The Man Behind the Beats Gabriel Furman’s Journey From MTV Break Dancing Coach to Eventique DJ
If you remember the iconic dance battles from the 2006 movie “Step Up” with Channing Tatum, then you have an idea of what Eventique DJ and Event Manager Gabriel Furman’s life was like 15 years ago. “I used to be a professional break dancer, so I traveled the world doing choreography and dancing for musical artists. I was in the underground hip-hop world, and that’s where I started DJing old-school hip-hop and house for New York City dance competitions,” he says. Unlike “Step Up,” the underground clubs Gabriel DJed and battled in were the real thing. Eventually, he landed a spot as a break dancing coach on “MTV MADE,” where he taught a shy bookworm named Sam to let go of her fears and learn to break dance. Gabriel never expected to get the part; he actually went to the audition to support a friend. But that one-episode role changed the course of his life. “I got an email from a fan, a 12-year-old girl, who said she was going to commit suicide until she saw my episode and got
really inspired by how much I loved dancing. That email gave me the courage to become an actor and really pursue that dream,” he says. Today, Gabriel balances his DJ and event management work for Eventique with acting and scriptwriting side hustles. One of the short films he made through his production company, Former Children Productions, was recently licensed by HBO and will soon become a TV series. This isn’t the path Gabriel thought his life would take — after graduating from the School of Visual Arts, he planned to make a living creating special effects for blockbuster movies — but he loves exercising his creativity for Eventique’s clients. While Gabriel is an excellent event manager, he says DJing is his “happy place,” especially when he can create soundscapes for corporate events with crowds of over 100 people. “Most concert DJs have everything pre-planned, but when you DJ an event, you really want to have people experience the moment. You need to be able to read the crowd, have an almost symbiotic flow between you, and be open to how their mood influences the song
you should be playing. When that happens, and the music hits them, it’s an amazing feeling, and you want to maintain that throughout the event,” he says. Gabriel’s extensive expertise in stage performance and passion for corporate events makes him the perfect DJ for high-profile awards ceremonies. This year, he DJed for Eventique’s 50th anniversary production of “The One Show,” one of the world’s premier award shows for the digital marketing, advertising, and design industries.
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