We recently connected with Prince Nii Engmann and have shared our conversation below.
Prince Nii , appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
I have the amazing privilege of getting to travel for work. Dance has taken me all over the world and I find so much inspiration in culture. Whether it be in the obvious representations of culture or in the little details there’s always something new to find. That what really keeps my creativity alive
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
My name is Nii Okwei Engmann but in creative spaces I go by Prince. I’m a multi-faceted artist and foodie based in Vancouver, BC. Both my passion and career happen to overlap in dance. I started dancing professionally in 2016 after attending an audition for Disney’s “Descendants 2”. I ended up booking the film and from then my career has snowballed. I’ve worked on numerous productions across Canada including Disney’s Emmy-award winning “Sneakerella”, CW’s “Riverdale”, Netflix’s “The Christmas Chronicles 2”, Apple’s “See”, NBC’s “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” and many more. Teaching is also one of my passions. I have had the opportunity of teaching dance across the country and have choreographed stage routines that have won awards worldwide. In 2018 I started the company “UNTITLED” in order to create a space for dancers to embrace artistic freedom beyond labels. It’s been beautiful to see so many of the people who trained with me now blossoming in their own unique ways and that’s the environment I hope to create in any space I enter!
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Versatile, Identity, Security. When I think back on my journey (which is still FAR from over haha) These 3 qualities stand out the most. I have found myself in spaces that have required me to adapt, to play different characters. In exercising this muscle I realized that in order to succeed I needed to know how to make my skills malleable so that they can be used to achieve whatever the project is asking for. What that also meant is that I needed to know who I was. There’s no way for me to be adaptable in a space if I don’t even know what I offer the space. Rather than being adaptable that would just be me losing myself in the environment. Which leads to the last one security. I’ve grown to love who I am and I’m very sure of myself. This allows me to not be swayed by my environment. It also let’s me know that not all environments, jobs, people etc are not for me. And I’m perfectly okay with that. I would tell anyone early in their journey to give themselves time. Good things take time to develop and you are a continuous work in progress. Take your time and explore yourself so that you can know yourself; your likes and dislikes etc. So that you can show up in any space you enter in the way that only you can
We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?
I think a balance of both approaches is necessary. Knowing your strengths and refining them is DEFINITELY necessary in order to stand out in whatever space it is you’re entering. But it’s also important to have as many “tools in your toolbox” as possible so you can again be as versatile as needed. For instance I am in no way shape or form classically trained in dance. But a lot of the jobs that come into Vancouver require an understanding of Jazz or Ballet technique. I went out of my way to learn the basics of those disciplines of dance not to necessarily become a master at them, but so that they can add to who I am as a performer and dancer and so that if need be, I can use those skills in the spaces that require them.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @princenii
Image Credits
Richie Lubaton Photography Wei Chong Photography Christine Wang Photography
