For those who don't know her, Alessandra Mai Vinh is a professional dancer and model known for her incredible exquisite fashion sense.
She effortlessly combines her Vietnamese and Italian heritage with a splash of NYC and Los Angeles, where she currently lives.
In Italy, she became famous for working on TV shows and with A-list artists as a dancer and choreographer and here in the States she had the chance to work with globally renowned brands like American Express, Lyft, Black Magic Design, and Netflix and she also gave a professionalizing talk at the Department of Dance and Theater of The University of Texas.
I'm meeting Alessandra via zoom, she's calling me from her local breakfast spot, Republique, in Los Angeles. The sound of the metals spoons and coffee cups takes me immediately to Italy, so is her accent.
Hello Alessandra, you seem so cool and down to earth!
Thank you! Working as an artist in Los Angeles keeps you humble for sure! You are surrounded by amazing talent and face rejection every single day! But I love to dance! I wouldn't have it any other way.
How did your love for dance start?
It happened by pure chance. As a teenager, I used to have a bad posture and a family friend suggested my mother to enroll me in dance classes, and from the very first class, I knew that it was going to be my career. Since I was 13 I had very clear ideas about my future.
If you were not a dancer, what would you be?
I would be an English teacher like my mother.
What do you like most about being a dancer and what do you like least?
I like that dance creates a parallel world where I can live an imaginary life. The thing that I like the least it's auditioning in heels on a floor that is wet because of the sweat. It makes me so nervous to fall! I end up falling anyway because the law of attraction works. The more you fear something the most likely it's gonna happen.
What was your best project/show you did?
A few years ago, I had the chance to close the show for Jennifer Lopez at Madison Square Garden. That was one of the most exciting moments of my life. I was on cloud nine. After the show, I was walking to the subway while looking at the Empire State Building's lights shining on Midtown, I was so deeply grateful and proud of myself that I could cry. For someone coming from a small town in Italy, it's a big deal.
What advice would you give someone that wants to become a professional dancer?
Be consistent, don't be afraid to ask for what you want, and be a good human and great things will happen. I promise!
Photographer: Thomas Louvagny