Reia Briggs-Connor grew up in Chelsea, not Everett — and that distinction matters, because everything she's built since started here. She began dancing at age 3 at Genevieve Spinelli's studio in Chelsea, trained there for 18 years, and later taught at the studio herself. She cheered for Chelsea Pop Warner, captained the Chelsea High School cheerleading squad, and graduated with the Class of 1991 before spending five seasons as a New England Patriots cheerleader.

That foundation carried her into Phunk Phenomenon, the hip-hop dance company she's now run for more than two decades out of studios at 1886 Revere Beach Parkway in Everett and 201 Andover Street in Peabody. The studio calls its approach “EDUTAINMENT” — teaching the history and culture behind hip-hop dance alongside the choreography itself, with a stated mission of building self-esteem through urban dance.

Phunk Phenomenon has built a national profile: its adult crew competed on MTV's “America's Best Dance Crew,” and Briggs-Connor created the Boston Celtics Junior Dance Team, whose members regularly perform at TD Garden — a tradition the Boston Globe profiled in a 2023 behind-the-scenes feature.

But Chelsea has never been just Briggs-Connor's backstory. In 2019, Chelsea sisters Mya and Madyson Feliz — dancing at Phunk since age 5 — helped the studio's junior team win a USA national title, the same year Briggs-Connor announced a scholarship for Chelsea kids through the Trina Wilkerson Dance Foundation, named for her late best friend. In 2016, 13-year-old Chelsea resident Jazmine Johnson, a Phunk student, was selected to perform onstage with Justin Bieber at TD Garden. And in 2022, Briggs-Connor brought her dance team back to Chelsea Day in Bellingham Square, telling local reporters it felt good to return to a city that had supported her, and that she hoped the performance would encourage Chelsea kids to take up dance.

The studio also dances for a cause closer to home: Hip Hop for Hope, Phunk's ongoing effort to raise awareness and support research for Sanfilippo syndrome, the rare disease Briggs-Connor's son Jared was diagnosed with in 2007.

Phunk Phenomenon may be based in Everett. But its roots, and a fair amount of its heart, are still in Chelsea.