DIANA REYES
Fly Lady Di (Diana Reyes) is a Multi-Disciplinary artist known for her work in Street Dance, DJing and Filipino Relatable Content Creation. Born and raised in the suburbs of Toronto, her resilience, relentless drive and professionalism have led to her international notoriety as a trusted source of Art, Education & Entertainment.
“Fly Lady Di exudes the type of energy that makes one firmly believe she is capable of doing anything.”
Bobbito Garcia
Being rejected from the local arts high school dance program due to ‘lack of formal training’ certainly didn’t stop her from soaring to heights many aspiring dancers merely dream of. She started her career in 2002 being featured in music videos such as Daniel Bedingfield’s ‘Gotta Get Thru This’, Benzino’s ‘Rock the Party’, Fabolous’ ‘It’s My Party’ and several others including the Clipse featuring Pharrell, Tweet and BlackSTREET that went unreleased. In 2004, she moved to New York City, a place where her fellow castmates in Honey (2003, Universal) encouraged her to advance her career. It was there where she trained with the iconic MOPTOP/Elite Force/Dance Fusion crew, namely Ejoe Wilson, Link, VoodooRay (RIP), Marjory Smarth (RIP) with great intensity. During her stay in NYC she signed with blocnyc and filmed the iconic Dance Dance video with Fall Out Boy as well as a commercial with Ciara and Ashlee Simpson’s ‘L.O.V.E.’ music video.
Visa issues prohibited her, however, from advancing thereafter as she was previously in the US as an illegal alien and was ‘sent back’ to Canada after an attempt to re-enter after the holidays in 2006. Her tenacity proved fruitful when several months later she returned to NYC, three-year O1-B visa in-hand. Dance work at the time wasn’t as easy to come by with the advent of streaming, and it was then that Di engaged in what was then known as Live Painting, becoming wildly popular on MySpace. Being an awarded painter in her youth (following her father’s footsteps) and being close to other brilliant and dynamic painters who graduated from Pratt Institute, Di built a name for herself in magazines like TRACE, YRB, Complex, Honey, the Village Voice, Lady Caprice (FR), LUSSW (JPN) among others. At high-profile events, she was featured alongside acts such as J.Cole, Kid Cudi, MeLo-X, Theophilous London and Jesse Boykins III who were then still under the radar back in 2008.
“Diana is a passionate, culturally diverse woman who embraces art in every form and never affraid to challenge herself and others.”
Nelson George
Upon moving back to Toronto in 2009, Di continued her pursuit of Film, TV and Commercial work, having booked roles in Lost Girl: The Series, Remedy, and commercials for So You Think You Can Dance, Tim Hortons and Dixie Outlet Mall. From 2012-2020, she began travelling the world to places like India, the Philippines, UAE, South Korea, Germany and Colombia among others, to judge, teach and perform Street Dance fundamentals in Hip Hop, House Dance and Waacking. She also travelled to places like Edinburgh, Scotland, Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Tokyo, Japan to research Street Dance and performance practices.
Back in Toronto she shifted focus to self-directed creations such as her one-woman show THIRD WORLD where she fused comedic anecdotes from her dance career with Filipino folk and street dance vocabulary. This was inspired by the work she performed with HATAW and its brother group DATU (now known as A LA UNA) which became known worldwide amongst the Filipino diaspora.
“Reyes’ star quality will make you want to go along to whichever (worlds) she chooses.”
NOW Magazine
In 2013, a chance occurrence at her 31st birthday house party led her down a career path completely unbeknownst to her. After her friend Jojo Dancer asked her to take over as the DJ (he taught her in 5 minutes), she caused quite a stir which eventually led her to seek proper training from her cousin DJ C-Note and the rest was history. Di has DJ’d for Dior, the Toronto Maple Leafs, Tiffany & Co., Rihanna’s FENTY, Jay-Z’s D’Usse cognac, eBay, Twitter, Bastid’s BBQ (Toronto, Chillin’ & Grillin’ (Toronto), Just For Laughs (Montreal), Funkbox (NYC), Toca Tuesdays (NYC), Soul in the Horn (NYC) Reebok, the Mirror Ball and on tour with artist Kiesza to name a few.
For her work, Di has been featured on etalk, Chatelaine Magazine, Toronto Life, Toronto Star, the Globe & Mail, CBC Arts, Now Magazine, the Dance Current. She also boasts collaborations with the AGO, TIFF and Nuit Blanche (Toronto) as well as grants from Canada Council from the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council.
IMore recently, Di has been posting her hilarious Filipino-centric comedy reels on Instagram garnishing millions of views consistently to her loyal, highly engaged international audience from California to Australia.
She remains in hot pursuit of a career in Film, TV and Commercials as well as developing her own sketch comedy show. She divides her time between Toronto and Montreal.
She’s a full member of ACTRA and has a valid Canadian passport.
