My relationship and connection to music is the reason I dance,” says Primo, a 27-year-old dancer and performer who just wrapped up his run as Tumblebrutus in Cats: The Jellicle Ball, at the Perelman Performing Arts Center in New York City. Although he didn’t begin his dance training in earnest until age 14, a childhood immersed in musical theater and church services punctuated with gospel music equipped Primo with a refined sense of musicality.
A 2019 graduate of the Young Americans College of the Performing Arts (YACPA) in Corona, California, Primo can slide between dance genres with ease, performing a crisp jeté one minute, followed by a seemingly weightless dip the next—all while exuding that impossible-to-teach, inexplicable “it” factor. “When I perform all of these different styles of dance,” Primo says, “it makes me feel like there is no story that I can’t tell through movement.”
Photo by Quinn Wharton.
A Sense of Purpose
“During my time at YACPA, we traveled the world teaching dance, music, arts, and confidence building. Every three days, we’d be in a new town or city, in places like Japan, Germany, and the midwestern United States. Teaching kids has been one of the most rewarding parts of my entire career—they have so much raw talent, so to pass my knowledge along and make a difference in the same way certain teachers did for me is a beautiful thing.”
The Power of Performance
“As someone who experienced bullying, and navigates anxiety and depression, dance has really saved my life. As a kid, there was a lot of energy and passion inside of me that remained uncultivated until I discovered performing. Things can get so heavy in life, but hearing a great song, seeing someone dance, or even dancing yourself can turn your whole day, or life, around.”
Space to Succeed
“OTA (Open To All) is a weekly mini-ball in New York City. If you’re in the ballroom community, you can compete against your friends, and if you’re not in ballroom, you come to observe. It’s a safe space to practice your craft in an intimate setting, so you can really observe the reactions your dancing gets. You’re then able to take those well-received skills to bigger balls and voguing stages because you know they will translate to a grander level. It’s a space that is so much fun and filled with love.”
Feeling the Beat
“When the beat or instrumentation of a song strikes me in a certain way, I’ll fuse all my different dance styles together, because one count might make me want to do an Afrobeat move, while the next count inspires a voguing catwalk. I love to pull from everything in my repertoire to tell the story of a song.”
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