WWDSCOOP: Runway Renegades
Occasionally, a model’s hidden talent and fashion converge. A case in point: Coco Rocha, an expert at Highland dancing, got to kick up her heels to show off Jean Paul Gaultier’s Scottish-themed fall finery. But it wasn’t just a show-off display. “I’m setting up a charity to help underprivileged kids get to dance,” Rocha says. “Dancing is such a buzz, I’d love for others to be able to share that,” she notes, adding that the still-unnamed charity will be based in Canada and possibly the United States.
“I loved dancing at the Jean Paul Gaultier show. It was something out of the ordinary. I was so nervous....Usually, I would dance in front of people who don’t know who I am, but this time, if I messed up, everyone knew who I was. But it all went amazing.”
Rocha was bitten by the dancing bug long before the runway beckoned. “I started Irish dancing at a very young age,” she says, “as I was taking acting and singing lessons, but I didn’t like the teacher. She scared me! My mom then told me, ‘Well, we’re not going to waste the money that I’ve spent on this class,’ so she told me to pick another class from the school. At the time, Riverdance was a big show, so I picked the Irish dance class, and 11 years later, I’m still dancing.
“I would practice in a class three times a week and another hour a day on my own. Our troop, Eire Born, did many shows, from dancing for the Queen of England when she visited Vancouver, to dancing in Switzerland for Expo in 2002. So you could say we were professionals—I like to say I did it just for fun. I love all types of dance, especially the ones that we don’t see so often,” she adds. “From ballroom dancing, to belly dancing, to even ice skating, if you would call that dancing—I do.”