First Impressions

There’s one saying that you hear a lot, especially when you start coming out to the professional world – “Make a good first impression.” Regardless of what you say or do after your first meeting with a person, it is very hard to change their original opinion of you, especially if it’s a poor one.

Then there’s also the old, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” This is more of what I try to live by now. I have to admit, sometimes it’s hard, but it also makes me remember that I should try to make a good first impression on others so that I have the chance for them to really get to know who I am, since I tend to be really introverted when first meeting new people.

I was at a rather large gathering recently and really didn’t know most of the people there. I’m not a big conversationalist when I first meet people, but everyone there was really nice, from what I could tell from the small talk.

And then there were children.

I love kids. I love them when they’re babies and they’re drooling everywhere and you have to change their diapers. I love them when they’re toddlers and drawing all over your clothes and furniture with Sharpies. I love them watching them grow throughout their elementary school years and just watching their evolution into young teenagers. And as irritating as they can be as teens, it’s amazing to watch them grow from insecure pre-teens to self-assured, respectable young adults.

It’s really hard to dislike a kid, but if there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s a bratty kid. My parents, particularly my mom, was really strict when I was growing up. I was definitely spoiled as a kid – I got to go on lots of vacations and I had lots of toys, but my brother and I both learned at an early age that these were privileges, not rights. There was a distinct difference between having fun and being a brat.

In my eyes, there’s a distinct difference between a brat and a kid that just gets themselves into mischief. Of course, it all depends on the age. If a 2-year-old took a Sharpie to all of my clothes and my walls, all you can do is tell them to not do it again. They’re at an age where they don’t really realize that it’s not allowed. However, if the same kid is taking a Sharpie to my clothes when they’re 8…that’s a brat.

But who can you blame that on? I think all kids have a bit of a bratty tendency; I think it’s a way for them to get attention. But is it fair to blame the 8-year-old for drawing on your clothes with a Sharpie if their parents never stopped them the first time they did it?

So the kids…I think it would be safe to say they were rude, obnoxious, and just terrible. By the end of the night, I just wanted to put them in their place…but they’re not my kids, so that’s definitely not my place to do so.

At the end of the day, I really would prefer to not deal with these children again. But they’re still kids – I can’t blame them for the way they are and I hope they one day grow out of their monsterous natures.

But let’s be completely honest here…I promise I will never judge your kids. I may dislike them, and I may never want to deal with them again, but I will never judge the way they are until they’re old enough to make their own decisions.

However…parents are a different story. If your kids are monsters…I will lose a lot of respect for you. That’s truly one first impression that I have a lot of trouble forgetting. I think it’s because you can only judge so much about a person by the way they look and dress and what they say. I think the way your kid acts speaks for itself on how you raise them and what you think is socially acceptable.

Final Week in LA

I can’t believe that our final week in LA got so crazy that I didn’t have any time to update what was happening. It was truly one of the most hectic but most rewarding weeks ever.

We spent Sunday morning with a photographer updating our headshots. It was so exciting working with a photographer that knows how to capture movement so beautifully and really knows what he wants for shot locations. I’m really happy with the pictures that he took.

After our photoshoot, we had our music video wardrobes checked, headed off for a quick lunch (where else…Ralph’s!) and then headed to an immigration seminar headed by Kevin Levine.

Fact is…it’s not easy to get a work visa in the States. You have to be able to document your talent, have a job, and have someone file a petition for you, which is usually your agency. Only one problem – it’s hard to book a job without a visa. Vicious circle? It is doable, it’s just difficult.

Once we finished with the immigration seminar, we headed to Burbank for a financial seminar by Michael Coleman from WFG. I found his talk really informative. He didn’t try to gear the information towards dancers – he geared the information towards people who want to be wealthy in life, and that should pertain to everyone. He makes saving money seem so simple.

