Francesca Balagtas, aka Fran, was born in San Francisco but raised in Las Vegas. She started dancing at the age of 4 doing tap and ballet. Throughout childhood and adolescence she added in other styles such as jazz, hip hop, street jazz, Hula, Tahitian, and Maori. At the age of 18, Fran moved back to her birthplace of San Francisco to study art in a BFA program for sculpture at San Francisco Art Institute. Although her studies were in visual arts, she always hungered for dance. She began dancing with many dance groups in San Francisco such as Bay Area Flash Mob, Sexitude, and Bay Area Dancers. After graduating from SFAI, she found herself getting back into k-pop music, something she had first discovered in high school. In 2017, Fran and her close friend, Patrick Santos, decided to start a K-pop dance class and group as a way to find other k-pop lovers who also want to dance. Thus K-Pop-Up was born and Fran has been teaching k-pop dance ever since! As k-pop has become such a universal phenomenon, it is Fran’s goal to always teach k-pop in a welcoming and inclusive way that is friendly to people of all dance levels. In addition to teaching K-pop around the San Francisco Bay Area, Fran is also a local drag performer known as Sassi Fran. Sassi Fran incorporates k-pop into many of her drag performances and hosts a quarterly Queer K-pop Dance Party/drag show to continue spreading the joys of k-pop music and dance.