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How One Dancer Followed His Dream and Become An International Artist
Daniel Camilleri is a young man with a passion and has a big goal. That goal is making his living dancing and eventually leading to a World Tour with a major music artist.
I met with Dan for a coffee and a chat about is career and achievement to date. For a 23 year old he’s had a pretty good career to date including male ensemble with the hit show Aladdin that he auditioned for in October 2015 that we have favourably reviewed here on Sydney Chic. Read Aladdin Review .
Dan’s love of dancing started when he was only five years of age and being inspired watching The Wiggles! His mother noticed that her son had a talent for moving his body to music and encouraged him to nurture that talent and eventually enrolling him in Johnny Young’s Talent School.
When you have a passion for something that young in life it can often drive you to your ultimate goal. At the age of fourteen Daniel had already decided he wanted a career dancing, he knew that’s what he was destined to do. This eventually led him to study at Patrick Studios Australia and Brent Street Performing Arts. In between that there was a year of studying to be a paediatric nurse…yes true! Something that Dan might resume after his dancing career.
Signing up with Jeep Management in Sydney led to performances on the X Factor, ARIA Awards, Dannii Minogue, Kylie Minogue, Havana Brown, Dami Im, Samantha Jade, Jessie J, Guy Sebastian, as well as being flown to India to dance in the Bollywood Movie Dhoom 3. Not bad on the CV at all!
Like any artist, work can be sporadic so a stint in men’s retail gave Dan the stability to keep his dream alive until as he says ‘A shift happened and I felt a calling to go and try my luck I the US.’ So that’s exactly what he did.
Obviously there were visa issues to consider so Dan felt the best way to get around those issues was to go over and see if he could find an agent, which he did, signing up with MSA Talent Agency. This led to an audition with Matt Steffanina who has a whopping 4.5K million Youtube followers. Matt offered Dan sponsorship and the process began.
Dan had to head back to Melbourne for a while whilst waiting his approval for his visa upon singing with MSA. Following a few months of being back Daniel received the great news that his visa was granted and took off on the big jet set to LA in March 2016. Dan puts it down to his passion and setting his mind to whatever you want to go for it. He’s a big believer in manifesting your dreams by taking action.
For those up and coming dancers Dan says that Los Angeles is a very different scenario than Sydney, with 2-3 auditions a week being the norm, and some auditions with the Big Stars. As far as Dan is concerned getting an audition with a major music act is success! It’s a big deal.
I enjoyed my chat with Dan, he has the same mindset and belief system that I do, and that is if you are passionate about something, truly want it then you go for it. Yes you might get knocked down on the way and I can guarantee that people will offer you their ‘wise’ advice on why you shouldn’t, but you only life once and you have to reach for the stars.
Of course none of this comes easy, dancing is gruelling on the body and being a peak physical condition is paramount so that means training daily in the gym and not living a partying lifestyle.
I asked Dan’s top tips for anyone wanting to live their dream and here they are:
Have clear goals – you have to know exactly what you want.
Research on how to get what you want
Stay positive and work hard
Follow Dan on Instagram: @dannncam
Oh by the way that’s how this interview came about we met….. on Instagram.
