Dylon Hoffpauir is a wearer of many hats, but you might also find him in elaborate dance costumes or a cheer uniform.
As the 2019 Mr. Apollo Baton Rouge and Recruitment Coordinator for the Manship School of Mass Communication, Hoffpauir stays busy. Thankfully, a busy lifestyle isn’t unfamiliar territory to him.
Hoffpauir graduated from the University in 2014 after being on the LSU cheer team for three years. He started cheering his sophomore year with little cheer experience other than being on the Erath High School cheer team for six months and teaching himself how to tumble in his backyard.
“I can’t even begin to explain the feeling of cheering at an LSU game,” Hoffpauir said. “I can definitely say that it’s a feeling that I will never forget.”
While Hoffpauir cheered during his time at college, he was also busy learning for his dance minor at the University. He began dancing during his sophomore year and had the opportunity to work with Diavolo Architecture in Motion dance studio straight after college.
Diavolo travels around the country and finds talented dancers to train and work alongside. Hoffpauir received a scholarship to dance with them in Los Angeles during the summer. And transformed as a dancer. He said that his most memorable moment was getting to dance alongside Diavolo dancers in a performance.
Straight after his training with Diavolo, he moved to Orlando to work in entertainment at Disney World. Hoffpauir then worked with performers as a character attendant and saw how Disney’s casting system works, which sparked his interest in possibly becoming a casting director.
“I was fascinated by the entire audition process and how organized, detailed and specific the casting for characters is at Disney,” Hoffpauir said
Since then, Hoffpauir moved back to Baton Rouge and began working for the Manship School. There, he coordinates visits for prospective students who are interested in coming to the University and recruits bright students from all over the country. This November he will be traveling to Chicago to represent LSU in the National High School Journalism Convention.
One of Hoffpauir’s goals for many years has been to get more involved in the LGBT community. This September, he was named “Mr. Apollo Baton Rouge 2019” and will spend a year working alongside his friend London Manchester, now also known as “Miss Apollo 2019” to try and make Baton Rouge pride more prevalent.
“One of the reasons that I love my job is because I can still have time to do things that I love, like becoming involved in the LGBT community” Hoffpauir said.
He will also be competing in Birmingham this November to become “Mr. National Apollo.” He will be competing against all other named Mr. Apollo’s in a pageant to represent the Krewe of Apollo and attend all of the Apollo Balls.
“If I’ve learned one thing from auditioning so many times for so many different things: it’s that If you want something you have to go and work hard and make it happen,” Hoffpauir said.
