Though Ozzie Angel did not always know he wanted to be a dancer, dancing was a part of his life for as long as he can remember.

“I’ve been dancing all my life because I was raised in Latin America.   It’s part of the culture,” said Angel.

Angel was born in Los Angeles and subsequently lived in Guadalajara, Mexico and Spain.   Angel’s mother is a dancer and singer who exposed him to dance at a young age.   When Angel was old enough to choose his own extracurricular activities, however, he initially picked gymnastics. He continued his gymnastics training for three years before going to his first cheerleading competition at age 13, where he found that he enjoyed doing the stunts. Cheerleading became Angel’s principal activity for the next seven years. He rediscovered dance through competitions and then gradually began to learn new forms of dance, including ballet and modern.

When Angel came to Whitman, he discovered dance’s potential as a medium of entertainment.   While dancing had previously been reserved for competitions in Angel’s life, at Whitman he learned its expressive quality.

“It was at Whitman that I was exposed to theater dance. It required a lot more emotion: playing a certain character and dancing as that character,” said Angel. Though Angel has the most extensive experience with hip-hop (He even started his own class here at Whitman.), his current interests lie in ballet, largely because it is still new to him.

“I enjoy every form of dance, but at this point in my life, I’m more interested in ballet. I’m still exploring it as an art. I like the form. It’s very strict and disciplined. I had always thought of dance as a more free, sort of abstract movement,” said Angel. Angel remembers last semester’s “Tree Speak,” put on through the modern dance program with Vicki Lloid, as one of his Whitman dancing highlights.

“It was nice because it was a lot of dancing, but the focus was mainly on emotions,” he said.

Part of Angel’s continuing devotion to dance lies in its ability to help him channel his real life emotions in a therapeutic manner.

“For me, it can be a means to cope,” said Angel.After graduating, Angel plans to move to Los Angeles and work for the International Creative Management talent agency, hoping to get to know the industry and make connection.   However, dancing hasn’t been ruled out as a possibility in Angel’s future.

“I definitely want to pursue dancing. It’s something I love: I actually love it!” he said.

Angel’s ultimate dancing goal is to be able to make a living off dancing alone.

“Ideally it would be a job…If I don’t make it, whatever that means, my plan is to go to law school and be an entertainment lawyer and perhaps do some side dancing, or perhaps even start a dance studio and teach dance with my background,” said Angel. It seems that no matter where his life will take him, dancing will remain an important part of Angel’s life.

“We should all dance!” he said.