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Studio Spotlight - Dance Attack Miami · Making The Impact - A Dance Competition Podcast

0:07
SPEAKER_02: Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the table at a dance competition?
0:10
SPEAKER_02: Exactly what are the judges looking for anyway?
0:13
SPEAKER_02: This is making the impact a dance competition company.
0:15
SPEAKER_02: Each week we'll cover a different topic related to the world of competitive dance from the perspective of the judges behind the table.
0:26
SPEAKER_02: Miami offers quality over quantity of code to date students.
0:29
SPEAKER_02: And from what we can tell, it's working.
0:37
SPEAKER_02: Owners Cookie Ramelus and John Cobra can share what works for them after 29 years of studio ownership.
0:45
SPEAKER_01: Hello, dance world.
0:46
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to this week's episode of Making the Impact.
0:49
SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Courtney Ortiz, and I'm here with my co-host, Leslie Mueller.
0:53
SPEAKER_02: Courtney, we are about to hear about this amazing studio, and I just can't wait.
0:57
SPEAKER_01: I'm so excited.
0:58
SPEAKER_01: Our next studio spotlight is here.
1:00
SPEAKER_01: And I know it's a fan favorite.
1:02
SPEAKER_01: Our studio spotlight episodes, everyone loves them because we get an inside look at successful studios around the country that are making an impact in the competitive dance world.
1:11
SPEAKER_01: And we have another fantastic studio on the lineup here today.
1:15
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I think you guys at home are going to really enjoy this one.
1:19
SPEAKER_02: Uh it's very some interesting uh backstory for the owners and just a really, really, really talented studio we're about to hear from.
1:27
SPEAKER_02: So I'm ready to jump into it.
1:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I can't wait.
1:30
SPEAKER_01: Let's jump in.
1:30
SPEAKER_01: But before we do, we have to tell you some of our recent Making the Impact Award winners.
1:36
SPEAKER_01: As you know, we sponsor an award at all IDA affiliated competitions called the Making the Impact Judges Choice Award that goes to one dance throughout the entire weekend that the judges cannot stop thinking about by the end of the weekend event.
1:49
SPEAKER_01: It can go to a group of any size, solo through production, any age, any level, any style of dance.
1:55
SPEAKER_01: It's that one dance that the judges want to recognize for making an impact, whether it was through choreography, technique, performance, execution.
2:02
SPEAKER_01: And one of the perks of winning this award is you get a shout-out on our podcast.
2:06
SPEAKER_01: So, Leslie, please do the honors of announcing our first winner.
2:10
SPEAKER_02: Alrighty.
2:11
SPEAKER_02: Congratulations to Crystal Whitner Academy of Dance from Conover, North Carolina, from Endless Talent Dance Competition in Taylorsville, North Carolina, for their small group, Greece.
2:21
SPEAKER_02: Congratulations, everyone.
2:22
SPEAKER_02: We love a making the impact award.
2:24
SPEAKER_01: Yes, we do.
2:25
SPEAKER_01: And before we jump into the official episode, let's hear from our wonderful sponsors.
2:30
SPEAKER_01: Our season five premiere sponsor, Francisco Gella Danceworks, offers some exceptional training opportunities for dancers throughout the year.
2:37
SPEAKER_01: If you're seeking an intensive to attend over Labor Day weekend before you head back to your dance season, then check out Francisco Gella Dance Works Pre-Professional Dancer Institute.
2:46
SPEAKER_01: Taking place in beautiful Santa Fe, New Mexico from August 29th through September 2nd, 2024.
2:51
SPEAKER_01: This intensive provides knowledge to dancers to better aid them in the transition after high school graduation.
2:57
SPEAKER_01: This is especially recommended for dancers considering college or secondary training programs.
3:01
SPEAKER_01: Throughout the five-day intensive, dancers will learn all about different programs for post-graduation, how to build a resume, create audition submissions, apply for scholarships, and so much more.
3:12
SPEAKER_01: And of course, there will be lots of dancing involved with classes that are curated towards a typical college dance curriculum to allow dancers to understand what will be expected of them in a college dance program.
3:22
SPEAKER_01: Parents are also welcome to observe select classes and workshops throughout the event to better help their dancers' journey on the best path for their future.
3:29
SPEAKER_01: This intensive is open to advanced dancers ages 13 through 18.
3:33
SPEAKER_01: Mark your calendars and join Francisco Gella and faculty at this wonderful summer dance workshop.
3:39
SPEAKER_01: Learn more about the program and what is offered by visiting their website at PreProdancerInstitute.com.
