This article originally appeared in United Dance Magazine Issue 1
Emrhys Cooper is about to explode from his West End beginnings to a role in the movie adaptation of Mamma Mia. He spoke to Petah Marian about passion, confidence and ambition — his central ingredients for success.
Growing up in Totnes, Devon, Emrhys Cooper started dancing as a child. Joining in instead of getting a baby sitter while his sister was at dance class, it was a situation that threw the six year-old Cooper headlong into his first real passion. “I loved prancing around. I got into jazz, modern, ballet and tap and highland as well, I just really enjoyed it”. Interested in the competitive and performing aspects of dance, Cooper faced no difficulties as a male dancer until the age of fourteen. As his friends began drinking and socialising, there was some difficulty for a boy split between living a teenage life and following his passion. “I kept to myself really, but I never got bullied as such. I did get a bit of a hard time, and a guy doing ballet in ballet shoes and tights is not the coolest thing, but I never worried about what other people said.”
While it was hard at the time, Emrhys was convinced that his choices would pay off. “I always knew in the end that I’d be going on stage and earning loads more money. I always saw the bigger picture and I always knew that I’d go on to do bigger things than they were”. After two years of Ballet College, he realised that his heart was in commercial and hip- hop music, causing him to transfer to Laine Theatre Arts in Epsom. Since then, he’s been lucky enough to be working ever since. Having already worked on super West End Musical productions such as ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘Fame’, as well as featured videos with the Sugababes and Madonna.
He doesn’t even think he’s had his big break yet, even though he is set to begin shooting a supporting role in Mamma Mia with Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan. Highly ambitious, Cooper sees many possibilities for himself in the future. He’s highly focused on maintaining direct control of his career, and wants to direct and produce music videos such as frequent Britney Spears-collaborator Brian Friedman. In the meantime, he’s also hoping that his movie career takes off and that he’s able to move between dancing and singing.
It’s clear that Cooper would also like to be able to inspire people, particularly young men that share his love of performing. He would like to promote dance as a possible career, and offers words of advice to young performers dreaming of breaking into the industry; “Stick to it and give it 100%. Don’t let anyone knock your con?dence. Anyone can do it. I’ve seen so many people go to dance college who were really bad to start off with, and who come out really amazing dancers. It’s very hard work but if you’ve got passion for it and stick with it, anyone can do it”.
With an attitude like that, we should expect big things of this star-in-the-making.