We rushed back into LA to get changed to go to Universal City Walk for a bit of sightseeing and dinner. It was nice because we got there when it was still light and stayed there until it was dark, so we got to see all the lights turn on. It reminds me of Vegas…not as flashy but there are lots of neon lights everywhere. We managed to have a good dinner (with a party of 21!) at the Hard Rock Cafe and ended up running into Ricky Bell from Bell Biv Devoe.

We started early again the next morning for our marketing seminar with Menina. I can’t even start to explain how in awe I am of this lady. She doesn’t let anything stand in her way of what she wants and she is so incredibly successful. Her seminar was a really unique look at how self-promotion can book you more jobs than anything else. It makes sense – why do people have PR people? They want someone to say nice things about them. Why not just have the confidence and say the nice things about yourself? Then you can save that money and just…shamelessly promote. With that being said…my website should launch in the next few months :).

That afternoon we headed out for rehearsals and an agency showcase for MDA at IDA. Basically all we had to do was perform the number from the music video and then freestyle. I don’t freestyle…and it was a hot mess. I guess I know what I need to work on…….

We had time for a quick lunch before we headed to class. Almost directly under IDA is a little convenience store that sells quick meals (sandwiches, sushi, etc.). By this point, I was craving sushi, and the most ‘normal’ sushi I could find was brown rice salmon…stuff.

I know California’s all into the healthy eating and brown rice is supposed to be healthier than white rice…..but yuck. Way to ruin my craving and to make me sad.

We took our last class at Millennium. Most of the girls took a heels class with Shirlene Quigley. It’s way harder than it sounds. I guess the class is normally pretty small, since they fit in a studio with a maximum capacity of 20. Since there were probably 15 from our tour that took the class…..let’s just say the studio was packed. It was super fun though and a really good experience.

That night we got to go to a private screening of a new movie, C.L.A.S.S.. It was written and produced by Menina’s fiance, Sheldon, who also had a pretty major role in the movie. I’m really not one for thriller movies, and I screamed way more than I should have. I also generally don’t believe it when movies say they’re going to have a ‘twist’. Twists are predictable, and therefore boring. Not this movie…..it was the most messed up twist I have ever seen. It was a confusing, thought-provoking movie, but we got everything cleared up by the cast and crew Q&A. They plan to still reshoot some scenes and fix some stuff up so it should all be clear by the time it premieres.

It was a late night and we hadn’t eaten yet…..so all of the Canadians and Australians headed for our first In-N-Out experience ever.

So good. You don’t even understand. They have 3 items on their menu – a burger, a cheeseburger, and a double double (2 patties/2 pieces of cheese). Then they have the usual fries, fountain drinks, and milk shakes. That’s all you need to make fantastic food and be super successful. No joke.

Wednesday morning started super early so we could get out to Culver City Studios to watch a taping of Don’t Forget the Lyrics. I’m not a Don’t Forget the Lyrics fan to begin with, but everything’s different live, right? Right.

Except sometimes…different means worse.

First of all, the taping was 4 hours long. How could that be? They tape 4 episodes back to back. 4 hours of listening to people karaoke and forget lyrics. Seriously.

Then, it was freezing in the studios. Like enough that you probably could have kept steaks in there for a week, cooked them up, and you still wouldn’t get food poisoning.

Then, since it’s not a live taping…they retape whatever they don’t like. So it was 4 hours of Don’t Forget the Lyrics, rewinding to rewatch certain parts, and then freezing our asses off.

Only good thing was we got to have a dance off with another crew that was there. We were pretty scared as to how things would turn out. Sure, we had our music video dance and we were just going to do it to whatever music came on…we were also wearing pretty little dresses and flats. Plus, they said they were a dance crew, and not to be stereotypical….but they were a bunch of black people. We were going to get our asses kicked.

Except we didn’t. We sucked it up and did a really good job with what we had. By the time they had to come up, they all stood at the back of the stage really awkwardly. Every so often one person would come out from the group, do some really small thing, and run back to everyone else. The pre-show guy made a comment that there was one guy standing behind all the girls and he wasn’t dancing. One of the girls danced over to him to try to get to come out and dance……….and then she managed to dance right off the stage.

