He began dancing and doing drama at 13, hopping on the train each week to study at the Broadway Dance Center on West 45th Street, where he”™s honored to now teach. A constant commuter, he also teaches in Queens and on Long Island. Smith has always gravitated toward musical theater as opposed to company-style dance and got his first break at 19 under the direction of Jose De La Cuesta.
“People have never said, ”˜Dylan, we need more emotion from you”™ or ”˜We need you to be more full-out,”™” said Dylan Smith as he flexed his feet back and forth on a dance studio floor.
Smith is a lively, polite and worldly professional dancer who commutes weekly from his home in Manhattan to teach six dance classes at New Canaan Dance Academy, working closely with director Elaine Young and a team of 10 professionals.
On a recent night, Smith completed a lyrical class with just under 20 students, all girls ranging from 13 to 18 years old, full of holiday-ready energy, giggles and apparent awe for their dynamic teacher and his spunky playlist featuring Mark Ronson, Lykke Li and Amy Winehouse”™s cover of “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?”
- He”™s careful to remind, “A great dancer doesn”™t necessarily make a great dance teacher. You have to have a lot of patience and really want to help kids or else you”™re just sort of here trying to make a quick buck. This side of the business is even smaller than the performing world and it”™s important to remember the basics of doing good business ”“ being reliable and friendly and remembering the environment that you”™re in. You can”™t forget that it still is a job and there are expectations.”
While Smith”™s peers work as dancer-slash-waiters and Smith acknowledged that at a young age, it”™s hard to plan an entire career out, he asked himself, “Why not hone in on another side of the art that can serve me in the future?”
Smith has found a way to dance almost every single day and pay the bills ”“ and he lives in Hell”™s Kitchen, the hotspot, theater-district nook of the city. Smith is a walking, breathing, pirouette-ing example of an artist who has developed a business plan and network that still lets him pursue his Broadway dreams without falling into the starving artist cliché that is a reality.
“A lot of my kids want to seriously pursue this and I”™m absolutely encouraging them to, but,” Smith said on a serious note, “you may be the best here, but if you get accepted into a dance program there are probably going to be a lot of people that are better than you. Don”™t get too confident, comfortable or flat.”
That”™s something the native of Long Bridge, N.J., discovered while pursuing his Bachelor of Arts in dance at Marymount Manhattan College when he had to get used to taking ballet to become a more competitive dancer.
“For four years it was five times a week ballet tights, go! And that”™s where the real hard work started to come in and that benefitted me afterwards in booking jobs because solid technique separates one dancer from another. It”™s about who”™s more refined.”
Smith revealed gracious appreciation for the support of his mother, who runs a restaurant and his father, now deceased, even during a time when it was “almost taboo” to be a male dancer.
“It was never a question,” said Smith. “They knew how much I loved it and I never felt like I should be second-guessing anything because I loved it so much.”
He began dancing and doing drama at 13, hopping on the train each week to study at the Broadway Dance Center on West 45th Street, where he”™s honored to now teach. A constant commuter, he also teaches in Queens and on Long Island. Smith has always gravitated toward musical theater as opposed to company-style dance and got his first break at 19 under the direction of Jose De La Cuesta. The two continue to work together today.
“I think what drew me was the physicality of it, definitely the tapping, when you”™re a non-tapper it”™s always a very impressive form of dance and that propelled me,” Smith said. “I just thought it was very glamorous. It”™s using the body that you”™re given to create beautiful lines and shapes and movements. I just found musical theater to be so expressive and upbeat and that”™s always been so ”˜me”™ and,” at a fit, slender 6”™2” he said, “my physical type lends itself to it too.”
So what is it that Smith loves about performing in front of big audiences? Simply put, “It”™s where I feel most comfortable.
“I don”™t know how to explain it other than that we”™re all born with certain gifts, and yeah you refine them, but a lot of it is natural and what I feel when I”™m on stage is very natural. It”™s where I ultimately flourish.”
He urged other artists to broaden their horizons, especially during tough economic times.
“There”™s not a huge mass of performing jobs now because people who are in them don”™t leave, so it”™s all about reinvention. What can you do to make it work? It can force you to hone in on a different side of your craft like teaching and choreography.”
Right now, Smith is beginning to prep his dancers for their summer recital while simultaneously writing, painting and gearing up for his audition season ”“ “I”™ve got to dust off the vocal chords,” he joked, adding, “I”™m happy as long as I find opportunities (like a recent cabaret act) between all this teaching to be on stage for myself and keep myself active outside of this ”“ it”™s a balance between the two and I want to be able to do it all,” Smith said with no hesitation.
“The life is there if you choose it. Can it be hard at times and grueling and do you have to work really hard and be inspired and constantly maintain a certain level of physical shape? Yeah, but there are such diverse ways to still stay in the business.”
