Conversations with Creators: Hector Lopez Talks Heels, Career, and Industry

“Trusting my gut is something I've always done,” says Hector Lopez. “Once I knew I wanted to dance, I knew that I was going to, and my mind was not going to let me stop.” Lopez is a native Bronxite and New York-based dancer, teacher, and choreographer. Since graduating from Dartmouth College with a degree in Theater Studies in 2012, Lopez has worked as a professional dancer under the choreographic direction of Bryan Tanaka, Yanis Marshall, Kyle Hanagami, Dani Vitale, Ashle Dawson, Luam Keflezgy, Ramon Baynes, and Yvonne Marie-Sain. His credits to date include artists such as Mariah Carey, Khalid, Halsey, Prince Royce, Pabllo Vittar, and Todrick Hall as well as industrial work with Hemes, Samsung, Adidas, and Moncler. He has also appeared as himself on TV shows including Real Housewives of NY, Owning Manhattan on Netflix, and Dancing Queens on Bravo.

You’ve choreographed and danced for some of the top pop artists and brands nationwide. How did you originally enter the world of choreography and where did your interest in creating movement come from?

I actually wasn't a dancer my entire life. I started dancing as an adult. I graduated from Dartmouth in 2012. There, I was dancing for fun and on occasion with friends. When I graduated, I realized, I am in love with this. I'm obsessed with dance. I can't get it out of my head. This is all I want to do with my time. So, I graduated and went to Broadway Dance Center as a full-time student and worked really hard taking in as much information as possible. I was signed with an agent within my first year of dancing which was very quick, and was almost an expedited version of the ‘normal’ dance journey. It wasn't until years and years later when one of my mentors told me I should start teaching and creating that I began navigating my choreographic journey. I worked for a very long time and then began experimenting, creating, and teaching. But I still, of course, dance, and try to train and work as a dancer as well.

At what point did you realize you’d pursue this line of work? Was there a singular moment you realized this was your calling?

I think I knew as soon as I graduated. There were often times when I first started I wasn’t  good at dance. My friends used to be like, ‘okay, Hector, like, you love this, but you're not good at it’, and I knew from then on that there was nothing else driving me this crazy. The amount of love I felt for a skillset that I was bad at is what made me fully decide that I wanted to do it. I graduated and told my friends I was going to pursue dance. And they said, ‘Oh my god, what are you doing? Calm down, get a normal career’. And I said, ‘No, I feel it’.

Did you have a specific mentor or inspiration entering the dance community?

I think I was lucky that when I started training professionally, the New York dance industry had a lot of working professional dancers and teachers still taking class. Almost thirty percent of the room was made up of working dancers that wanted to train, and the rest of the people were aspiring to become professional dancers. There was always the couple people that were there just for the love of dance. When I looked to my left and right, I'd be dancing next to people that had just danced with J. Lo. last week or were working with Ariana Grande all the time. I was blessed to constantly be in a room with creators and professionals that were working.

Has the atmosphere of the dance studio space changed since then?

I think things have changed over time, especially after the pandemic. Nowadays, there are more students in the room who want to dance out of love, versus necessarily pursuing the dream as a career. I’ve noticed the shift as a teacher, and as a student. With class, just like in college, you start navigating the space, starting in the back of the room, honoring the front as a place where the assistants are, and then with confidence you work your way to the front. Over time, as people begin to work and graduate, they're off doing things in the industry, coming into class when they can. At that point, you begin stepping into the role of holding the space in the studio.  Even before I was working as often or doing bigger jobs, I could already feel a shift and ownership of what I was adding to the room, instead of just being someone who's there to receive it. When I became a teacher, I understood that dynamic from the other side, which is a whole different experience.

What brings you joy teaching at studios like Broadway Dance Center, and how has your experience been?

Being a teacher is such an honor, and an honorable and sacrificial kind of position too. You spend an hour and a half giving of yourself and hope that you receive it back. You are truly there to give as much information as possible, not just movement wise, but also what your experiences are, and trying to get people to level up. I didn't want to be a teacher until I felt like I had lived out my career and worked as a choreographer. One of my mentors,Yannis Marshall, had just finished up his stay in New York at the time and was moving to Los Angeles full-time. He told me, ‘Hector, I believe that someone needs to step into my place here, and I think you offer something different. I think it's time for you to step into that light. You have something to offer, so offer it’. That took me by surprise. I knew, if my mentor was telling me this, there's a reason behind it, so I trusted that and spoke to Broadway Dance Center and other studios.

It’s hard to step straight into teaching, especially in studios where you've been seen as a student for so long. I decided to start teaching at Ripley Grier and thought, ‘you know what? Maybe I’ll do my own classes.’ I taught one class and the same weekend, one of my other mentors, Yvonne Maurice, a faculty member at Broadway Dance Center, needed a substitute teacher as a last-minute emergency. Once I was in the space, the studio saw the reaction from my students, and said, ‘if the students are reflecting your love of teaching and feel like they’re receiving quite a bit from you, let’s get you on a path’. So I spoke to the director of Broadway Dance Center, Sheila Barker, and set up a plan to discuss and show my movement to her which she watched over as I was teaching. She guided me in navigating both being a teacher ,and holding space in a studio,  beyond the choreography. Barker, a legend, is straightforward, and honest, and she made sure my ego was always in check, and I honored the position I was stepping into.

What does your choreographic process for an actual project look like?