We took a quick stop off for lunch at California Chicken Kitchen and then off to Edge for our last 2 classes. I made the smart move of eating an entire giant chicken caesar wrap before class and drinking a lot of Coke. My stomach was hard since I had eaten so much…and then I danced for 3 hours. Then the Coke made me thirsty…so I drank more Coke. Then I ran out of Coke so I drank water. All the liquids made my food expand in my stomach. I didn’t feel so hot by the end of those classes.

I ended up taking both jazz funk classes with Kevin Maher and Tony Czar. They were both so different but both so amazing. Kevin’s choreography was all about doing the lyrics to the song in sign language but still grooving at the same time. It was quite the brain workout but a really fantastic piece of choreography. Tony’s class was all about getting into the character of a hot, spoiled brat. Completely different vibe but super fun. And as an added bonus…Edge didn’t smell quite as much like feet.

I didn’t end up eating dinner since I was so full of wrap still, and we headed out to our last rehearsal before the shoot.

We headed out for Orange County at 7AM for the video shoot on Wednesday. It was a long day. We ended up being on set until 9PM. We were supposed to be off set at 7PM, go back to the hotel, take a quick shower, and head out to Avalon for Carnival. We didn’t finish until 9PM, so we headed straight to Carnival in whatever we were wearing.

The shoot location was fantastic. It was a little club in San Juan Capistrano, but with fog machines, good lighting, lasers, and a bunch of wonderful people, it was so much fun. Can’t wait to see how the actual video turns out.

Carnival was the most amazing experience. This month’s event featured a storyline instead of just separate choreographies, so it was like a mini play. Fantastic dancers, fantastic choreography…we were just super tired. We didn’t finish there until 2AM.

Problem was, we still hadn’t eaten dinner. We went to find an In-N-Out, only to find out that they were closed. We ended up at Jerry’s Famous Deli just down the road from our hotel. At that time of the night, they only have one chef on duty. One chef to prepare 22 meals…….you can only imagine. We didn’t end up leaving until 4AM. That’s how you do a 21 hour day. Or if you’re our nutty 16 year olds…you just keep staying up to see if you can make it to 24!

Our last day was supposed to be a ‘sleep in’ day. But really, when you go to sleep after 4AM, nothing counts as sleeping in. We had a good chat with 3 people who have made a professional dance career for themselves in LA. It was really interesting to hear things from 3 different perspectives – one came straight from high school into the dance industry, one went to college for dance, and one went to college for marketing. I feel like I fall in the latter category since I’m finishing my degree next year. It makes me feel a lot better to know that a degree doesn’t have to stop you from making it in the dance world, but that it helps mature you and prepare you for the dog-eat-dog world out there.

We went to the Grove for lunch at the Farmer’s Market. It’s a cute little outdoor food court with all types of selections. I ended up with a tostada salad – shrimp, lettuce, guacamole, and a taco bowl. I just picked out my tomatoes and salsa :). Before we left for the live taping of So You Think You Can Dance, we ran into a lady who wanted us to do our dance for her in the middle of the street with no music. Less than half the group wanted to do it so we ended up not, but we played with her little dog.

So You Think You Can Dance has a much smaller audience than they make it look like on TV. Still by far my favourite taping we’ve done. We got to perform our entire number, music and all (with Jordan singing!) at the pre-show. It was such an amazing experience…and the fact that we were on the So You Think You Can Dance stage just made it that much more incredible. The live show itself is so much better than what you see on TV. You just appreciate everything the dancers do just a little bit more.

We stopped for a quick dinner at California Pizza Kitchen in Hollywood/Highlands but it was an hour line up for tables, so we ended up at The French Crepe Co. We had a quick bite to eat and then headed off to groove night with the Groovaloos at Debbie Reynolds.

Groove night isn’t really a class. It’s more time for people to use an open studio and practice what they need to. We got some good lessons in popping and locking, went over some of the choreography we’d learned over the 2 weeks, did a bit of breaking…and just had so much fun.

