We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Darrell Rivera. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Darrell below.

Darrell, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

i knew i wanted to become a professional dancer when i felt how good it feels personally. dancing gives me so much emotional passion where i can express myself freely.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

my name is darrell rivera and i am dancer/choreographer based in Las Vegas. I started dancing when i was 18. i was taking local dance classes and working with local dance crews. I mainly started dancing because all my friends were doing it. But, i personally fell in love with and how it made me feel. When i was 22 i started to pursue dance professionally. so far i have danced for salt-n-pepa, demi lavato, xtina aguilera, shania twain, and donny osmond. Currently, i am the choreographer for the show Thunder Down Under and I am an instructor at Millennium Dance Complex Las Vegas. What i am most proud about in my career are my classes. When i first started teaching I only had about 5-10 students coming. Now, I average 40-50 students per class. I’m proud & grateful for the support I receive.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

during my whole 20s i wasn’t booking anything major. I was doing small jobs here and there, but nothing major like award shows or back up dancing for artists. I was actually dropped by 2 different agencies because i wasn’t booking enough. It came to a point where i actually quit dance and got a regular job as a front desk agent. 2 years i was a front desk agent and i hated my life. I eventually quit and then tried with dance again. I told myself I have to make it somehow someway. I started filming my classes and shooting dance videos of my choreography on my off days. I wanted to push my content out to the world so i could be seen. Luckily, one day Ellen Degeneres saw one of my videos on youtube and invited the kids I taught to perform on the show. From that point I was finally getting recognition for my work and started booking bigger jobs.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

we are not rich!!! haha we are broke! what people see, especially when we are back up dancing for an artists, its not everything you believe. majority of us are actually not making that much compared to an artists. the most i made with an artist is $2k a week and that’s not a lot compared to someone who is a doctor or lawyer. what we do as dancers is amazing and looks amazing. But, the perception of us having a “rich” lifestyle is false. I want everyone to understand that dancers truly choose this profession because they LOVE it. we love it so much that we would do it for free.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: dareal08
• Youtube: dareal08