Check Out Alec Dahmer’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alec Dahmer.

Hi Alec, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started out dancing in my hometown in Ontario, Canada, because my older sister danced, so I was just always around the dance studio. Fast forward eight years and dance is all I can think about, that is until I audition for my first professional production and get a callback. My parents realized how serious I take dance and performing as a career and helped me get an agent who then sends me on acting auditions all the time. Then my passion took a slight shift towards acting. Fast forward another three years, and I landed my first lead character in a television show, a show called “Bajillionaires” that aired for one season on Family Channel in Canada and NBC Universal Kids in the United States. That was the real start of my career, my skills refined, my taste refined, and I was becoming an adult in this industry, not just a kid anymore. I move out of my parent’s house on my own, and I’m auditioning all the time. I slowly get more and more small jobs and I seem to be gaining momentum and then comes COVID. With all that time on my hands, I really got to take a closer look at my career and how it has or has not been aligning with my goals and passions.

Through much thinking, I eventually decided to take a step back from dance and focus entirely on acting, and from that decision came the decision to train. I enrolled in the two-year Conservatory program at the Terry Knickerbocker studio in Brooklyn, NYC, and absolutely loved every second. I came out of that program an entirely different person and more ready than ever to work in the acting industry. That space invited and encouraged me to be myself and gave me the tools I needed to be the best artist I can. Right out of school, I was fortunate enough to do an immersive dance theatre show with Bo Park and her company Shinsa. We did three weeks or so of rehearsals into two weeks of performances. That was a month ago and since then, I have started warming up to getting back into the industry, I have been doing small performances with friends for small projects, and I have been exploring where and when I want to work and why.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Of course, it has not been a smooth road, but I think that I have had amazing mentors who have helped me follow those curve balls of life, which has only led to good things. Moving to a new country is terrifying, not being able to make money on a student visa and watching my savings dwindle is terrifying, jobs falling through is terrifying; in fact, so much of this industry is terrifying because it lies in the unknown of what comes next. And that’s really hard! It’s hard to look at your calendar for the next year and not have a single solid job written down and not know how you are gonna make ends meet. But somehow, with enough trust and perseverance, you make those ends meet and at the end of the year, you look back at the calendar and see that it ended up being full of wonderful opportunities, experiences, and jobs.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am an actor/dancer/clown/artist! So many things! I really have spent a lot of time working on mastering multiple crafts! Dance was my first passion, so I have a lot of skills in the dance world. One thing that really sets me apart from others in the dance world is my commitment to moving how I want to move. I truly believe that dance is supposed to be fun, so whenever I dance, I make sure that I’m having fun, and sometimes, that leads to me doing the moves a little differently than others. BUT that ends with me showing my true self and being so authentic with my movement that people can’t help but watch me. In terms of the acting world, I come from a comedy background, but I have been focusing and training so hard in the dramatic field the past couple of years that I feel like I can tackle any and all characters thrown at me. I also have been in the industry of acting for so long that I know the industry like the back of my hand, which lets me focus on my storytelling and my craft rather than “what the industry wants”. I think what I’m most proud of is that no matter what craft you see me doing, I am using my tools from all my training. I use acting tools to help with my dance, I use dance tools to help with my acting, I use clown tools all day, and I think it’s the marriage of all these backgrounds that helps elevate my uniqueness.

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Follow your heart! I know it’s cheesy, but life is short, so don’t take the easy path; take the path you want to take. I was dancing so much up until COVID because I was an established dancer in my local scene, so someone always wanted to work with me, BUT I really wanted to act. I was wanting to act with my whole being, yet I was only doing dance jobs because they were easier to get. Did I make money? Sure. Did I do some cool jobs? Yes! But I wasn’t fulfilling my goals, and I wasn’t fully happy. COVID gave me time to re-examine what I wanted to do and let me focus myself towards my true goals.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alecdahmer/

Image Credits
Terry Knickerbocker Studio (photos with TK watermark), Geo Mantilla, Kara Lee