We recently connected with Vonte Marquiss and have shared our conversation below.

Vonte, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

I always have that wish in the back of my mind, where would I be if I started dancing earlier?

Dance was something I’ve always loved to do, from grade school until now and I knew I wanted to take it seriously but without the tools and support when I was younger it sometimes feels like i’m playing catch up with peers around me who may have had that earlier start. But thats where trusting the process, not comparing myself and knowing my journey is my own comes in.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

In my generation growing up there was always the girl in school who’s inspiration was Ciara & that guy who wanted to be Chris Brown, that was me. I’ve always been the “dancing guy” ever since I can remember. Convincing my friends from elementary school all the way through high school to learn choreography and create dance teams with me was where it all started, and honestly i’m not sure where Id be without dance.

I think what sets me apart from others is besides the fact that I never got the “professional” training until I was an adult, I always appreciated music beyond dance. Before I took dance seriously I was in band, I started off playing the clarinet; yes like squidward, and ended up learning how to play 8 different instruments during my 6 years.

Learning how to read music; both bass & treble cleft, allowed older me as a dancer to be able to apotheosize sounds and each component within the music . To have an understanding of music as a dancer is so important cause as Movement Artist our job is to tell a story with… movement. So to appreciate music beyond JUST dancing I feel has set me up for success in the choreography lane i’m creating for myself.

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

The most rewarding aspect of being a choreographer I would say is getting to see my work executed like I imagined.

When I create it always starts as a vision to the song in my head. Then I decide what story I want to tell. Finding a dancer who understands the story I’m trying to portray and can execute that is a feeling I can’t describe.

Since I started dancing my favorite aspect was getting to see my work on others. Thats when I knew choreography was my lane. Now the more I’ve networked and have met more dancers of every background I have been able to put my choreography on dancers who I’ve not only looked up to but who can make my vision come to life in ways I’ve never seen before.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

So I’ve never would’ve thought what started just as a random spam account I posted Musical.ly(now Tiktok), Dubsmash & School videos would turn into the same page I not only market myself but use as my business platform.

I was never and would have never thought I would be someone who took social media seriously or made money off of it but now that I see I can do what I love AND share my craft with wider audiences while making money and meeting others in the industry I may have not outside of social media I appreciate it more.

To those who are on the fence like I was or just don’t think to take social media serious/put yourself out there. What helped me was consistency and not getting too wrapped up in what others are doing. In todays social media age, we can sometimes have a warped reality based on what we see. Some things are made to look more obtainable or easily obtainable but what it doesn’t show you is it takes work of some sort. I’ve gained majority of my followers in the last 2 years, genuinely off of just posting my craft and meeting others in the industry. The more I post and engage, the wider audiences im able to project onto.

Since social media creates so many opportunities and acts as a resume for a lot of us creatives. It is important for us to put your best work out there as well as the process, there are a lot of people who tell me they love my raw content but also I know my work i’ve put more into rather that be space or filming also gets noticed more because; quality over quantity. If i could say anything, It would be if you take your craft serious, take social media serious.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/vontemarquiss?igshid=NGVhN2U2NjQ0Yg==
• Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/@VonteMarquiss/about