Jamie has always loved moving. As a little kid, his two older brothers would play music—mostly hip-hop and Beyoncé—and teach him dance moves. Jamie often put on shows at family gatherings, so his mom figured he’d enjoy dance classes. But while he liked learning ballet, it was hard being the only boy in class. “Sometimes I felt lonely,” he says. “I felt like the teachers were focusing more on the girls and didn’t take me seriously.”
A few months after he saw the life-changing performance of Don Quixote, he switched to an all-boys class at Houston Ballet Academy. It was eye-opening. “I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, there are other boys like me,’” says Jamie. He started learning the special techniques required to be a male dancer.
In most ballets, men and women perform different steps. Male dancers perform higher jumps and more athletic turns. They also lift the female dancers, which requires incredible strength.
At Houston Ballet Academy, Jamie got the chance to interact with professional company dancers. “They made me want to keep working,” he says. It was also the first time Jamie saw male dancers who were Black, like him. Getting to know older dancers of color helped him see the career possibilities available down the road.