When you think of a ballerina, you probably have a stock image in mind, a slim, willowy figure with long legs and a torso that move with effortless grace across the stage. The men, also have a lean but heavily muscled physique, with arms and legs capable of lifting their female counterparts high above their heads and carrying them from one end of the stage to the other.
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Erik Cavanaugh has neither body type.
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But that’s why he rose to Internet stardom a couple years ago, when the New York Post featured some of his videos on its Facebook page.
He was later interviewed by other media outlets including People and Forbes, and that same year, he was a contestant on Season 11 of America’s Got Talent (although he was eliminated in the Judge Cuts and his audition was never televised).
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Dancing is something the 25-year-old Pittsburgh native has pursued since 2010, when he was a junior in high school. He may be plus-size, but he can leap, pirouette and do mid-air splits with a grace that belies his size, and ultimately hopes to dance professionally, choreograph and open his own studio.
And he has his fair share of supporters who are behind him every step of the way, including brother Ryan:
Erik has put in years of training with dance and years of frustration of being treated differently and being told that his body image wouldn’t fit the dance world. But he didn’t give up.
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He was referring, in part, to the fact that none of the colleges to which Erik applied would accept him because his body type didn’t fit their preconceived notion of what a dancer should look like. Only after re-applying to Slippery Rock University’s dance program was he able to continue toward his professional goals.
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He graduated in 2016 and now, according to his YouTube channel, he’s “on a mission to prove that dance is for everyBODY and anyBODY who wants to do it!â€
Most of the time that you see a male model, he’s going to be physically fit, toned, masculine man and not someone who look(s) like me. The male body isn’t as publicized as the female body is. There’s not enough male presence in the world that show men can be different sizes and shapes.
Watch Erik demonstrate some of the moves he’s spent the last eight years perfecting in the clip below, and share if you agree everybody should follow their passions, no matter what obstacles stand in their way!
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