Lambros Garcia, a 10-year-old dancer from Glen Head, won approval from all four judges in the June 6 airing of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent,” which sends him to the next round.
Lambros, who dances at Mossa Dance Academy in New Hyde Park, brought the crowd and judges to their feet after performing his choreographed routine to Billy Porter’s “Love Yourself.”
Lambros got four “yeses” from the judges. Contestants need at least three to make it past the qualifiers.
A previous performance by Lambros dancing to “Love Yourself” during a competition for Mossa went viral on social media.
“You have natural stage presence,” said Judge Simon Cowell following his performance. “That’s something you can’t fake.”
The young dancer shared an emotional story after joyfully breaking down after his routine, telling the judges he was teased at school.
“I get a little bit bullied at school,” Lambros, who attends Glenwood Landing Elementary School in Glen Head, told Judge Heidi Klum. “And this solo really meant a lot to me.”
Lambros, before performing at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in California, shared a story about wanting to be a dancer when he would break out moves to the beat of the music he heard from the neighboring dance studio in his karate class.
“My mom saw a passion in me that I had for dance,” he said
He said if he was the winner of the $1 million grand prize, he would like to get a dog.
“You danced with such joy, with such precision,” Judge Howie Mandel said. “You’ve got to be strong, you’ve got to be an athlete, you’ve got to be amazing and performing the way you just did is the ultimate ‘nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah’.”
Lambros responded by saying how many people don’t know what it is like to be a male dancer, how he loves it so much and he “won’t let anybody stop that.”
Judge Sofia Vergara assured Garcia that kids who bully him do so because they envy him and can’t do what he does before calling the performance “spectacular.”
Select acts from the pre-taped auditions that are airing from May 30 to Aug. 8 will perform in the competition’s live shows, which begin on Aug. 22. The show’s finale will air on Sept. 26, with results airing the following day.
