Today we’d like to introduce you to Elliot You.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Elliot. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My journey with dance started very late as I didn’t start dancing until college. According to my mom and some home videos my dad recorded, I was a dancer from the start. I would watch live performance videos of K-pop stars on television and reenact/perform the dances as soon as I could walk. This did not last long as I have no recollection of these memories at any point in my life. Looking back at the timeline of my life, it’s interesting to see how everything I was involved in played a crucial factor in shaping into the dancer I am now. In order to understand my journey, we have to visit my first two passions.
My first love was music. Around the age of 10, I had asked my mom if I could start taking violin lessons (I have no idea why I chose violin out of all the instruments I could’ve asked to learn). I started out very slow but kept at it and eventually went semi-pro as I would gig and perform with orchestras. During my progression as a violinist, an interest for learning other instruments arose. I ended up teaching myself how to play the piano and guitar. I also learned how to play the trumpet and drums and played in concert and jazz bands throughout middle and high school. Music was my passion. Any free time I had would be dedicated to playing all these different instruments. I soon started to compose and produce music with an electric keyboard that I had. Music spoke to my soul, but I realized that I did not necessarily enjoy practicing as much. I did not want to pursue music as a profession as it was something I really enjoyed but could not see myself investing my life into as a career.
Basketball was my second love. I didn’t necessarily choose basketball as a sport that I was genuinely interested in. My childhood best friend, Stephen, and I used to hang out every weekend at each other’s house to play video games. Our doctors told us that we needed to start being more active as we were overweight and unhealthy so out of all the sports our parents offered, we picked basketball. When we started, Stephen and I were the worst on our teams, but our coach was so inspiring that it led us to practice for hours every day. We worked our way to being able to play for our middle and high school basketball teams. I was so passionate about basketball that I had dreams of playing in the NBA. During my senior year, I realized that I enjoyed playing basketball but did not want it to be my career.
I believe that failure is important. Failure teaches you things that success cannot. Early in my senior year, I applied to a few local colleges in the state of North Carolina with UNC Chapel Hill being my top choice. My teachers, friends, and even my parents all had no doubt that I was going to be accepted as my grades, extracurricular activities, and SAT scores were all well above the median acceptance range. To our surprise, I was put on the waitlist. This was sad for me as most of my close friends were going to attend UNC Chapel Hill. However, I was accepted into North Carolina State University which was one of my backups. Growing up, my mother had always asked me if I had tried my best and hardest at whatever I was doing. I would typically answer “no” and she would tell me that if I try my absolute best and I don’t achieve a particular goal, then I should not be upset as I gave it my all. She told me that if I didn’t try my best, then I should not be upset because it was my own fault that I decreased my chances of accomplishing whatever goal. This moment was an eye opening one as I had finally experienced what my mother had been saying.
A mantra that I believe in strongly is “everything happens for a reason.” In the moment, we may not understand why things happen the way they do, but hindsight, it is often very clear. When I found out that I was not going to the same college that all of my close friends were attending I was bummed. I was not excited to attend my back up school. Little did I know that going to North Carolina State University was where I would start my dance journey. I moved into my dorm a week before classes started and spent most of my time on campus playing basketball at the school’s gym. While playing pick-up games, a couple of players asked me if I was interested in trying out for the school’s club team. I was definitely interested as it would be a way for me to continue playing basketball competitively in college. Later that week, I happened to discover dance studios on the 2nd floor of the school’s recreation center. I walked into one of the empty studios and stared at myself in the mirror and tried to execute a body roll and arm wave (2 of the things I tried learning through YouTube videos). The door opened and a girl walked in and asked me if I danced. I replied with a resounding “no” and she then proceeded to ask me if I was interested in learning how to dance. Before I could respond, she told me to come audition for a hip-hop dance crew. The audition date and time for the dance audition was the same as the basketball tryouts. Basketball was something I was much more skilled at and was more passionate about at the time, but my heart told me to go to the dance audition.
My dance audition went horribly. I walked in with no experience and was absolutely terrified. It was my first time taking a dance class and I had so many questions as to what I was learning, what I was doing, what I looked like, and so much more. We finally walked into the room in groups of 3 to audition in front of the board. We had to perform facing away from the mirrors and I froze midway through my audition. The board let us dance the piece one more time and told us to freestyle if we forgot the moves. I messed up and froze again. I walked out feeling so defeated and was quick to dismiss any future I had in dance. I thought to myself “maybe it’s better to watch dance rather than do it.” I received an e-mail later that evening saying that I made it past the first round and to come to day 2 of auditions the following morning. I laughed in utter shock and went to day 2. We learned another combination and auditioned again. This time, I fumbled my way through the piece and “freestyled” at the end. I had no idea what I was doing. All I remember was flailing my arms and throwing my body randomly to the music. I walked out feeling a bit better about myself but still had no hopes of actually making the team. Everybody that was at the audition had some sort of dance experience and was amazing compared to me. Later that evening, I received a phone call saying that I had made it onto the team. At that moment, my heart jolted and I felt a joy that I had never felt before. A big part of the reason I made the team was because they wanted more male dancers which was fine with me. I knew going into my first practice that I was the most novice dancer on the team. I felt like I did not truly deserve being on the team so I pushed myself to work as hard as I possibly could to “earn my spot.”
