Bed-Stuy Accountant Teaches Breakdancing as Path to Success
by Brooklyn Eagle (edit@brooklyneagle.net), published online 04-14-2008

When Bedford-Stuyvesant resident Richard Santiago isn’t in his midtown accounting office, he can be found pursuing his long-time passion — teaching teens to breakdance — at Bushwick-Hyland Community Center on Humboldt St., reported the Daily News.
“Papa Rich,” as he is also known, teaches popping and locking free of charge to young people because it helped him to navigate his own adolescence after he started dancing at age 12.
Santiago found that while breakdancing diverted his attention away from drugs, gangs and other trouble, it also gave him a way to express himself and succeed in other parts of his life. This is what he hopes to offer his students.
"The same energy I used to better my moves, I used in school and in my work," he said. "If it works for b-boying [the original term for breakdancing] it can work for anything - that's the message I want to give.”
Santiago was born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and is a graduate of Alexander Hamilton Vocational and Technical High School. After joining the marines, he returned to New York to earn an architecture degree from City College and an associate degree in accounting from the Borough of Manhattan Community College.
His breakdancing students are aiming high too; some are headed for Baruch College, Pace and Columbia University.