We recently connected with James Dhaiti and have shared our conversation below.

James, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

When I auditioned for Kendrick Lamar’s Tour, the Choreographer(Charm Ladonna) was telling us how she was looking for more than just good dancer but people that can show emotions with the stance and posture. With that in mind, when it was time to perform the choreography in in small group I decided to stand still while everyone was freestyling. That caught her attention and I locked eyes with her for a good 3-5 seconds. After she broke the eye contact, I felt that if I did the choreo correctly I’ll have a chance to pass to the next round. Not only did I made it to the next round but I booked the tour !

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

My name is James Dhaïti, i’m a professionnal dancer born in Montreal, Canada who decided to moved to Los Angeles couples of years ago to follow his dream. I’ve discover my love for dance at the age of six and started doing it professionally for eight years now.

In my younger years, I’ve trained in a lot different style because my dance instructor always told me that if I want to do all the jobs I should be able to do everything. It’s by training in ballet, hip hop, dance hall, ballroom and many more that I realize how my love for dance was bigger than I tought and that I had to do this for as long as I can.

With all this training I got to work in different projects that forged me to be the dancer I am today! From being part of a Musical production like Mamma Mia, Mary Poppins and Fame, to traveling to africa to do a cirque show, to being a dancer on the mask singers, I was trying to do everything that has dance involved.

After Covid, I finally decide to start the process to get an Visa to be able to work in the United states as a dancer and see where ai could take this carreer. Fast forward 2 years from this moment and here I am, living in Los Angeles. I’ve toured the world twice with Kendrick Lamar, dance in Rihanna Superbowl Halftime show, perform with Black Pink at Coachella and at the VMA’s with Karol G.

Continuing to love dance a little bit more everyday and seeing where else dance is gonna take me!

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

The process of applying for a Visa, and the will of reapplying is what show my resilience and my love for dance. My first visa was a long 8 months process that was way harder psychologically that I would think. A lot of putting your ego aside to ask for help or just for someone to connect you with someone that can help you. Learning a different level of patience, when you’re waiting for an answer and it can take 1 hour for them to reply or 1 day or 1 week… The amount of proof that you need to provide could be very intimidating but doing a little everyday was the thing that saves me to procrastinate. I have to say that there’s no other feeling than recieving your approval of Visa after all these months of hard work!

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Especially arriving in Los Angeles, your talent (most of the time) is not the reason why you are book on a job. There’s so many good and excellent dancers in Los Angeles that it’s impossible to only rely in talent to be a constant booking dancer. Specially since Covid, there less in person audition, a lot of the jobs you get direct book or your have to send a self tape. Company and artist usually have a good idea of what there looking for so even in audition most of the time we’ll be type cast before dancing. They do this to filter us by what look they are looking for( height, sex, races, etc.)

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @jamesdhaiti
• Facebook: James Dhaïti
• Other: Tiktok: @james.dhaiti

Image Credits

Melika Dez