Daily Inspiration: Meet Renato Gamez Jr.

Today we’d like to introduce you to Renato Gamez Jr.

Hi Renato, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I started dancing when I was about 16 years old. It all began in my high school dance team, which got me introduced to competitive dance where I joined a dance studio as part of their team and competed with them for a year. It was kind of like being thrown into something full force without thinking twice. Before I knew it, I was auditioning for the University of Arizona’s dance program, made it in, and went to study there for the next four years majoring with a BFA in Dance.

I knew I always wanted to move to Los Angeles and dance seemed to be the perfect catapult to take me there. I moved in 2016, and in that year, I found the dance agency that I am still currently with, I started taking classes, auditioning, and from there my journey began.

I am where I am at today because of a lot of hard work, a lot of perseverance, and trust. I definitely skid away from dance for a couple of years when I found myself lost in this big city. Stepping away from dance was probably the best thing that could have happened to me because it allowed me to set my priorities straight, and I learned a lot of things outside of dance such as business and budgeting skills, and also how to make friends and partners in other fields of work. It became clear that dance was not only a release for me and an art form but also a business I was creating which allowed to me really treat it as such. I became more aware of my values, of what I wanted in life, and how I was going to create it so here I am, 6 years later from when I moved to LA, with my most successful year yet as a dancer, as a human, and as a business.

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?
Doing something that you love, something that is important to you, and different from the common journey of your family or society is never easy and there has been plenty of obstacles along the way.

One of the biggest obstacles has been my own mind and my own fears. Paving out a path for yourself and being your own boss is difficult in the sense of keeping yourself accountable and making things happen. Also living in LA, there is constant stimulation of events going around, socialization, distractions, and also on the other end, not feeling you are doing enough or feeling of missing out on opportunities. This has been where I had to take a step back and really re-evaluate what it is I am doing and why.

It went way further than my initial thought of what I thought working as a dancer would be. I started realizing that I want to build something of my own. I want to be better and bigger than my previous year. I want good financial gain to be able to pour gifts to my family, friends, my business, and myself. I want to constantly be in a position where I am learning new skills and somewhere I am deemed useful and effective.

Once I figured out those values of mine, I looked at dance and my career differently. I was able to give more attention and focus on specific areas that started to jump-start my career as an artist. I gave it more time, and more investment and I started saying YES to more; yes to opportunities, yes to the people around me, and yes to my life.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a dance/visual artist, a choreographer, a creative director, and also a brand ambassador/product specialist. I state all of these descriptions because I do all of these things and have learned them along the way but also because it shows that there is so much more than I ever expected to be from when I moved out to LA and said “I want to be a professional dancer.” I am proud that I have been able to learn all of these skills and can use them all to stay busy with work and build my career.

I specialize in movement of all kinds whether it is a fusion of contemporary movement with jazz-funk or hip hop or heels, I specialize in roller skating with dancing, and I also specialize in improvisation or freestyle. I feel I do my best on a job or enjoy it the most when I have creative control to freestyle in front of a visual location or space. I also have worked as a creative director in dance shoots, photo shoots, and product activations so, in that world, I specialize in small details, organization, and overall look and feel of things.

This year what I am most proud of is the work that I have been able to do on TV/Film and for getting to work with one of my favorite artists. For the longest time, I kept saying that I want to switch my attention to be able to work and dance more often on big TV/Film productions. This year specifically I said that my goal would be to book at least one big job in TV/Film and once I did, I switched it to 3 jobs which I currently have completed 2 out of 3! My next biggest goal was to get to work with Christina Aguilera and to work more in the Latin market to represent my roots and make my family proud. In the last year and a half, I got to finally work with Christina on two different music videos AND it was on her new Spanish Album that she released after a 20-year hiatus of not releasing Spanish music.

There are so many beautiful artists out here in LA and in the world that it’s almost hard for me to ask myself, ‘What does set me apart from everyone else?” Everyone has great talent and can provide so much creativity, and I am constantly surrounded by it all which is incredible. What I can say is that I am professional when it comes to working, I work really hard to show up for the people around me and for myself, I am very quick at learning what needs to be done, I am super observant, and can catch small details that I need to do or change, I am proactive, reliable, and I do my best to always show up awake with good energy to share around the room.

On a side note apart from dance work I know I mentioned that I also do Brand Ambassador work which I wanted to quickly elaborate on. I found this line of work when I was looking to create better finances in my life. I came to realize pretty fast that I really enjoyed it. I had developed business and social skills from when I was really young having to hustle and work for money at a young age and when I came out to LA, I was so focused on dance that I forgot about that. Fast forward to this year, I was working an event doing my thing, and I had the privilege of meeting Tyra Banks and Louis Martin which in turn, got me connected, and I began working closely with them and the team as their brand ambassador for Smize Cream. I’ve gotten to also help manage a project and work on the production side of things.

I am proud and grateful that I have two different platforms, Dance and Brand Ambassador work, that I am constantly able to be creative with, get travel around the world and get to learn valuable life skills.

Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
There have been many books and podcasts that have helped get me in the right mindset when I needed it or have helped me with educating myself.

It’s funny too because I never liked reading or ever read really anything growing up. In 2019, I went through major changes in my life and was learning a lot so I started picking up some books and ended up reading around 20 books in the last four months of the year.

-Here were some of my favorites books:

The Road Less Traveled
13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do
Big Magic
Fierce Conversations
The Magic of Thinking Big
The Power of Now
You Can If You Think You Can
The Go-Giver
The Gift of Fear
The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork
Brain on Fire
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

-Favorite Podcasts:

The Mindset Mentor with Rob Dial
Words That Move Me with Dana Wilson

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/renamor__/
• TikTok: @renamor__

Image Credits
Alissa Roseborough and Lee Gumbs