SESQUI HORIZON – HIP HOP DANCER

I’m an actor and a dancer and a choreographer.

What makes me tick? Creating. I’ve always been around the Arts; my Dad is a Jazz musician my Mom also is a musician, a singer and a massage therapist. So I grew up in a very artsy family and creating was always something that I loved doing. I started out, actually, not really in the arts, more so in athletics. I grew up in Calgary, so I started out playing hockey and I did martial arts and I was always playing an instrument, mainly drums. But seeing my Dad and seeing how focused he was in his work – he would go to work and then he would come home and he would practice and he would rehearse, and seeing that focus and that drive is a lot of what pushes me today. Seeing his work ethic, which was just unstoppable.

Work ethic. That’s number one. You’ve got to have that, in my opinion. Whenever I talk to people about careers in the arts, you’ve got to be outstanding in what you do. There’s no question; you just have to be. There’s no point in trying to have that lucky moment, or being in the right place at the right time. Luck obviously plays a part in it, as it does with any career, but you need to be fantastic at what you do. That’s the only way you can ensure continued growth and success in your field.

And in Canada, there’s a growing arts community and there’s a lot of opportunity, but it’s not Hollywood, so you have to be that much better, in my opinion. You’ve really got to be able to stand out and you have to be able to roll with the punches and grind, and be that driving force so that when people see your work, they’re like “Yeah, we gotta work with that person.”