At the start of every young dancers career there is always that “one job” that starts the ball rolling.  For Hani Abaza a young Canadian dancer at the time, moving to Los Angeles to follow his dream was a risky path full of struggle.  Adele was the first artist Hani Abaza ever worked for settling in LA to follow his dream.  At the time it was Adele’s first single to be later released 6 months after shooting.  Choreographed by the incomparableMarguerite Derricks, this music video was the perfect job for Hani Abaza to work his way into the commercial entertainment industry in Hollywood.  Adele is now an Icon in the music of our generation and Hani is proud to be among those who have got to work with her first.

https://vimeo.com/73081759

In 2010 the MTV Video Music Awards marked the first ever live performance by a world renown artist with contemporary dancers backing her up.  Florence and The Machine originally from the UK released her debut single ” The Dog Days Are Over” on this prestigious award show and chose to feature contemporary dance in her artistic vision.  Choreographer Travis Wall created a visually exciting performance which Hani Abaza was one of the 12 Featured Male dancers to grace the stage.  Hani Abaza worked closely with the production, performing for a star studded audience live at the Nokia stadium in Los Angeles California and broadcasted International for the MTV brand.

                              ” A moment I will never forget that started a rumble in myself that no words can explain”   – Hani Abaza

Hani works as a featured performer with world renown Artist Kelly Clarkson for release of her new song ” Mr. Know it All.”  This awesome performance starts with Hani Abaza in the house of the  MTV American Music Awards among a star studded audience delivering a comedy sketch styled like the old school movie “Newsies.”  This performance was a crowd pleaser and breath of fresh air featuring a contemporary and jazz style of dance backing up the diva Kelly.  Tons of great reviews followed this performance, a perfect way for Mrs Kelly Clarkson to make her comeback.

Hani Abaza in Blue

From Creation to Openning and through the following year Hani Abaza worked for the Cirque Du Soleil corporation as a featured dancer and Swing of Cirques Criss Angel Believe at the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas Nevada.  Believe was Choreographed by world famous choreographer Wade Robson who Hani had the honor of working close with on this project.  Among a small cast of 14 dancers this show was voted #1 dance show on the Los Vegas Strip soon after opening.

Criss Angel Believe is the sixth Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas, which was premiered at the beLIEve theatre (which holds 1,600 when at capacity) inside the Luxor hotel in Las Vegas in 2008. It is a theatrical production created in partnership of Cirque du Soleil and magician Criss Angel, who is billed as the “co-writer, illusions creator and designer, original concept creator and star” of the show.

If anyone has seen the movie “Selena”, you will understand completely how this project was my own Selena moment.  In the movie Jennifer Lopez transforms into the Mexican music legend Selena Quintanilla. At this point you’re probably thinking I dressed up in drag and sang Latin top 40 hits, but oh no… What I mean is that I transformed into the amazing and controversial Brazilian icon Renato Russo. I studied Renato for weeks and learned the exact nuances and quality of his movements. I somehow learned 3 Portuguese songs and got a full makeover with prosthetics and even teeth to age me 25 years.  Ten days later together with the brilliant minds at Holition and V-Squared Labs, we put together a 20 minute set of Renato’s greatest hits and created a live hologram that would go on and perform in the opening ceremony of the Mané Garrincha stadium in Brazil which would soon host the world cup later that year. My pop star dreams come true!

This was one of my most interesting jobs to date to say the least. What made it even more special was the clients that hired us were the late Renato Russo’s son and manager. I remember their faces when they saw me rehearse for the first time. After the first ten minutes his manager told me “stop performing, I’ve seen enough.” I was so worried they hated my performance, but all he persisted to say was ” Thank you, my friend. We have seen enough because it hurts us too much to watch how real your performance is.  We miss Renato and now we will go. Good luck, my son.”

While Hani’s career is evolving and growing into artistic direction and choreography, he still cherishes the moments he is asked to perform for an audience. Hani’s solo work combines athleticism with relentless exploration of movement, and here is a video of his solo performance on the 3rd season of So You Think You Can Dance Vietnam, followed by snippets of work from the show.