Q: How did you begin dancing?

My mom owns a performing arts school in New Jersey. I grew up in the studio as my day care center. My two older brothers dance, too. For me, it is something I always wanted to do. It was never even a question. I just wanted to go to school and then go to dance until 11’oclock at night. I have been in class since I was three. At 10, my older brother wanted to audition in NYC and my mom and I went with him to the management office. They were the ones that looked at me and asked if I wanted to do this. I kind of just said sure, let’s try it out. I began auditioning in the city and saw it as a fun way to get out of New Jersey. I started taking classes in the city with new teachers. I never really saw it as a big leap, but it all started because I just happened to be along for the ride and it grew from there. A month into auditioning, I hit a niche as a 10-year-old musical theater dancer, and I was in the city three to four times a week after school. Looking back it is crazy to think about. Back then it seemed like the norm, but now I can’t imagine taking the train from New Jersey into NYC everyday while going to school.


Q: What has dance taught you that you have applied to your everyday life and how you engage in the world?
‍
What comes to mind is how to listen and communicate with people. With politics and now with social media, you can get disconnected. I think social media can connect, but is not 100 percent real. I think acting has taught me how to connect, and dance has taught me how to be myself in the world, to not let any factors keep me away from that.


Q: Has dance/acting helped you overcome any hardships in your life?
‍
Growing up, I come from a rural part of New Jersey — there is a buffalo farm nearby. In my high school, there was one other boy who danced, but he was a b-boy. Socially, growing up was difficult. I danced and did sports. Starting in the business when I was 10, it created a disconnect from me and my peers. When I was 10, I booked a six-month Broadway show. People would call me “Broadway Boy” — it was not a warm feeling when people called me that. It had weird connotations to it. The performing arts gave me the space to get away from that. Growing up, I completely separated my two lives. I had school and never talked about my career in the city, and then I would have the dance and working side of myself. Dance helped me through those years where kids would turn their chins up at me when I would go into the city and pursue dance. By the end of high school, people started thinking what I did was cool, so I was able to blend my two worlds. It helped me grow up and see the world and culture at a young age. Dance has always helped me in every aspect of my life — even now with COVID, I have been dancing every day because it helps me cope, distract, and remove myself. 


Q: What other interests and passions do you have outside of dance that influence and inspire your artistry?
‍
I love teaching. I love teaching younger kids. People think it may be hard to teach younger students — and it is sometimes. But I get the most fulfillment out of teaching younger kids dance. It is so light-hearted. There is no insecurity. They don't worry about how they look. They just go for it, which is inspiring for me to see. I also love rock climbing and bouldering. I recently started cooking… I love to longboard too. I like hiking. I like to get out of the city to go on hikes. I do like to read as well. When I read, I really commit for a month and read a few books then take some time off. I feel like when you are a dancer, everything you do is to help the one vessel of dance. 


Q: What have been some challenges in your pre-professional and professional career?
‍
Flexibility. That was a joke, but still pretty real too. Money has been a challenge. It is such a hard thing to be a part of and throw money at when the chance of reward is not guaranteed. Many times, I have had to work at restaurants to get by, but it keeps me from missing callbacks, classes, and auditions. When I moved to Los Angeles, I worked at a restaurant six days a week, 10 hour days, and the manager would argue with me because I had to skip work for auditions many times. And I would say, “Look, I’m sorry, this is my dream — this is what I do.” So yeah, money has been an object, which I hate, because I always try to make it not an object, but it is.


Q: How can dance be a platform for social justice issues?

I think a lot of the time with the news, words can fail. I don't think words connect to everyone, and arts and dance is a way to pull someone out of their body and show them a different perspective and light on issues like social justice. I think when people read things they often are not inspired to act. Last night, we were watching a COVID-19 special and it was very informative, but then there was a moment where it was just this video with someone doing spoken word over it and we all started crying. We all sat in the feeling of what we are all going through now. That is telling. Art can hit the soul, it hits differently.


Q: How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected you as a performing artist? (community, financially, initial reactions, company shift, online class, emotions, initial cancellation reaction) 

I am currently out of work. I was doing ‘West Side Story’ on Broadway, which is a house of 2,200 people. We got closed down pretty quickly. I have been out of work for four weeks now. I am not getting paid, but I am teaching online classes for my mom’s online studio. She is even having trouble with her work. I was in the city for two weeks, and then I left the city and went to an AirBnB to quarantine for two weeks because my dad has a bad immune system. Now I just got back to my parents house.

Initial cancellation reactions:
We were all shocked. We couldn't believe it.  But we knew we needed to do this for public safety. Initially we were a little excited, because we did two and a half months of previews for West Side — which is unheard of. Typically Broadway shows… do a four week lab to get material on its feet. After that, usually Broadway shows go to another city — Chicago, Atlanta, and they do one month of rehearsals and two months of shows. If producers have the money to, they skip that and go right to Broadway after the lab. They may do a two month preview process, and that's what ‘West Side’ did. Previews, you have Monday off, then Tuesday through Sunday you do shows, then you do shows Saturday through Monday. For a month or a few weeks, we had no days off. We did press shoots and interviews to market the show. It was long and grueling but the product is so cool and different and inspiring. It is a wonderful revival of ‘West Side Story.’ We went through one of our main characters getting an injury, so we pushed back opening. We did 12 hour days for two and half months and then were only open for a month and then we were shut down. We sort of needed a little bit of a break. We thought it would be a two week break, but then it settled in that Broadway closed. With Broadway, you are so attached to the work and the cast, and it's hard to think you won't see that cast family for who knows how long. That sadness has started to settle in. 


What social changes and responsibilities have you seen people making during the pandemic? Do you think the pandemic will make us a more socially conscious society?

People have been communicating way more than they used to. People call and it's more than a check up now. People are genuinely talking to people and connecting on a different level than we usually do. We are going through something that is hard, and it's important to really check in on others. I think people have been opening their hearts to care more about their friends. When you work on a show or are in school, you see some people everyday — whether you speak to them or not, you can see how they are doing. I think me and others are connecting over FaceTime with people who they normally wouldn't. I feel like people are broadening their love and connective circles.


Q: Using the idea of “worldmaking” how do you imagine the performing arts world after the pandemic? (Worldmaking: How you can re-imagine the world in your own terms, the way you want it to be. Using this tool one can construct new worlds and write themselves into narratives that have excluded them and systems that have disabled them.)

I see packed Broadway houses and more social projects, like inspired events that the performers put on for themselves to gather and perform. The Broadway community is very giving, but I see a lot more people making their own work. I see more work being made and more collaboration between artists and just an overall more connection. I see a world of people who are more communicative. I hope that once everything starts back up, it is filled-houses. I don't know when it will be, but I think once we can get back Broadway shows, people will run to see art on the stage again.