{"id":446,"date":"2023-07-06T17:56:39","date_gmt":"2023-07-06T17:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kashikaricoop.com\/?p=446"},"modified":"2023-10-03T12:40:59","modified_gmt":"2023-10-03T12:40:59","slug":"how-pelotons-jess-king-found-her-escape-through-edm-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kashikaricoop.com\/index.php\/2023\/07\/06\/how-pelotons-jess-king-found-her-escape-through-edm-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"How Peloton&#039;s Jess King Found Her &#8220;Escape&#8221; Through EDM Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- tml-version=\"2\" --><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/edm.com\/tag\/jess-king\">Jess King<\/a> is royalty in the dancing and fitness circuits. Now, the <a href=\"https:\/\/edm.com\/tag\/peloton\">Peloton<\/a> superstar is embarking on a journey through the weird and wonderful world of electronic dance music.<\/p>\n<p>King is far from a casual consumer of EDM. An outspoken advocate of rave culture, she is introducing swaths of new fans to electronic music through a fitness program intended to educate trainees on the genre while breaking a sweat.<\/p>\n<p> &#8220;The combination of music and movement and how they go together,&#8221; King tells&nbsp;<em>EDM.com<\/em>. &#8220;The parallels of the dancefloor and being in a fitness class, particularly my ride at Peloton. Those two experiences really feel similar to me and I get really excited to talk about it.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Peloton Guru Jess King is a DJ Now: Performing, Pride, and More | EDM.com\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XPKo0zugd6A?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>King recently made her DJing debut at an intimate Brooklyn event in May. The experience has only galvanized her even more.<\/p>\n<p> &#8220;I had moments of, &#8216;Holy crap! This feels so right! It feels so good!&#8217; I felt calm. I just felt so good,&#8221; King gushes. &#8220;But what I found interesting is that being a dancer and now at Peloton, I&#8217;ve used my body as a means of performance\u2014at any given time, whether I&#8217;m dancing or communicating with my movement or I&#8217;m taking you through intervals class or kicking your ass in a workout. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is the first time that I was able to just be cerebral,&#8221; she adds of her foray into DJing. &#8220;Not out here in my body, but in my head and within and communicate that through the sound. It&#8217;s a shift in how I show up on stage and it was really exciting.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>King&#8217;s enthusiasm for dance music is rivaled only by her determination to succeed. Detractors may scoff at the crossover appeal, but there is no denying King&#8217;s work ethic. The Peloton instructor is an alum of <em>So You Think You Can Dance<\/em> and theater productions crafted by <em>Cirque du Soleil<\/em> mastermind Franco Dragone. <\/p>\n<p>She&#8217;s taking things one step at a time, but is open to the idea of producing music once she finds her footing as a DJ. King is wise to the difficult road ahead but can lean on the wisdom and experience of established acts like SOFI TUKKER, LP Giobbi and Gorgon City.<\/p>\n<p> &#8220;I&#8217;m so new and I have the beginner&#8217;s mind entirely where I&#8217;m just like, &#8216;I&#8217;m going to suck at this for a while. It&#8217;s okay,'&#8221; King says. &#8220;I really look up to [Giobbi]. I really look up to Gorgon City. I really look up to a lot of the people I&#8217;ve now become friends with, which is mind-blowing.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>\n            <strong>View the <a href=\"https:\/\/edm.com\/interviews\/jess-king-peloton-interview\">original article<\/a> to see embedded media.<\/strong>\n        <\/p>\n<p>King, like many of us, can trace her infatuation with EDM to a rave.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There was this rave that I went to, Cityfox opening party at the Brooklyn Mirage maybe six or seven years ago&#8230; I just had this enlightening experience,&#8221; King recalls. &#8220;There was something about being there with just a ton of strangers, everybody was having a good time and the way people care for one another on the dancefloor.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s all love. It&#8217;s all fine. Get lost in the music. We&#8217;ll find you if we need you,&#8221; she continues. &#8220;I was like, &#8216;Woah, I&#8217;ve been looking for this kind of escape. I&#8217;ve been looking for this kind of playground for myself.&#8217; It was just a profound moment that sent me down [the rabbit hole].&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>King and her wife are expecting their second child imminently. Pride Month has come and gone, but the need for representation persists. That can sometimes put openly queer personalities under a complicated spotlight.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is a really poignant question, believe it or not,&#8221; King explains. &#8220;Showing up for my life in her fullness and fullest expression and in joy and in love and sharing that publicly, honestly, with the people around us is important. It&#8217;s important for people to see that you can have a gay or queer experience in life and it be beautiful and joyful and well-received. I think for that reason, it&#8217;s important for me to take a stand, have a presence in the world and be an advocate.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But the thing that oftentimes\u2014she and I talk about this\u2014that we struggle with is that we are so much more than being gay. So it&#8217;s challenging for us sometimes when we&#8217;re recognized for being gay as opposed to all the other things that we do all day, every day that we&#8217;re working so hard to accomplish and to create. It&#8217;s an interesting landscape.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure>\n        <img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kashikaricoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/img_0008.jpg\" height=\"827\" width=\"620\" \/><figcaption>Sophia Urista and Jess King.<\/p>\n<p>c\/o Jess King<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>King&#8217;s journey from dance to fitness and, most recently, music\u2014is a reminder of the abundance of experiences one can cultivate. A curious mind and a willingness to explore those interests can lead to endless paths of self-fulfillment.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I do know the impact I have had on so many of our LGBTQ+ members at Peloton, and how profound that has been,&#8221; King adds. &#8220;Whether I&#8217;m championing them for them to come out, giving them one of the only safe spaces in their lives where they can just feel, whatever. Weird, queer, doesn&#8217;t matter. That&#8217;s really special to me. So it&#8217;s all of that. It&#8217;s being an advocate primarily by living my life in a big way, but also remembering that&#8217;s not the only thing about me.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jess King is royalty in the dancing and fitness circuits. Now, the Peloton superstar is embarking on a journey through the weird and wonderful world of electronic dance music. King is far from a casual consumer of EDM. An outspoken advocate of rave culture, she is introducing swaths of new fans to electronic music through [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kashikaricoop.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kashikaricoop.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kashikaricoop.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kashikaricoop.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kashikaricoop.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.kashikaricoop.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":450,"href":"http:\/\/www.kashikaricoop.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions\/450"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kashikaricoop.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kashikaricoop.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kashikaricoop.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kashikaricoop.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}