We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Yoshiki Obata a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Yoshiki, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.
It definitely took time but for me once my mentor spoke about my “charisma” and “character” that I didn’t realize that I had, something clicked in my brain. Then I started to carry myself differently, and dressed differently and was able to developed confidence little by little.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I trained dance in Thailand, Bangkok where I am originally from. There I was a freelance dancer and I’ve danced for music videos, commercials, and concerts. Then I moved to New York and trained at BDC’s (Broadway Dance Center) dance program for 2 years. In New York I started to tap into choreographing and started sharing my artistry through personal projects and events such as, sybarite, DDA (Don’t Dance Alone), and BDC performance project. And through these consistent years of dancing, I believe people have seen my dance skills and choreography skills through classes and performances, I was able to receive offers to dance for music videos and to choreograph for it as well.
I have been doing “free class session” where I made space for myself to learn “how to teach”, since I believe teaching skill and dancing skill is two completely different things, and to spread my name so that I can start creating my brand. I wanted to be a great instructor as well so I created myself a space for that and also to share my artistry with people who genuinely supported me and it’s been great so far.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The three most important qualities, skills, and areas of knowledge that were most impactful in my journey was, 1. Be yourself
2. Communication skill
3. Know who to be with
Easier said than done but “being yourself” is very important as a dancer, since the way you express and perform will not be the same as somebody else in the same room. I think people can tell/feel when expression/performance is not genuine and fake.
Communication skill was very impactful in my journey. As much as I hate to say this but I would have to admit that in these type of industries “connection” is the key.
And lastly knowing who to be around is important for your mental state and improvement. You would have to learn which teacher is genuinely trying to help you out and looking after you, and you would want to put yourself into the community that has great support. Fun times are important as well but to become a professional you would have to cut and sacrifice some fun times. So knowing who and which community/environment has a great balance of fun and professionalism is important.
Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?
My mentor that I met at BDC (Broadway Dance Center), Deshawn da prince has helped me in every way possible. He was the one who taught me how to build confidence, characteristic, to be patient with myself, and not to compare myself with others. Many times we think we have the potential and want the door to open ASAP, and whenever your surroundings are doing well you start to beat yourself and start thinking what you aren’t doing right but he has taught me to be patient and time works differently for everyone when I was frustrated.
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