From "So You Think You Can Dance" and sharing original choreography on YouTube to viral TikTok influencers, every day is a chance for Vik White and Aubrey Fisher to improve their craft, do what they love, and perform with confidence.
When I asked Vik White (also known as Slavik Pustovoytov) and Aubrey Fisher what they do when they aren’t choreographing fresh new dance moves for TikTok, their answers were surprisingly normal. You can often catch these two hanging out at each other’s house, in the streets of Hollywood and Los Angeles, cracking jokes, and sharing clothes whenever the other needs a new fit.
Laughing, Vik tells me it might be weird, but the two are literally the same size, shoe and all. In their TikToks, they are always sportin’ the freshest street style looks from their fave brand: boohooMan. Even Ellen Degeneres gifted them short-sleeve hoodies to add to their collection when they appeared on her show this past April. And while these Tiktokers hit the gym and chill with friends on the reg, dance still represents everything to them.
“Every day is like something needs to evolve, needs to get better, our lives revolve around that,” says Vik about their dancing.
Being primarily self-taught, Vik and Aubrey embarked on their own journeys before becoming friends and creating videos together. Aubrey recalls how he slid into Vik’s DMs on Instagram to collab, but Vik never responded (much like my childhood crush lol). Connected by a few mutual friends and one reply from Vik later, these two began growing their social media platforms together. First, their videos became successful on Instagram and since taking their talents to TikTok, they’ve blown up there too. After two years of working together, they have gained millions of followers combined.
After watching them perform on Hollywood Boulevard or Santa Monica, it’s hard to imagine these two guys as anything but dancers. However, their journeys to fame are quite unique.
Vik was born and raised in Ukraine before he moved to Oklahoma at twelve years old. No one in his hometown was invested in dance, so it was something he had to learn on his own. He made it his mission to move to the West Coast where he knew he could grow as a performer. After high school, he relocated to Vegas where he began training, going to dance battles, and meeting people in the industry. In 2018, he placed fourth as a finalist on So You Think You Can Dance. He then started to make videos of himself and post them on Instagram capturing the attention of people from all over the world.
Aubrey grew up in Pasadena, where he danced and played basketball as a kid. After taking a break from dance, he was re-inspired and decided he wanted to pursue dancing as a career. He started a YouTube Channel where he posted dancing videos to popular songs by artists like Justin Bieber. In 2020, Aubrey went viral on TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter for participating in a dance challenge to the song “The Box” by Roddy Rich. So if you see me out in public trying to lean as far as I can, don’t worry I’m just doing #TheBoxLean. Community is everything for Aubrey, and the more people he was able to surround himself with in the dance industry, the more energized he became to keep growing.
Watch one TikTok video and you will be mesmerized by the effortlessness of their movements and how smoothly they weave into each other. In a single day, they can come up with three dances. Each takes about an hour to choreograph, then they practice it a few times, and once it’s perfect they record. The process hasn’t always been this quick of a turn around, but their ability to come up with new ideas gets easier every day. The ideas just come to them and they go with it, much like being a writer.
The confidence these young dancers exude when they are doing what they love comes mostly from building habits. One video is all it takes to watch these guys thrive in public. It doesn’t matter how many tourists pull their phones out to record them, Vik and Aubrey perform with exactitude and swag. Yet, getting to this point needed work. When they first started dancing in public, the guys admitted they struggled with nerves. Regardless, they always pushed themselves to go outside of their comfort zone.
“It’s all about having the mindset of not being afraid and just going out and having fun,” Aubrey said.
Performing in public is something that makes Vik and Aubrey stand out among other dancers. Not only do they perform in LA, but they have danced in several places across the globe. In May, Vik posted a captivating video of him dancing with what appears to be a floating yellow suitcase in Barcelona. This idea was inspired by a YouTube video of a magician who used mime to create the same illusion. Vik thought it would be cool to add dance and his own twist to the original content. When he and his friend Isaiah Shinn, who films most of their professional style videos, landed in Barcelona, they shot the video in one take before they were off to their other meetings. Vik amusingly revealed that en route from Los Angeles to Barcelona, they had to carry the empty yellow suitcase on the plane with them, layovers and all.
“We just had an empty suitcase with us for no reason,” Vik recounts with a laugh.
Vik and Aubrey continue to have an open mind about where they are going next in their careers even as they soak in their success. Their trust in themselves, in each other, and in their talent keeps them focused on improving their skills and making content together, whether they are at home in LA or miles away in Paris.
These TikTok dancers journey to self-confidence is inspiring to young artists. It’s a necessary reminder to break the bad habits that are letting fear get in the way of doing whatever the fuck you love.
Did you enjoy this article? Then you should follow MUD on Instagram to get more content like this.