SHE oozes confidence, can transform an ordinary dance routine into a mind-blowing piece of choreography and it would not be an overstatement to say that this woman eats, sleeps and breathes dance.

Internationally renowned dancer and choreographer, Jae Blaze has certainly come a long way from the troublesome kid who couldn’t stop getting into trouble in her Canada homeland.

With a laugh Jae Blaze told the Sunday Observer how dancing totally changed her life.

“When I first started out I was just a rug rat, getting in a lot of trouble, stealing, fighting. I was just bad, I gave my mom a lot of trouble,” she explained; adding that things changed when she started going to the community centre.

Jae Blaze took part in talent shows before going on to being in music videos. “It was just a snowball effect,” said Jae Blaze as she pointed out that it was inevitable that she would eventually end up being involved in the field she is now.

“I have no hobbies, when I am not dancing I am thinking about it,” said the highly sought after, award-winning, Jae Blaze, who recently did dancehall a great favour when she utilised Vybz Kartel’s popular Clarks on the televised talent show, So You Think You Can Dance Canada.

Among her other credits are the 2003 MTV Best Dance Video award for Sean Paul’s Get Busy and the 2003 Source Award for Best International Video for K-OS’s Superstar Part 0, in which she danced and choreographed. Her show credits include Jennifer Hudson and Beyonce for the Academy Awards, Fergie and Will.i.am for the American Music Awards, Snoop Dogg for the European Music awards, Common Sense and Nelly for the BET Awards and VH1 Hip Hop honours for various artistes. After Jamie Fox’s Unpredictable Tour, Jae continued to choreograph and artistically direct promotional tours for Akon, Fergie, Hillary Duff, Nelly Furtado, and Nicole Scherzinger.

Born in Canada to Jamaican parents, Jae Blaze obviously knows and understands the Jamaican culture. “Although I was born in Canada, I grew up very Jamaican,” she said; adding that Toronto is very big on Jamaican culture.

Jae, who has been touring with the Black Eyed Peas used her one-week break to slip into Jamaica for her friend Razor B’s video shoot, and that’s how we caught up with the busy dancer/choreographer.

Now back on tour with Black Eye Peas, she is off to Brazil.

Currently, Jae is busy doing her thing, but looking ahead she says in the next five years she would like to be at a place in her life where she is able to go into artistic direction.

“I would love to direct tours and big award shows — you know build something from nothing — like opening my own dance studio offering classes to underprivileged children,” Jae mused.

Jae, who is strong on family, says no matter how busy she is she ensures she spends time with her 15-year-old son. “I’m very involved in his life,” she said even as she thanked God for the support she has received from her family.

Jae says when she can’t be with him she stays in touch with him through Facebook and other means.

Her advice to upcoming dancers is simple, “Make sure you know that this is what you wanna do. Be ready to improve, you can’t hit a wall and then say ‘this is too hard’. Be elite at what you do and always be prepared to seize an opportunity.”