DEXTER MAYFIELD
The plus- size dancer who refuses to be defined by his size
Since making his runway debut in 2015, larger- than- life dancing queen Dexter Mayfield has shaken his stuff with Katy Perry and Taylor Swift. Now, he’s set his sights on becoming the first “fat- bodied” superhero. For Dexter, size ain’t nothing but a number…
Dexter Mayfield’s story starts like every great Hollywood triumph: “I took my tax refund, and moved to LA.” His may not be a name you’re familiar with, but his unique look means that if you’ve seen Dexter you’ll be sure to remember him. Having already appeared in music videos for the likes of J Lo, he became a viral star in 2015, when he walked, stripped, strutted and popped ’ n’ locked down the LA Fashion Week runway for fashion designer Marco Marco. In doing so, Dexter became one of the only plus- size, black, gay men to take to the catwalk during Fashion Week.
A conversation with Dexter is like a catch- up with an old friend. We speak about how he’s learned to create his own opportunities in every imaginable space, his advice on how to use tokenism to our advantage, dating, why body positivity isn’t about ‘ fat people’, and the Black Lives Matter movement.
“It was the Marco Marco runway that changed everything,” says Dexter. “All the opportunities started flooding in. What I took from that is, if I open myself up to my LGBTQ family, that’s what really thrusted my career in the right direction, and allowed me to be me, more Dexter.”
This opening up to his LGBTQ family came at an important time for Dexter, who moved to LA to see just how far he could take his dreams. He was born and raised in Texas, and as a kid who stood out, he was always looking for another way to express himself. He took up dance and fell in love.
“I got into dance as a form of fitness,” he says as we video- chat, him in LA and me in London. “It was about 12 or 13 years ago. I was at a really critical crossroads in my life. It helped get me through a lot of things I was going through. I realised, I really do enjoy this and the growth aspect of this. I started training with professional dancers. [ But] it was a
very limited space for opportunity, especially as a bigger person.”
He soon realised he’d need to spread his wings a bit further when a dance director let Dexter know that he didn’t have the right ‘ look’, a euphemism about his weight: “In Houston, a dance director came up to me and said, ‘ Dexter, whenever I choose my dancers, I look at the full picture and part of that picture is the look, and you don’t have the look.’”
Cut to 2014, and Dexter was shooting music videos, filming commercials and travelling the world with the live tour of
How to Train Your Dragon. Embracing what makes you different is often touted as the key to finding opportunities, particularly in the LGBTQ community, however, I couldn’t help but wonder how Dexter navigates an industry where tokenism, representation and inclusion are still incredibly mismanaged.
“I’ve always had to address tokenism, not just in words, but in action, and from the beginning, I’ve been an advocate for diversity, growth and change in any space,” he says. “There are certain points that you have to hit in a creative, and if a creative requires a certain look… but what you then have to do is not rely on that tokenism and really show that you’re much more than what you think this character, role or position should be. I focus on what I can do to really make my talent speak for itself. You let that opportunity grow to something it can be beyond that. Case in point, the Taylor Swift [ You Need to Calm Down] music video. It changed my life. It really can open so many doors for you.”
Making tokenism work for him, Dexter is happy capitalising on his body, enjoying every shimmy as he does so. “It’s LA, and I’m a big go- go boy — that just doesn’t happen. It may be tokenism, but there seems to be a genuine interest in putting forward different types of bodies. But, again, it’s what you do with that opportunity. The second I got up [ on the podium], people were confused. I tell you, those are some of the most fun nights I’ve had!”
It’s these unapologetic, dynamic moments when Dexter lights up, and I’m reminded of the debate that kicked off when Adele, the world’s favourite plus- sized superstar, lost weight. People who had felt represented by her as a larger woman started to feel betrayed, while others thought she was merely looking after her health, with some even surmising that she can’t have been ‘ happy’.
For the first time, Dexter’s playful tone loses its lightness: “I personally think that if anybody decides to lose weight or make a transformation, whatever their decision, we should support their decision. Body positivity does not mean body positivity for just fat bodies. It means body positivity for every single body on the planet. If a person who is bigger decides to lose weight, that is beautiful and that is their choice. [ It’s not about] saying a fat person is not in control of their life. What this means is that someone has decided to make a change, and if they decide to lose weight, support them through their journey — when they’re bigger, when they’re getting smaller, when they backtrack.
“What people forget is that when we transform ourselves, we are extremely vulnerable because we are implementing significant change – to beat anybody down for not having the ‘ right’ body, it’s just wrong. My weight fluctuates, depending on the work I get. If I have a cruise contract where I’m performing six days a week, my body is physically going to change. If I am at home during a global pandemic, my body
“it may be tokenism, but there seems to be a genuine interest in putting forward different types of bodies”