Meet one of the cast members of High Strung Movie!
Tom can you tell us where your interest in dance comes from? I was born and raised in a small village in England called Long Crendon. I started dancing at the age of 15 after a girl in my class caught me dancing around in a science lesson and said I should join her hip hop group. So I did. After a year with the hip hop group I was given the opportunity to perform in an Arena tour around England in The 02 Arena, M.E.N Arena and a few others. I toured with that group for about two years before I decided to attend one year of dance training at a local college. What training is in your background that landed you this opportunity? After the one year dance training at my local college, I enrolled at Laine Theatre Arts, where I trained for three years in ballet, contemporary, jazz, commercial and tap, along with singing and acting. I graduated from Laine in June of 2013. At this point my dance style was quite different from my original style of hip hop, which had been mixed with the classical and contemporary style I had been training in, for the last three years. I did a number of small dancing jobs before I landed a small Lindy Hop dance role in the new Avengers film "Age of Ultron". Who inspires you? I was inspired to dance the same way a lot of people were, through watching Michael Jackson. My parents bought me a dvd of all of his number one videos and I became obsessed with trying to imitate all of the dancing. Did anyone in your family dance whose steps you followed in? My mum used to dance but she didn't pursue a career in it. As soon as I showed any interest in it both my mum and dad allowed me to go and take classes and just supported me in general with my dancing career. Tell us about your experience in "High Strung"? I was lucky enough to audition for the director, Michael Damian and his wife Janeen and Dave Scott the choreographer, in London for the film "High Strung". I didn't think I had a chance of getting the part as there were so many amazing dancers trying out. But I managed to get to the finals and then a week or so later, I received the call they wanted to offer me a job. I felt very excited and privileged to accept the role of Jaxson, part of the Switchsteps Crew, in their new film. Landing the role of Jaxson in "High Strung" was extremely exciting as there were so many people in the audition. This is my first feature role and it was such an amazing experience. I learned and gained so much from this role and hope it leads to great things for me. Have you had your break through role yet? With this industry it's hard to say what will be your break through role but I feel like my role of Jaxson in "High Strung" is definitely the most high profile role so far in my career and would like to think it could help me break through into different facets of the industry. Do you have any upcoming projects you can talk about? I don't have any projects coming up as off yet but I am working a lot on choreography. What advise would you give to the younger generation coming up the ranks? My advise for dancers starting out is just don't let negativity get to you as there will be a lot thrown at you, but just take correction and always learn and progress. What do you hope for your future? My hopes for the future would be to do a tour with an artist and to be a recognized choreographer and be able to teach all over the world.
Vintage New York Magazine By:Sherry Mercer Photograph By: Kirill
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