Not long after I joined the team, I was introduced to a dance organization called KODACHROME. The organization’s mission was to “expose dance” through holding monthly workshops across the state of North Carolina. I attended my first workshop in October of 2012 at Wake Forest University. One of the reasons that I fell so deep into dance so early was because of the warmth and welcoming vibe of everyone at the workshop. I could feel a strong sense of community, hunger, and passion resonating throughout the whole room. I was greeted at the door by one of the leaders and co-founders of KODACHROME NC, David Curameng, where he asked for my name. Later during the workshop, he came up to me and addressed me by name which meant the world to me as I did not know anybody in the room other than some of my crew members. David’s hospitality and personality pushed me over the edge to dive deeper into my dance training. I then proceeded to attend every workshop that year as I was hungry to keep growing as a dancer and make new friends. It’s crazy to think how at my first KODACHROME workshop, I met D-Ray Colson who is currently someone I work with in Atlanta. What a small world.
Throughout the years, I took classes all over North Carolina and would often travel up to Virginia to attend workshops. Since the moment I started dancing, I felt an immediate connection with it. Even if I was horrible and had no idea what I was doing, I felt a joy that nothing else in life had ever brought me. Since I was young, I always loved learning new things, setting goals for myself, and working as hard as I could until I accomplished them. My mindset has always been “if I put my mind to it and work hard enough, I can accomplish anything.” It wasn’t a matter of IF I could do something. It was a matter of WHEN I would accomplish it. I was exposed to the idea of dance as a profession through some friends that I met through workshops. They were actively pursuing dance as a professional career. As soon as I heard that it was a career, I couldn’t help but imagine if I could make a profession out of it since I loved it so much. I was always embarrassed of sharing my desire to become a professional dancer as everyone else that was pursuing it had many more years of experience than I did. I was scared that people would laugh at me if they knew that I wanted to pursue dance professionally.
I made my first visit to California in 2014. I wanted to visit to train and to see if LA was a potential place to move to. My parents would not allow me to visit for dance so I applied for a number of internships and landed a music internship in Burbank. I worked part-time from early morning to early/mid afternoon so I could take classes in the afternoon/evening. On average, I would take four classes a day. On my second day, I took a contemporary class and the teacher said something that resonated so strongly with me. She talked about how we are judged everywhere we go and that her dance class is the one place that we should not feel judged. This one phrase “don’t give a f about what anybody thinks about you” hit me really hard. This was the moment when I asked myself why I care about what people thought about me. From this point on, I stopped caring about messing up in class and started to enjoy taking class more. This mental hurdle that I overcame was the reason why I grew so much more. As soon as I landed back home, I knew that this is where I wanted to be.
Up to this point, my parents were always reminding me to focus on school. They knew that I spent a lot of time dancing but did not know that I wanted to pursue it professionally. I would lie to my parents about my whereabouts and pull out cash from my bank account to attend workshops throughout North Carolina and the DMV. My mom would track my bank statements and knew if I wasn’t at school. I didn’t think my parents would ever support my dreams of pursuing dance which definitely made the journey much harder.
In July of 2015, everything changed. I claimed to be Christian as I had gone to church my whole life up until college. Once I started college, I stopped going to church as frequently and started to question a lot about the faith. Not only did I feel lost in faith, but also felt lost in life. The only thing I was passionate about at the time was dance. I did not want to do anything other than dance. I felt like I was still struggling to grow past certain physical and mental barriers. I would watch myself dancing on videos and get upset because I felt like my hard work wasn’t resulting in as much growth as I wanted. I was impatient. I wanted to be at level 100 when I had only been putting enough time and work to be at level 10. I had to realize that it took time to get to where I wanted to be. I felt hopeless and discouraged and for the first time, I questioned if dance was something I could pursue professionally and succeed at. The level of hopelessness I felt was so drastic that I resorted to praying to God which I hadn’t done in years. While my faith was close to nonexistent, I prayed and asked God for a sign. I prayed, “Hey God, I want to dance more than anything but I don’t know if this is my calling. I don’t know if this is my God-given purpose. I don’t know the reason why you put me on this earth so give me a sign, please. If you tell me that dance is not my calling, I will give it up and do whatever you have called me to do.” I was ready to give up on my dreams. I wasn’t expecting much from the prayer as my faith wasn’t strong at all, but I felt like I had run out of hope.
