Every person has a passion of their own, for many the performing arts is a special calling for many special individuals such as Cerritos College student, Daniel Monroy, he has came a long way on discovering his passion for the arts.

Monroy, dance major, has been dancing for Cerritos College for about two years.

“I started dancing because I met a girl at a party and she told me about the dance programs at Cerritos so in my smart mind, I thought it would be a good idea to take a class and that’s how I might win her heart. mI ended up liking dancing more than the girl,” he said.

Monroy eventually continued taking dance classes, especially ballet.

Since he was a child, Monroy always wanted to do ballet but his parents didn’t let him pursue this at first.

“My parents didn’t let me do ballet because they said that it would make me less of a man if I danced ballet, which is not true,” he said.

Ballet was always something fascinated him from an early age and to this day it is a dance that he mainly performs.

“I think [dancing ballet] is beautiful to see one guy surrounded by a bunch of beautiful girls and by lifting them [while dancing] it shows how a strong or masculine a person can be while still looking pretty,” he explained.

Monroy has only lived in the United States for about four years and as accomplished a lot of skill in dance.

He was born in the United States to Mexican parents.

He grew up in Mexico City after his parents divorced when he was about six months old.

At the age of 18, Monroy traveled to the U.S. to experience new opportunities.

Moving to a country was not easy at first, he recalls that he was homesick and would “cry every night” for the first two years.

He eventually got used to the American lifestyle of living in the U.S. and got over his homesickness.

Dance has been a universal language for Monroy which has become something special for him personally.

“Overall I like dance [because] it gives me a way to express myself and communicate with other people in a different way,” he stated.

One of his main obstacles on living in the U.S.was juggling to learn a new language and to custom to it.

“Sometimes I feel like that I have a language barrier, people don’t really understand me what I’m saying because of my accent, people don’t really get the context of what I say, when it comes to dance it’s much more open,” he explained.

After two years of dancing for Cerritos College, Monroy will transfer to UC Riverside in the Fall and will continue his passion for dance there.

“I chose UC Riverside because they have research-based program [dance department] where they do a lot of research in dance. They also have a post-modern approach to things like classes on experimental choreography and contact improvisation and I really like that specific type of dance,” he explained.

Monroy hopes to not only pursue a Bachelor’s degree but also a higher education degree such as a PhD in dance, research about different cultures and dances.

His long term goal is to one day open his own dance company and develop his own dances.

Monroy will strive to shoot for the stars and will put Cerritos College’s name up high in wherever he goes.