Politics
Gregory Hines: Canadian backup dancer and entertainer turned politician
Kevin Bourne of Shift Magazine, recently had a discussion with Canadian New Democratic Party (NDP) political candidate Gregory Hines. Hines has had a varied career in the entertainment industry, and has switched gears and is now in Canada’s political arena.
Kevin Bourne: So we are here with Greg Hines (not with the world famous Gregory Hines), but this is another Greg Hines who is also a dancer. So we are talking today because he is not just a dancer, he is now a political candidate for the NDP (New Democratic Party) party in the Markham-Stouffville riding. Just for full disclosure, he is a friend of mine. I have known him for many years and he is now making his step into the political arena, so we are kind of getting to pick his brain a little about the entertainment industry, about politics and also looking to give you inspiration about how to get into those fields yourself.
First question: How did you get into the whole dancing thing? Where did that start for you?
Gregory Hines: I started when I was younger, when I was about 10, 11, 12 years old. I loved hip-hop. I got into hip-hop a little late, but Bobby Brown, Michael Jackson – those are the kind of guys who got me into dancing. I wasn’t the best at dancing; I was just really good. But when I went to school I was the nerd or the class clown. I thought that the only thing that could get me out of that arena for a minute was dancing.
How I actually started dancing professionally was I met a friend of mine who I was going to school with. Everyone knows him as Luther Brown. He was one of the judges on So You Think You Can Dance Canada. Back in school we would always learn some little dance moves here and there because I used to love dance; because it was the only time I could feel like I was somebody. So I went into dance 100 percent, but my passion at that time was acting. I was trying to use dance as a platform, though I loved it, to one day get into acting and comedy, but it did not work out that way.
KB: So who are some of the people you have danced for?
GH: Jully Black, Glen Lewis, Sean Desman, Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, Dru Hill, Mase, Missy Elliot, Eve and Gwen Stefani just to name a few. Maestro for sure was one of my favorite tours as well. Our first big gig was Horse and Carriage; that was Camron and Mase. It was the first video that we ever got to do and Luther had to go all the way down to New York. I am telling you, Luther taught us the whole routine on the bus. We were sitting on the bus and then we would stop, we’d get off and start learning the routine, so by the time we got to New York we knew the routine. You know, dancing is a kind of thing where you just have to believe that you’re able. It’s not faking it, but you have to just believe that you’re already a professional. After that it just spiraled.
KB: And then so from there you went on to start a dance company or dance school of your own.
GH: Before I even started the school, 9/11 happened. I think after that I changed my whole view on what I wanted to do. I was going to propose to my wife when 9/11 happened so that didn’t work out. But as I came back home, my wife and I both decided, because she was also a dancer as well on Do Dat, we were just going to leave it, start something new, start something fresh. I didn’t want to do dance in the beginning, but 2004 is when we actually started doing our own classes and that’s when DOAHL was born.
KB: And what does DOAHL stand for?
