How Jian Pierre-Louis is Building The Pocket Sessions With Werk

He's a Touring Dancer, a Saxophonist, and a DJ

And he brings all three into his "Pocket Sessions," where dancers can actually hear the music.

"A session feels intimate. It feels open and free and non-judgmental. That's what I wanted to give dancers."

– Jian Pierre-Louis, Founder, The Pocket Sessions

Most dance classes have a speaker in the corner and a playlist on shuffle. Jian Pierre-Louis walks in with a full DJ setup, plugs in, and runs the whole session live – dancing, teaching, isolating beats, flipping tracks, mixing songs, in real time.

It's part class, part concert, part musical education. And if you've never experienced anything quite like it before, that's kind of the point.

The Pocket Sessions is the culmination of a career that has never been just one thing. Born in New York, raised between Queens and Miami, Jian Pierre-Louis has spent two decades as a touring professional dancer, a DJ, a music producer, a remixer, and a first-chair saxophonist – and every single one of those chapters feeds directly into what he's building now.

The Journey: From Queens to Every Stage

Jian Pierre-Louis didn't get serious about dance until he was 16, but when he did, he moved fast. His mother, a jazz dancer herself, gave him the foundation. He trained in studios in Miami. And in 2005, Monsters of Hip Hop Convention in LA gave him the moment that made everything click.

After that first show, I knew that's what I wanted to do.

‍A year later, he moved to LA. He hasn't looked back since.

The career that followed reads like a wish list. His first major tour break came with the Pussycat Dolls in 2009. From there: Nicki Minaj, Britney Spears, Mary J. Blige, Alicia Keys, Backstreet Boys. Twenty years of stages, rehearsal rooms, and world tours – with a few that stand out even among that company.

The Alicia Keys tour, he'll tell you without hesitation, was something special. "The camaraderie, the energy... everybody was just aligned. Good energy, an amazing artist, all the boxes checked. It's very rare for all of that to happen on one job. Till this day I feel like I'm always chasing that high."

The Mary J. Blige and NAS tour hit differently for a personal reason: NAS is from Queens.

‍"That was divine for me... ‍Growing up in Queens, that's one of my favorite rappers. All those years of training – and that happens. I'm grateful."

The Music Side: First Chair to the Decks

Dance is only half the story. Music has been running alongside it for Jian Pierre-Louis's entire life.

He started on piano, picked up the saxophone at 11, and by high school was first chair across every band that would have him. "First chair, baby. That was my pride and joy." Around the same time, he and a friend became the only producers in their school, making mixtapes for anyone who'd listen — and his uncle, a DJ, started teaching him the decks.

All of it compounded. The theory, the ear training, the saxophone, the production, the DJing – it didn't just make him a more musical dancer. It gave him a different way of understanding and teaching movement altogether.

"If it wasn't for music and all those years of training my ear, and even the theory – it's completely shaped me as a dancer"

These days, remixing is one of his favorite outlets – taking older music and refreshing it with his own touch.

"Bringing back old songs and giving them new life. That's kind of what I've been on lately."

The Synergy of DJs x Dancers in the Same Room

What makes The Pocket Sessions unlike anything else is the DJ setup. Jian Pierre-Louis brings his full equipment into the room and runs the entire class live from the decks. When he wants the class to listen to a specific moment in a track, he isolates it right there. When a song needs to shift, he feels the room and makes the call in real time.

"You're not gonna get that in a regular class. Regular class, you plug in the music and push play."

The through- line between Jian Pierre-Louis's music background and his teaching practice isn't subtle – it's the whole thing. When he teaches, he doesn't just tell dancers to hit the beat. He tells them which beat, what it's called, and why it sounds the way it does.

Two exercises he does in The Pocket Sessions:

01: Music Terminology.

"Rather than just saying 'hit the crack,' I'm saying hit the snare. Dance on the kick. I'm giving you actual terminology."

‍It's a small shift that opens up a much bigger world. When dancers can name what they're hearing, they stop just reacting to music and start relating to it.

"It makes you a little bit more of an artist, not just a dancer."

That knowledge also shapes how he builds a curriculum. Understanding song structure – where a bridge is, where a phrase starts and ends, how a cadence moves – lets him create exercises that are precise and intentional, not just based on vibes.

02: Beat Memorization.

‍Put on a song and listen to just the drums. Or just one specific phrase. Memorize the cadence.

"It warms up the ears and gives you comfortability – and then you can attack the music from a completely different perspective."

03: Isolated Sound Freestyling.

‍One phrase, one sound. Hit only the snare. Next phrase, hit only the hi-hats. Then try both at the same time.

‍"See where that takes you. It's about understanding what you're listening to, and then finding your own response to it."

What Jian is building is something that captures the raw, organic energy of having a DJ and dancers in the same room – which he'll tell you creates a completely different kind of learning.

"It creates compound movement intelligence. The DJ element, the raw organic synergy of having a DJ and dancers in a room. It creates something else entirely."

Running It on Werk: Simple, Legitimate, Connected

"Werk is my savior! It's just so easy."

Before Werk, Jean Pierre would have to build and maintain his own website just to collect sign-ups, chase payments.

Now he posts on his story, drops the link, and that's it.

Students sign up, they're on the list, and they stay connected – for this session and every one after it.

"I can send an email blast like: Pocket Sessions is coming up – maybe you heard it here first. It gives everything a more exclusive, more serious tone. I feel like a little bit more legit. And I love that feeling."

That feeling of legitimacy matters when you're building something from the ground up.

He also offers private one-on-ones through the platform – with the same DJ setup, same philosophy, just more intimate.

They've become a go-to for beginners who find the group setting a little intimidating.

"Because it's so music-focused, the conversation shifts. Instead of worrying about how they look, they're focused on what they're hearing. The training follows from there."

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Jian is one of thousands of dancers building their businesses as A Werk Member.

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