Meet Eric Gonzalez | Performer (dancer, singer, actor, choreographer)

We had the good fortune of connecting with Eric Gonzalez and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Eric, what is the most important factor behind your success?
Hunger, hard work, passion and joy. Being an artist takes a lot of work, patience, strength, time, etc. If it wasn’t for that I wouldn’t be here. I’ve been training for 6 years in dance, working in more than 15 different dance styles which helped me grow faster and be a versatile dancer. Besides that I knew I wanted to be a complete artist so I trained in theatre and in acting for camera. I got accepted into AMDA and I got more training in all three disciplines, singing, acting and dancing and also started playing the piano again which I used to play when I was little. I wanted to be as much ready as I could for all the opportunities that could come to me. Auditioning also required a lot of work, I had to wake up at 6:30am every day waiting for hours in line, in the cold, seating on the floor, and sometimes wasting my entire day and not even getting seen and then going to class until 11:30pm and using my weekends to rehearse. But my hunger to get to where I wanted didn’t let me stop auditioning and training to get better each time and be ready for the things I was noticing I needed more training. And then once graduating everything started to go as I had been wanting. I got to lots of final round callbacks, I got job offers and I got cast in my first musical originating a principal role in a world premiere musical “Aguardiente” that being my regional theatre debut and getting my first national tour contract for a broadway show before even opening “Aguardiente”.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’m a dancer, singer, actor and choreographer from Barcelona, Spain.

I think what sets me apart and what I’m most proud of about myself is how hardworking I am and my hunger to learn more and more and prepare myself to be as ready and versatile as I can. I love performing arts since I was very little, I loved to dance, sing and act but I was doing it as a hobby. Later on, my mom encouraged me to do it professionally so I started training more and more, I trained in more than 15 dance styles, acting for camera, music theatre, singing and playing the piano. While studying I was also teaching 4 dance classes per week and choreographing for some galas and events and going to dance competions, we went to the 6 biggest urban dance competitions and won 1st place in 4 and 2nd place in the other 2. I came to the United States after receiving a scholarship from AMDA, and even though in that moment I wanted to be a commercial dancer I decided to study Musical Theatre to get a complete training and be what people call a “triple threat”. I spent 1 year in the LA campus and 1 year in the NY campus.

My idea was getting my BFA but after I finished my second year and got my certificate a lot of opportunities started to come and I decided to take them because I felt like it was the right thing to do. I got cast in my first musical “Aguardiente” originating a lead role and making my regional theatre debut. And before even opening I got my first national tour offer for a Broadway show.

What brought me here again was my hunger, passion, hardworking and discipline. When I want something I don’t stop until I get it and I do everything to get it. Of course it wasn’t easy, but I never settled, there’s always space for more training, more readiness, more knowledge. But I knew how much I wanted this and how much I was leaving behind and sacrificing, it couldn’t be for nothing, I wanted to make my dreams come true and proof my talent and make everyone supporting me proud.

What I’ve learned and I want the world to know how important it is to follow your instinct and what your heart tells you to do. I want the world to not be scared of being themselves, expressing themselves freely and pursuing their dreams. It doesn’t matter what others would say or if they will make fun of you. At the end of the day we only live once so we have to decide for ourselves and do whatever will make us the happiest.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
So this actually happened two years ago! My best friend came to visit me in LA, so I’m going to give you the actual itinerary. The first day she got to LA I brought her to visit my academy, then the walk of fame, visting the Dolby Theatre where the oscars are celebrated and then to the Griffith Observatory and we had dinner at one of my favorite places called “Mr. Tempo”. The next day we went to Beverly Hills with our cute outfits, we walked around rodeo drive, took a lot of pictures, had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory and then went to Venice Beach, where we walked around the canal and then went to the beach, since we are dancers we freestyled a little bit, observed the skaters and saw the sunset which I think it’s the best place to enjoy it and we had dinner at Belles Beach House. For our third day we went to downtown to the Broad Museum, rode the Angels Flight, walked around central market where we had our lunch and after that we went to a Jojo Gomez’s dance class since I was in her mentorship and my best friend also wanted to take her class, sharing our passion together is always one of our favorite things to do. The next day we went on a trip to Anaheim because of course I had to show her the original Disneyland! And we had an amazing day making our dreams come true, it was actually my first time at Disneyland too! For our 5th day we went to Santa Monica, took another dance class in the evening and went home to watch a movie together. For the last day we went to Universal Studios Hollywood which was also super fun and then she flew back on the next day.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I have to thank all my family, friends and teachers because I’ve always been supported by them and they believed in me when I didn’t but specially my mom, Ana Belen Almansa Lorente is the reason why I’m where I am today, she was the one who saw the potential in me and encouraged me to pursue my career as an artist even though I was going to study marketing and perform as a hobbie. And thanks to my mentors like Judith Endje, Helena Escuté, Ana Pérez García and David Cadey for teaching me a lot and being an amazing support in my beggining.

Website: Https://www.ericgonzalez.info/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eriicgonzzz?igsh=amdsZ3I5aW1yY210&utm_source=qr

Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@eriicgonzzz?_t=ZN-90WoRpKdMcY&_r=1

Image Credits
Both headshots (purple background and dark grey background) and the blue background full body pictures were taken by the photographer Shani Hadjian