A few days after my prayer, my family and I went on a vacation to Charlotte, NC. We were at a mall when my dad asked me what I wanted to do after college in terms of a career. I asked him if he wanted to hear the truth or what he wanted to hear. When he responded saying that he wanted to hear the truth, I told him that I wanted to pursue dance. He then asked me to go into detail and share some goals with him. This genuinely confused me as I was not sure as to why he was asking about this all of a sudden. We then sat down in the food court and my mom hopped into the conversation. She asked me to share my goals as well so I listed some of them. My mom said “that’s it? Those are the highest goals you have?” I paused for a second and asked what my mom meant. She replied telling me that I need to shoot higher and set goals that go far beyond just accomplishing such milestones. I was so moved as I had just indirectly heard from my mother that she wanted me to pursue my goals and more. I apologized to my parents saying that I wish I was passionate about something other than dance as it would’ve been easier for me to receive support from them. To my surprise, they replied “Elliot, we are happy that you have something you are passionate about. Some people don’t find what they’re passionate about at all.” Following this statement was the one that changed my life. My mom and dad spoke these words to me, “Elliot, we support you if you want to pursue dance.” At this moment, I felt a pressure that shut my eyes closed and I started crying uncontrollably. The ugliest cry of my life. I thanked my parents and then ran to the bathroom. The first thing I did when I walked into the bathroom was close my eyes and pray to God. I thanked God for this incredible sign and answer to my prayer.
God did not stop there. There was a dance convention in Orlando a few days away from the day my parents gave me their approval but I didn’t have enough money to attend. Somehow, I came up with $325 in 2 days (from old checks from gigs and some money from my parents) and was able to attend the Monsters Dance Convention in Orlando, Florida. As soon as I arrived to the hotel, I immediately prayed to God and thanked him for providing me with the money to attend the convention. But God didn’t stop there. There was an audition on the final day of the convention which I attended and received my first scholarship. This happened way quicker than I had expected because all of the people that I looked up to that had received scholarships from this convention had been dancing for about five years on average. I set my goal to receive my first scholarship about five years into dancing but I received my first one a little over two and a half years into dancing. If this wasn’t the clearest sign, I don’t know what else could have been. God had answered my prayer and had given me my parent’s approval, $325 to attend the dance convention, and my first scholarship. I publicly mentioned my faith for the first time on social media as I posted on Instagram about what God had done in my life.
Fast forward to 2017 when I booked my first job as a professional dancer and signed with 411 South Talent Agency in Atlanta, Georgia. I attended a dance convention called Elementz where I was scouted and invited to a closed audition for a movie called Night School. I booked the job and signed with the agency a couple of months later. Once again, the mantra “everything happens for a reason” comes into play as God kept me from graduating in 2016 and moving straight to LA by blessing me with opportunities in Atlanta. I spent 2018 balancing school and dancing professionally. It was tough, but I did it. I was able to make the Dean’s list both semesters which was a big accomplishment for me. I graduated in December of 2018 but had to retake one final which kept me in North Carolina for a little bit longer. On June 4th of 2019, I moved to Atlanta, Georgia and have been dancing and teaching full-time.
Great, 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?
My journey was not easy as I dealt with many personal hurdles. My parents were not supportive of pursuing dance as a career and I had to overcome many mental roadblocks such as not caring about what others thought of me, not comparing myself to others, being patient with my growth, and gaining confidence. My confidence doesn’t come from me thinking I’m good at dancing. It comes from the fact that I know that there is nobody else in this world that can dance like me. I am unique and what I have to offer is authentic to me.
One of my biggest struggles was graduating. I did not graduate college in four years like most people. It took me six and a half years. Once I started dancing, I focused all of my time and energy into it. When I realized that I wanted to pursue it as a profession, I focused even less on school. At one point, I didn’t attend any classes for the whole semester. There were many times that I was on academic probation or suspension because I didn’t go to my classes. It wasn’t until 2017 when my parents found out that I wasn’t attending classes. They convinced me to reapply as I was under academic suspension at the time. I found my own personal motivation to go back to school and was able to finish out my last year with the best grades of my college career all while balancing dancing professionally.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I am a professional dancer and teacher. With dancing, I would say that I am very versatile when it comes to styles which also influences my versatility as a teacher. The content that I teach varies from class to class as I incorporate many different styles in my choreography. As a teacher, I specialize in musicality, weight shifts, experimenting with textures, and musical interpretation. What sets me apart from others is my ability to listen to and interpret music through my movement. I am most proud of my ability to empower and inspire people all around the world through my dancing and teaching.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
When I reflect on my childhood, I can’t help but think about the time I got to spend with my dad. I can vividly picture myself sitting on my dad’s shoulders as we wandered through the food court in the mall every Saturday. Each week when we would pass the Cinnabon booth and the man behind the counter would say hi to us and to offer me a free cinnamon roll. As the weeks passed, I became more and more excited for our Saturday tradition. Even the few times that my dad went without me, he would never fail to return home with a cinnamon roll. While this fueled my addiction to Cinnamon rolls, what I really value from these memories is the special bond that was created between my father and I.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.elliotyjyou.com
- Phone: 919-815-4244
- Email: elliotyjyou@gmail.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/elliotyjyou
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/elliotyjyou
- Other: www.youtube.com/elliotyjyou
Image Credit:
James Alonzo White, Matthew Seong, Jay Prob, Jeff Kravitz
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