We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nancy Rivera Gomez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Nancy , 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.

There have been many risks that I have taken in my life, but the most memorable one that changed my dance career was in 2021 when I was still waiting to hear if my visa would be approved or not. I was not able to leave the country during the pandemic, and it was the first Christmas I was going to spend away from my family. There was nothing going on in Los Angeles in the dance industry because it was still recovering from the pandemic.

I went to Miami for the first time in the summer of 2021 to take an intensive course from one of my favorite Latin choreographers, CULTURA. I was there for a month and made great connections. I came back recharged and booked two music videos while I was there. Fast forward to when I returned to LA, I started working with a small artist in some music videos and was about to do a show in NYC. However, a month before the show, I dislocated my knee badly in a dance class and had to rest in bed. I was learning choreography from videos and, a few weeks into the month, wanted to attend rehearsals in person to feel the formations. Suddenly, about three weeks before the show, I saw an audition flyer on Instagram from the choreographer Hamilton Evans for Don Omar, the king of reggaeton, in Miami. I flew myself to that audition the weekend of October 30, 2021. It was a crazy audition. I had my recently dislocated knee with a knee brace and some KT tape. My doctor recommended against it, saying it was too risky, but I meditated for three days prior, and as a kid, Don Omar was and is my favorite reggaeton artist. I had been in bed for a month before this audition, so I was nervous but excited at the same time. There were more than 200 women in that room, but I was very focused and calm in my mind. After the audition, I was called back and told that I would hear in a couple of days if I made it or not. I returned to LA just grateful for the experience and that my body was even able to push further. Thankfully, I made it and booked my first world tour with a leap of faith. My first big job in the industry, and it couldn’t have been with any other artist—literally my favorite of all time. Sometimes you just have to throw yourself into the unknown and give it your all. You never know the surprises life can throw back at you.

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

My name is Nancy Rivera. I am originally from Autlán de Navarro, Jalisco, Mexico. Since I was little, I loved moving in different kinds of disciplines. I was an athlete first and then became a dancer as I grew older. My favorite sports were volleyball and swimming, but after middle school and into mid-high school, I stopped playing volleyball because I kept injuring my ankles and wanted to also dance. Therefore, from mid to the end of high school, I stuck with swimming and continued even when I decided to move to the United States to fully pursue dance.

Dance has always been with me. Since I was four years old, my mom took me to jazz classes in my hometown, which forged my love for dance at an early age. I did it as a hobby, of course. It was not until I was 17 when my mom asked me what I was going to study in university, and I was inclined toward dance and business. It was going to be at the UNAM in Mexico City, but my teenage dance teacher recommended my mom send me to LA for a three-month intensive, so I could be sure that was what I really wanted for my life. Thus, my journey in LA started when I finished high school. After that intensive, my decision was more than clear. I enrolled in Santa Monica College with a major in dance and a minor in business. There, I also fulfilled my dream of swimming on a swim team and joined the team for two years.

To be honest, swimming gave me the mentality I needed to face all the obstacles I have encountered over the years. I worked, swam, gym, danced, and was involved in school societies while maintaining a GPA of 3.8. I graduated and transferred to Cal State Long Beach, where I finished my BFA in Dance and minor in Entrepreneurship with honors. At this college, I learned so much about directing and choreographing that later helped me in the commercial industry. All of this has helped me develop my business, LEMOVE, and has helped me maneuver myself around the industry, from directing dance films to dancing in front of thousands of people all over the world.

One thing is to want something, and another is to still give your best despite anything when all your energy and soul desist. There have been many moments where I feel lost and want to give up, but my story reminds me where I come from and what I am made of. I know I was born to do great things, and I am in the process of making them.

The business I have is called LEMOVE, and it is a platform where I offer all the services I have learned throughout my life in one place, from dance fitness, dance training, personal training, massage therapy, and swim lessons. LEMOVE is a platform dedicated to enhancing all aspects of human well-being. On this platform, you can get creative with working out. It is a way of expression in health and a different kind of motivation. We focus on moving your body freely from pain and any intimidation you might have regarding what working out means to you. LEMOVE offers sessions in person and online, privately and in groups. For more information, go to our website www.lemovefit.com and book your first session in any area of your interest.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

The goal is to share a reflection of human behavior that one doesn’t explore or is afraid of jumping into. In search of being the best creative, performer, and professional I can be, I have truly discovered myself—or better said, I am in the process of becoming that person I might be scared or intimidated to become. Being a dancer taps into the vulnerability of the journey and the sensibility of the heart. It is hard and dark to be in the mind of an artist, but at the same time, it is the most beautiful thing you could ever experience. The resilience and conviction that goes into every step of the way is something beyond explanation. We could starve, we could be dealing with an injury that hurts so much, but at the end of the process, the resolution of the art through the body holds more value than any penny in the world.

Although fighting for our worth and our work is important, I must say that an artist always has to connect deeply with their heart’s language more so than the mind’s language so the journey is authentic and flourishes with the honesty of its true self.

The mission is to find yourself in the process of becoming. My art is the outlet that God gave me to do good and give to others, to entertain, love, and reflect hope in the journey or despair of human behavior through movement.

This is my purpose, and it will not only be through dance but through all the services I ever provide. Everyone has an artist inside, and it doesn’t matter the journey, because every journey is creative.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding thing of being an artist is the freedom in expression. Art does not have any boundaries. In our daily lives we put restrictions to ourselves as individuals. We put up walls due to fear and society guidelines that really does not exist. When you create in your imagination nothing really matters just you, the circumstance and creation. In my opinion when you become your imagination in real life is when you free yourself from any boundaries created around you. Being creative saves you from your own darkness and gives you the strength to fight against the worst nightmares.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lemovefit.com
• Instagram: @lemovefit
• Other: www.nfrg.mx – personal website
  @nancyriveragz – personal instagram

Image Credits

@johnkiefer
@victoriariveragz