Today we’d like to introduce you to Christian Smith.
Hi Christian, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Ever since I was really young, I have had an extreme love for music. I’d say my love of dance began when I watched the filmed adaptation of the musical Cats. I was born in Orange County, CA, but grew up in Las Vegas, NV where I was surrounded by what seemed like an infinite sea of artistic opportunities.
As a result of my burning interest to flip around the house pretending I was one of the Jellicle Cats I saw on the screen, my mom took me to see my first Cirque du Soleil show on the Las Vegas strip. At the time, being an acrobat seemed to be my passion, so I enrolled in gymnastics. My mom also thought it would be wise to integrate a bit of rhythm into my training, so she enrolled me in some dance classes. This is where my passion was truly ignited. It didn’t take very long for dance to become my primary focus soon after this and I eventually dropped gymnastics and proceeded to focus all my efforts on as many different styles of dance as I could. I did the bulk of my dance training at a studio called, The Rock Center For Dance where I was able to participate in various professional performance opportunities and many dance competitions. After graduating high school, I attended college at the University of Southern California where I received my Bachelor’s in Fine Arts as a dance major. The dance program at USC is where I think I found myself the most artistically and where my ambitions became better realized. Currently, as a postgraduate, I have chosen to remain in Los Angeles to pursue my dance career. I am currently signed with Bloc Talent Agency and do commercial dance work whenever the opportunities present themselves. I also work for the Break The Floor dance convention chain, specifically Jump Dance Convention, and teach dance classes at local dance studios in Los Angeles. My true ambitions lie in the creative process where I would love to focus my efforts on choreography for both the stage and screen with the aim to create thoughtful works that challenge the boundaries of what is considered possible and impossible.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It definitely was not. There were many struggles along the way. The first was that dance training and all of its amenities were really expensive and my family was financially struggling toward the beginning of my journey, so the reality of dance being a career seemed very unlikely. Another was the expected backlash from my traditional family because no one in my family is a dancer or pursues a career in art at least full-time. My biggest supporter is my mom who raised me as a single mother for a significant portion of my childhood prior to her meeting my stepdad. She is the one who made it all possible despite all the challenges she faced trying to keep my dream, her own dreams, and our financial stability afloat simultaneously with little to no support from anyone else. I think seeing how hard she was fighting to make my dream a reality was the catalyst that made me feel as though I have to work for my dreams even fiercer than anyone else because I could not let her efforts go in vain.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a dancer who specializes in Ballet, Jazz, Contemporary, Hip-hop, and Modern. I also dabble in other dance forms, but I wouldn’t say I have enough movement knowledge of those forms to say I am extremely proficient in them. I am most proud of my deep understanding of the dance forms that I do and my ability to either switch between them efficiently or combine my knowledge of them to generate fusions of forms. I think this sets me apart from other dancers because generally, most dancers dedicate more time to their preferred dance forms, but my goal is to be equally proficient in various dance forms. I also think tackling the dance world through the lens of a scholar helps me better appreciate these dance forms not just in the prowess of each dance form’s execution but also in appreciation of the cultures from which they originate because I’ve learned that truly understanding why each dance form looks the way it does and where they come from better equips me to understand them deeper and in turn execute different movement ideas more effectively. I also think my various perspectives of dance forms also create a unique element to my choreography as well since I have so much diverse information to pull inspiration from and express myself with.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I feel a child-like curiosity in conjunction with an unrelenting tenacity is what I’ve found, has attributed to the successes I have found thus far. Forever feeling like I know nothing and will never know everything while simultaneously striving to obtain every bit of infinite knowledge that exists without fail is what I believe keeps me on a path toward what I can only hope is success in my endeavors.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xtian.smith
Image Credits
Bailey Hansen Rose Eichenbaum