We ended off the night with another movie night, but we were so tired that I don’t think we even had a chance to really take it all in. We watched Kick Ass until about 3AM…and I left early to pack. It was really tough packing up that hotel room. It had been our home for the past 2 weeks and it really was starting to feel like home. It was tougher just knowing that it meant we were all going home, the group was splitting up…and that I would be going back to work.

Part of the group left the next morning at 10:30. It was rough and a little emotional. The group really bonded over the 2 weeks (I guess for some it was only 1) and it was like tearing a family apart. There were 7 of us heading to the airport later that afternoon, so we headed to check out and to get lunch.

I was the only one left on our side of the hotel, so I headed over to find everyone else, only to find Jordan and Hannah racing down from the elevator. Apparently she had read her flight information wrong, so her flight was at 2:55 and she was landing at 6:55…not leaving LA at 6:55. Once we got her on a taxi, we headed out to Baja Fresh for some lunch and back to the pool for our last hour of LA sunshine.

We left the hotel at 3PM. We were almost at the airport when one of the girls, Kim, realized that she left her passport at the hotel. Matters only got worse when they couldn’t find her passport and she had no idea where it was, and her friend that was flying with her, Jodie, had to leave that night since there was no room on the later flight for both of them. They finally sorted out and flew her through Seattle, where her mom was going to pick her up and drive her across the border using her driver’s license.

Spent the last few hours at LAX with Alicia, Maria, and Jordan. It was tough leaving Jordan at the airport, since our flight was in an hour but he still had 4 hours to wait on his own.

We were lucky and our flight landed half an hour early, which is incredible considering the flight is only 2 hours and 45 minutes long. It was nice to touch down but it’s really nothing compared to LA.

The Hollywood Summer Tour was the most amazing experience I have ever had. Classes in LA really pushed me to not dance in the mirror anymore. Classes are so big that you don’t have a chance to, and if you start relying on the mirror, you get lost and it’s way worse that way. I think more than anything else, LA has mentally prepared me to continue improving what I love the most. I think I hit a point where I didn’t have much further to improve because of the way I was approaching dance. I’m a calculated person…I’m an engineer. That’s what I do. I didn’t know how to take risks when I danced. Watching some of the dancers in LA made me realize that I need to refine my own style and do things my way. Sometimes that might mean falling on my ass, quite literally, but it can only make you stronger for next time.

I think the one thing this job really taught me is that ‘growing up’ doesn’t mean going to school and getting a job you don’t like. School has really been a great experience. I learned to work harder than I ever have, juggle commitments, and I’ve met some of the best friends I have ever had. But something in the back of my head was telling me that this what growing up feels like. We have fun and we live until we’re 18 when we graduate from high school, and then we work our asses off to make lots of money at a job we don’t really care that much about so that we can live.

Putting it words shows how nonsensical that really is. There are so many people I’ve met at university that are so happy in their faculties and are so happy to go out to the workforce because they love what they do. Maybe engineering isn’t right for me. So what is? I find it hard to sit still for a 9-5 job. I like walking around in sweatpants. I like to be social.

The one thing that has made me happy for so long is all I’ve ever wanted to do. It’s possible to build a lifestyle off of dance. This is what I want to do with the rest of my life. I’ve had people tell me that I’m in it for the fame. If I really wanted fame, I’d be going into acting. Dancers get left in the background all the time. We get paid lower than actors do. But we do it because we love what we do.

Coming back to Vancouver with this type of attitude has changed my dancing. I’ve taken 3 classes since I’ve come home – tap, contemporary jazz, and hip hop. It’s the first time that teachers haven’t just looked at me and said, “yeah, you’re a good dancer.” I’ve been told that I’m a beautiful dancer and been chased across a studio to be told, “that was AWESOME.” I don’t really think that my technique improved that much in LA. I think it taught me to pick up choreography faster by learning to rely on my brain rather than what those around me do.

…I think I need to stop rambling now, actually. Back to reality.