Meet Yoshiki Obata | Dancer & Choreographer

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

Hi Yoshiki, what do you attribute your success to?
I believe consistency is the most important factor behind my success. It takes a long time to be seen and recognized, if I wasn’t consistent I don’t think would be standing where I’m standing today.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’m proud of being consistent throughout these years. I didn’t stop training myself during COVID and I kept taking classes whether that’s online or in person. It was definitely not easy to get to where I am today. There were multiple times I doubted myself and thinking I’m not good enough. I was able to overcome these challenges by not giving up and had great support by many great mentors and friends at my school. I might be lucky but I think I had a great environment where people are supportive and without those support I wouldn’t have been able to overcome those challenges. Throughout these years I learned how to be ok with “being yourself”. The first time I came to New York I remember being very uncomfortable since I wasn’t used to New York dance style, and I realized I dance differently compared to everybody else. From that I did loose confidence and that’s when I started to feel unsure about myself. But my mentors told me being yourself is the best part about dance, then I slowly taught myself it’s ok to be myself and started expressing dance the way I wanted to.

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.
I personally like thrifting so I think I would want to take them to Brooklyn and hop thrift stores. I also like to chill at a cafe so I will definitely be down to hop cafes as well.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to appreciate every instructor and friends who have helped me push through, but if I had to pick one person it would be my mentor Deshawn da price. He is an instructor/ choreographer who works at BDC and own a dance company called “Royal Thieves”, he has been a great mentor for me and he helped me in every way possible. Without him I don’t think I would’ve been the same Yoshiki as today.

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