Tommy Benitez
Dancer & Entrepreneur
Who is Tommy?
My name is Tommy Benitez, and I’m a dancer aspiring and entrepreneur from the Riverdale in the Bronx. I would have to say my biggest struggle right now is financially supporting two dreams at once.
Choreographing and starting a clothing brand from the ground up is very challenging. One thing that has helped me overcome the financial situation is cutting out procrastination. Literally forcing myself to sit down and have a conversation with myself. Do I really want to do this? Does this make me happy? I had to mentally prepare myself not to go out as much and think about the bigger picture. What I'm really trying to say is it was time to grow up. I had to stop hanging out with friends and focus on accomplishing my goals. I took the word try out of my vocabulary.
I always wanted my very own dance studio. Anything that I have done in my life has always brought me back to dance or correlates with it. Dance is my therapy and has been the biggest influence in my life, aside from my mentors of course.
Dance puts me in a positive mindset. My everyday thoughts and stresses go out the window. Dance allows everyday when I wake up. Nothing else makes me feel that way. for me to just feel good about myself. It enables me to not only feel good but, to do good. I had never really needed to describe my creative process, and it would actually be quite difficult to do so. The reason being, my process is different every time. I’m not really a person who is usually dissatisfied with what they come up with. Coming up with and developing choreography to a song that makes you feel something inside is enlivening. Choreographing allows to feel alive and is a carefree experience very different from the rest of my everyday life. It is s not my own escape so to speak it is my motivation. Dancing, be it freestyle or teaching my choreography, gives me something to look forward to