It depends on the kind of project. I consistently like starting small in a space with people that I trust, who make me feel safe to explore and experiment. I have a great group of students and friends who are comfortable in my movement, so I never have to worry on that part. They understand that I want the best, so they’ll challenge or push me to step out of my comfort zone. It’s super helpful to have people you trust push you, so when they say, ‘I think you can do more with this’, I know it’s coming from a good place. It's a relationship. First and foremost, it’s understanding what the project is. Then, it’s understanding my goals, how I feel, and the music. Having someone who can help me physically represent the music makes the process so much easier. When my brain’s running one hundred miles per hour, I begin letting my body move, which helps ease my mind. There’s always going to be people from the production side that step in and have an opinion or want you to change things. So it's nice to have your baseline set up so that you can navigate that relationship a little bit easier, like, ‘Okay, I understand what you want. This is what I want. How can I find the middle ground?’

Is there one job you’ve danced in which feels like a meaningful moment to pinpoint from your career?

So many projects I’ve done have represented different aspects of my dreams and fostered new relationships.  These  have allowed me to evolve and navigate the industry better. One of my most memorable jobs would be working on Halsey's music video, and then shortly after, appearing on Saturday Night Live with her. She’s an amazing artist; beyond being an amazing singer, vocalist, and creative, she’s truly involved in the whole process whole-heartedly. When we were on set for her music video, she made sure each of us liked our makeup and felt good in our costume. If there was something she didn’t like, she would change it herself; she was very much involved. Even on set, she’d always pay attention. They were shooting close-up shots and had us on the floor for about ten minutes and she said, ‘wait a minute, if you guys are only shooting close ups, can you take the dancers off set and let them have a break?’

I think that was the first time I worked with someone who was so involved but also had a lot of love and respect for the people she was working with. She was very vocal, interactive, and she went out of her way to make sure that we got what we needed which was really nice. 

Another fun project was when I worked with Mariah Carey. I was originally brought on as a potential assistant, but I was also dancing and helping her as a body double, stepping in so she could see how she would navigate the space. I was also stepping in for the choreographer as a dancer before he added himself into the mix for the show. It was fun to be a dancer  from an alternative perspective and help understand a job that I’d like to be doing consistently. It was also amazing navigating and fulfilling a role as an assistant for the choreographer. It was great to experience the relationships and understand how I can be in both positions in one room.

How would you consider your movement style and what has influenced your movement?

I have always approached things from the old mindset of ‘always being a student’; by learning, evolving, and being in class. My style and essence is very much representative of who I am; I am gay, I am Latino, and I'm from the Bronx, so I pull from that. I have been lucky enough to take from so many different people and teachers over time. I often float around artistically, pulling references from pop culture, especially being a kid from the 90’s. Experiencing the greatest artists and their music videos growing up, I can hear a song and say, ‘Okay, I clearly hear this as a reference. I can hear the samples they're using. I know where they're trying to pull from’. I try to make sure every time I approach a song, I’m being honest about how I feel and the references I’m pulling from the song. and the song. The artist, the music and myself are the three things I navigate without overthinking, just feeling the music and creating the feeling in the movement and the moment. I wouldn’t dance to an Ariana Grande song the way I would dance to Janet Jackson. If I did a Sean Paul song, there’s no way I would take the same approach I would to an Ariana Grande song either. It wouldn’t do the artist nor the music justice, even if it did my ego justice.

How does dance on film or songs inform what you wear or your fashion?

If you really look at it, I'm one of the worst people dressing for class. I find that that's more common in Los Angeles. I think most people really, really dress up for class. I’ll often be in a pajama bottom and a baggy top or a cute, little shirt but it’s not because I'm trying; I think it's reflective of me being there to teach. Sometimes I will pull a cute little fit, but I think it's more so because I want to feel a certain way when I dance, not just for a video. When I'm creating a video or shooting a video, there’s classes that I filmed where I didn't dress up or I didn't feel like dressing up, and I didn't care. I think we're in an era where everyone wants a video just to prove that they were at class and that they did it, or to feel cute, whereas videos back in the day when we first started filming were truly just to inform us of the things we needed to work on. Now, with the era that we're in, everyone just wants to post videos of themselves. I have so many videos that I filmed I don't want to share, which is okay. Even the student-teacher dynamic has changed over time, now there’s more people wanting to be other people, or to dress up like their teachers. I'm very lucky that I think, because I’m a cisgender male who teaches females, that I've never had to navigate that kind of experience.

What are you most excited for in the remainder of the year?

Honestly, I took this month off teaching so that I could focus on my fitness and health, and I'm looking forward to going back to teaching in September with a new body and a refreshed mindset. Teaching fills my cup, and it makes me very happy to help people, but at  the same time, I also don't give enough to myself. . We’re selfless so often, and teach so frequently, that we spend more time giving than receiving. When New York starts to bump back up around September into the holiday season, I think I’ll feel much more ready and inspired to approach work after giving back to myself mentally and physically. I got a personal trainer, I've seen a chiropractor, I'm getting massages. It's technically all the things we should be doing but never do because we don't have the time in New York. If I was in LA, I'd have so much free time when I'm over there. But here in New York it feels like we're always running, so it's nice to be able to give myself some days at home. I’ve been prioritizing my body and health. I'm the type that doesn’t want to stop helping or to stop doing this, but people will love and respect you more when you create the time for yourself so that you can then give back more.

 

Photo Credit: Headshot by Jon Taylor, Photo 1 by Savannah Lee Sickmon, Photo 2 by Jeremy Davidson, Photo 3 Courtesy of Hector Lopez

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