"If I hear the music, I just have to dance," said DJ Loheit, 7.
DJ Loheit loves to dance. The 7-year-old breaks it down at competitions, on the street, on the beach — and even in New York City's Times Square, where he stole the show from some grown-up breakdancers.
"He's the most enthusiastic one in the family for sure. He's a crowd-pleaser and he draws crowds from all over the place to just come and dance with him and be with him," his mom, Niki Loheit, told InsideEdition.com.
"It can be a little overwhelming for us, like when we were in New York and he took over the street performers' performance and was dancing in front of hundreds of people in Times Square ... but we just want to do everything we can to encourage him and support him."
DJ is a little person, and he modifies some of the moves for his smaller frame, his mother said. But nothing can stop him from dancing.
"I love to dance all the time. I love to dance anywhere," DJ told InsideEdition.com. "I dance anywhere I can."
DJ also has a supportive community of little people, his mother said.
"We began attending events for little people, so he really has a lot of friends, people we have seen around the U.S. in our travels, so he really has a strong community," Loheit explained. "The challenges that it presents are mostly just in accommodations. He has such an outgoing personality, he has had no people teasing him or making fun of him. Once they see what we can do, they are overly impressed."
And his moves are impressive: balancing, spinning, popping and more. DJ said he first became interested in breakdancing after seeing acrobats perform. He takes lessons and practices on his own at home, too.
"He just had to make adjustments in how he does things," Loheit said. "We have a little family motto: If you can't do it the way it should be done, find a new way."
She said people can sometimes be shy or not know what to say when they see a little person, but DJ is more than comfortable talking about himself.
"Mostly I think people don't understand what to say or what to ask, and that it's OK to ask questions. A lot of people are worried about the terminology," Loheit said, explaining that DJ is considered a little person or a dwarf. "It can be very hard to find those right words, but we are not easily insulted people. DJ will tell them anything in his framework of a 7-year-old's knowledge. He's not shy."
And DJ has had the opportunity to meet a lot of people. The Loheit family has been traveling around the country full-time for the last three years. Niki Loheit said she home-schools DJ and his brother Tavion, 9, and sister, Loyalty, 8, while their dad, Jason, works. All three siblings were adopted by the couple.
"We wanted to live outside the box," Loheit explained. "Life didn't have to be lived in suburbia, so my husband works on the road as an insurance adjuster and we travel all over, and that's how we school the kids, letting them see all the historical sites, all the science, and explore the world."
RELATED STORIES
