Richard Vazquez, lives in Orange County’s Huntington Beach. He got inspired in performing and dancing in 2004 when he started attending Westminster High School. He was in the color guard team, head captain and ever since he loved performing. After graduating from high school he began teaching color guard at Westminster High and coached for two years.
Dancing and performing has been in his blood since he was a child, although as a child he wasn’t enrolled in any dance classes or had anybody show him what dance really was, he just knew he loved performing in front of people, it was simply his passion.
Even though he loved dancing and performing as a child, is not until Richard went to Orange Coast College where he discovered the Dance Department and took his first dance class. In his second year at OCC Richard started taking ballet and jazz with former principal dancer of Ballet Hispanico of New York, Jose Costas and modern dance with Shana, Menaker. This experience changed his life and he knew then he wanted to become a professional dancer.
At OCC Richard participated in multiples Faculty and Student Dance concerts as a dancer as well as a choreographer in 2014 when he had the opportunity to create a color guard dance piece for the Student Dance Concert. He also got a scholarship to participate in the American College Dance Festival several years in a row. While training at OCC under the tutelage of Jose Costas, he has had the opportunity to dance in Mr. Costas pieces, amongst them, The Target, #barrasybarreras, A will to Control, and most recently, Bongo Concerto. He is honored to be part of Contempo Ballet.
