Daily Inspiration: Meet Cole Mills

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cole Mills.

Cole, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Born in Brooklyn, New York but raised on the Jersey shore. It was 1999, and my mother brought me to dance competition she was entering with her dance instructor at the time. I watched a young competitor by the name of Kiki Nyemchyek, and I told my mom I wanted to dance like that. Fast forward, I found myself training at Maks & Val Chmerkovskiy’s dance studio in Saddle Brook NJ, with many familiar names from Television over the last 15 years. Those years were filled with international travel and many achievements as a young latin dancesport competitor, while maintaining a double life playing Football & Lacrosse throughout my school years. As Maks & Val went to Hollywood, the studio dispersed and I found myself studying in college before I would rejoin my peers in Hollywood some six years later.

The five years in the University was full of achievements and accolades that would set me up to dance professionally for a company in NY while finishing my undergrad. Upon Graduating, I signed with an agency and began working on television before I auditioned for SYTYCD the first time in 2017, making it to the top 50. Trained the rest of that year, moved out to LA in the beginning of the following year to continue my training, and made the top ten on season 15 in 2018. That changed my life, putting me in a place to really launch my career to the next point. Currently working on various tv shows as a dancer and choreographer, Faculty member on the Heat Dance Convention, and represented as an athlete by two athletic brands. I am passionate about being more than just an artist, and a dancer, but also representing a dancer that is a new breed of athlete. This has brought my studies into the world of athletics and working with Top Tier professional athletes as a movement coach, studying, analyzing, and reprogramming the mind to produce a more efficient outcome. As I pursue my career and its many evolving heads, I have found that I am my favorite test subject, and all the data I collect is applied to what tricks I premiere on tour next or how I recover from this high impact lifestyle.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I have been bullied my entire life, and thus have lived a double life for as long as I can remember. Constantly having to prove myself, and even still to this day. It is not common for a young heterosexual boy to dance, and then dance in high school, then college, then still continue to pursue a career that cannot offer the stability needed for a 401k, or a mortgage, etc. I have had less people offer assistance than offer scrutiny and judgement. My life has been built off of adversity, and me believing in myself more than anyone else ever could. Bullying has different faces at certain stages, and when you are an adult, it bec0mes ridicule and public shame. My success is proof that believing in yourself is the greatest power a human being can wield. Even though I was a troubled in school, and got into trouble with the law, and worked at a bagel shop to fund my career, I can tell this story with my head held high knowing what I have accomplished when my friends, family, and peers in the community wanted to see me fail.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am amongst a very small community of internationally trained and experienced latin dancer with classical training. That has put me in a place to be the most diverse latin male ever to step on SYTYCD, in the words of Nigel Lythgoe and allowed me to speak fluently with athletes of all shapes, sizes, and specialties. My work in the athletic field lead me to fence at a high level while continuing my training as a professional dancer. It is quite difficult to articulate it all in a small summary haha. -20 years of latin dance sport -five years of Classical Ballet/Modern Dance training -15 + years in action sports -15 + years of contact sports -ten + years of coaching/teaching dance -ten years of coaching athletes -Aspiring Fencer -Esports Driver.

Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
I have a few mentors/coaches that I owe a lot to. And you don’t find them, they find you along your journey of being honest and putting all that you have to offer on the table. Working hard in class without seeing if they see you, coaches will gravitate who they see that wants to learn the information be given. The more you present a yearn to improve, a mentor with extend his/her energy to see that you succeed. Then it becomes a two way street, the more the student gives, the more the mentor matches the energy of their student, in order to push them to exceed beyond their own limitations. At least that is how I came to learn, and what I look for when mentoring a student.

Contact Info:

• Email: colealexandermills93@gmail.com
• Instagram: @mrcolemills
  
• Facebook: facebook.com/colealexandermills
• Twitter: twitter.com/mr_colemills
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfyS1y14QRUgyNONDI7fSvg?view_as=subscriber
• Other: Twitch.com/mrcolemills

Image Credits
Vince Trupsin