wiggle, hum and let your inner child loose

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On a Tuesday night in Atwater Village, Teresa “Toogie” Barcelo is creating a portal.With her arms stretched out, she beckons the participants of her movement workshop, Wiggle Room, to join her on the other side, where they will meet a renewed version of themselves.“Walk into the next iteration of yourself,” she commands.

The participants, who have spent the last hour squirming, shaking and humming, cross the invisible threshold.Their limbs swing loosely, their smiling faces sticky with sweat.Barcelo has been leading the L.A.-based movement class for almost a decade.

As an accomplished choreographer and movement director, she has worked with pop stars such as Sabrina Carpenter, Harry Styles, St.Vincent, Troye Sivan and Dua Lipa — most notably choreographing Dua Lipa’s hit music video “New Rules.”Barcelo’s success can be credited to her unique approach, which centers on well-being and embodiment.

“People call me the energy coordinator,” she jokes.“I’m kind of an enigma in the commercial industry.”Growing up in Miami, Barcelo felt disillusioned while pursuing a dance career in Los Angeles.

Her early career was riddled with “cattle-call auditions, getting an agent and sexy headshots.All the surface level things that you get told that you need to do in L.A.

to be successful as a dancer.”Barcelo found freedom — and escape — in improvisation and freestyle dance.“I saw an opportunity there.

I want to teach improvisation in L.A.That’s what I can give to this community,” she says.From there, Wiggle Room was born.

What began as a sanctuary for dancers to explore improvisation evolved into something deeper.“I started realizing that the class was really a healing space for a lot of people,” Barcelo says.

“There was really nowhere they could go to explore themselves as movers.”Soon, Barcelo turned her attention to meditative practices, w...