German Massimino

"Since I consider that human beings are very special beings in this world, we shape the reality of what happens, and it happens precisely because we are creators. From the inside out, we make things happen that did not happen before. That is what it means to be a creative being. So what was inside of me may have been a passion. If that passion, with so much fire and power, never comes out of that darkness inside, it will never end up shaping something new outside. Passion is the force that makes new things appear and changes the world."

"For me, it is healthy to follow my passion because if it is not, it feels like you are somehow denying who you are. If you deny your purpose, you are denying a little voice inside that says, I want that, I want that. But if you do not listen to it, you are covering up a person you could maybe become."

"There are moments when you doubt, when you question your path, asking, does this fulfill me, should I keep doing it or not, does it make sense to keep going or not. These are questions. I do not know if they are normal or not, but they are understandable, especially for people working in the arts. Art is a mirror of who we are inside. When there are things to confront or surpass in your life, complications, problems, whatever it might be, these moments make you reflect and question things. From this point, you may not know how to express it, but it transforms into what we call art."

"The most difficult part of following my passion is the day to day balance between creativity and economics, especially in our country's economic context. There are times when you need to enter a routine to make ends meet. But routine, while necessary for survival, can clash with creativity. Adapting to survive day to day, to have what I need, while breaking free to create, to leave the routine and create new things, these are two different modes. It was difficult at first, but then you get the hang of it. That was my biggest challenge and also my pride. My interest is not to live longer, but to live more."

"This was the win. But for me, it was a personal challenge because of how things are. It was living day to day during the economic crisis, having to reinvent myself somehow, to keep going creatively, to keep believing in my dreams, to show myself in a competition where people were also doing the same. It was a challenge for myself to remember that this is what I want to do, that I want to make a living dancing. I remembered why I wanted to pursue this and it activated me to work harder for it. It was a wake up call to go all in at that moment."

"The advice I have for a person who does not yet know what their passion is, I think, is first to breathe. To stop a little on that airplane of life. There are moments to stop and simply reflect on who you are, where you are, and what your life is like. Reflect on what your relationships are like, what connection you have with your family, with your friends. Simply stopping and questioning yourself makes the muscle in the head start again, instead of being in a mechanical mode doing only what helped you survive. Once you remember and say there was one, there were two, there were three, and of those three, two were similar, then maybe that is where your passion goes. Reflecting means stopping and gaining self-knowledge about the state you are in."

"The trigger was a video my dad showed me of Michael Jackson. I was about six years old when I first saw the moonwalk. I thought, wow, I did not know the human body could do that, tell fictional stories, and convey so much. From that moment, I said, wow, I want to do that. I started practicing every day in front of a mirror at home, a small mirror in my house. Standing still at first, it was hard to move around because I had been practicing stationary with a small mirror. Later, when I discovered clowns, the circus, and so on, I realized you could tell a story not just with full body movement, but even while standing still, just with facial expressions."

"The first time I attended a freestyle hip hop battle, I felt incredibly alive. It is a very short experience, maybe two or three minutes, where one dancer goes, then another. It is all improvisation. You do not know what music will play. You do not know the DJ. You just know the jury and your opponent. It is a raw, spontaneous moment, which to me feels like life itself, being present and alive. That feeling made me realize that dance helps me find myself. The sensation is hard to explain, but it is like finding a moment that makes everything worthwhile. You literally feel the moment. You are alive, fully present, and grateful."

"My passion, which luckily I found, is dance. Dance mixed with a bit of clowning. From the moment I discovered it, I knew it filled me with joy, and it felt like I had found my personality, so to speak. It is a mix of movement, lots of facial expression, and humor. The trigger was a video my dad showed me of Michael Jackson. I was about six years old when I first saw the moonwalk. I thought, wow, I did not know the human body could do that, tell fictional stories, and convey so much. From that moment, I said, wow, I want to do that. I started practicing every day in front of a mirror at home, a small mirror in my house."