Cody Rigsby Recalls His First (Pretty Random) Job & Dancing For Katy Perry

He’s been on Dancing With The Stars and if you’re a fitness enthusiast, you probably already know who Cody Rigsby is. But if you take his high-energy cycling classes, you might wonder how he started.

When he came into the StyleCaster studio for our September cover shoot, he told us his “Marvel origin story”. He was born in Los Angeles, moved to North Carolina when he was eight, and was there until college age, where he “studied consumer apparel and retail” which is “a very long version of saying fashion merchandising.”

He then moved to New York, where he’s been for the past 14 years. “One of the gigs that I had in the city just happened to have a connection to Peloton where they were like, ‘Hey, we’re looking for people who are into fitness that are performers, so I sent in my headshot and resume and I’ve been at Peloton for nine years,” he reflected. “What a wild journey, I’ve had my face on a yogurt bottle, I’ve been on Dancing With The Stars and now I’m releasing a book. Can you believe it?”

Before Peloton though, he did a range of “odd” jobs around the city, including “working at The Box down on the Lower East Side, where I was a pseudo-security guard,” he said of the burlesque and erotica theater. “My face was too pretty to be a real security guard, but they had me making sure that patrons at The Box, who might be intoxicated, didn’t take pictures of the topless dancers in the show.”

He also recalled one of his first dancing jobs, where he was a dancer on Comedy Central. “I was the goose that got caught in the engine of the plane that went down in the Hudson River. And I had to wear the goose costume because I was the tallest member of the dance group,” he said.

But by far, dancing for a huge pop star has been one of his favorite gigs. “It was the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show where I danced for Katy Perry, it was my first major dance job and it was so fun,” he recalled. We bet!