3:45
SPEAKER_01: Thank you to Francisco Gella Danceworks for being our season five premiere sponsor.
3:50
SPEAKER_01: All right, listeners, we're jumping into our next episode, and it's a studio spotlight, one of our favorite episodes we love doing where we get to sit down and chat one-on-one with successful studios around the country and even the world.
4:05
SPEAKER_01: As we've seen earlier this season, we did uh an episode with an Australian studio, and we've done episodes with Canadian studios in the past.
4:13
SPEAKER_01: And now we're heading down to sunny Miami, Florida for our next studio Spotlight.
4:19
SPEAKER_01: I'm super excited about this one because I've been admiring this studio for a very long time, and we finally got them on the podcast.
4:26
SPEAKER_01: And I can't wait to chat with these two wonderful owners of the studio.
4:30
SPEAKER_01: They've been in business for 29 years.
4:33
SPEAKER_01: They have been six-year national champs in a row.
4:36
SPEAKER_01: Six years in a row.
4:38
SPEAKER_01: They are producing top quality professional dancers.
4:42
SPEAKER_01: After they graduate from the studio, they are going on to fantastic professional careers out in Los Angeles on TV and film, up in New York City on Broadway.
4:51
SPEAKER_01: And they're gonna share all of that with us today on Making the Impact.
4:55
SPEAKER_01: I'm excited to welcome the owners of Dance Attack Miami.
5:00
SPEAKER_01: Please welcome John Culberson and Cookie Ramos to the podcast.
5:03
SPEAKER_01: Welcome, y'all.
5:04
SPEAKER_01: Hi, welcome.
5:05
SPEAKER_01: Hi.
5:06
SPEAKER_01: Yay! I'm so glad you are here.
5:08
SPEAKER_01: And we are thrilled to chat with you.
5:11
SPEAKER_01: I like I said, I love what y'all are doing down in Miami.
5:15
SPEAKER_01: You are just producing some of the fiercest, most fire dancers ever down there.
5:20
SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
5:22
SPEAKER_03: I'm trying.
5:24
SPEAKER_01: You're doing everything right, and I can't wait to hear all the things.
5:27
SPEAKER_01: So thanks for joining us on the podcast.
5:29
SPEAKER_01: And if you wouldn't mind before we jump into the studio aspect, if you could, I know you both are the co-owners of the studio.
5:37
SPEAKER_01: So um maybe we can start with Cookie if you want to share a little bit more about your dance background, how you started dance, where you grew up, and what led you into studio ownership.
5:49
SPEAKER_01: And then we can also tie in how y'all met and got into owning a studio together.
5:54
SPEAKER_01: And then John can go next.
5:56
SPEAKER_03: Gotcha.
5:56
SPEAKER_03: Um I'm from I was raised in Atlanta, Georgia, and I'm from Dolores Warner School of Performing Arts in Tucker, and that's who got me started.
6:06
SPEAKER_03: And um I competed with her.
6:08
SPEAKER_03: Um I didn't start when I was five, I was more like 15.
6:12
SPEAKER_03: So I was a little later, late starter at that time.
6:14
SPEAKER_03: But I we did um, I did a lot.
6:17
SPEAKER_03: I did a lot of, I think at that time, dance caravans, um, red, white, and blue, uh DEA, DMA.
6:25
SPEAKER_03: I won, I was DEA, I was DEA, uh our our chapter winner.
6:30
SPEAKER_03: Then John will tell you he won, he won his chapter.
6:32
SPEAKER_03: He was the actual, he was Mr.
6:34
SPEAKER_03: Pennsylvania.
6:35
SPEAKER_03: Anyway, it just that.
6:37
SPEAKER_03: And then um, I just had this passion for dance.
6:39
SPEAKER_03: I swam as growing up all my life, but then it had this dance passion.
6:43
SPEAKER_03: And Dolores, her kindness of her heart, she kind of just pulled it out of me.
6:48
SPEAKER_03: And she she gave, she she took me on her wing.
6:52
SPEAKER_03: She taught me how to taught me how to tumble.
6:53
SPEAKER_03: The woman's 4'11.
6:55
SPEAKER_03: She would pick up, she goes, You can do a back tuck.
6:57
SPEAKER_03: She would pick me up, she would turn me, she'd push me over.
7:00
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
7:01
SPEAKER_06: Wow.
7:01
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
7:02
SPEAKER_03: And even the the girls in the studio would all help.
7:04
SPEAKER_03: Anyway, they taught me, I learned.
7:06
SPEAKER_03: I was there for a while, and then I left and I went to audition and I went to I went to DA in New York, and we were competing in the nationals.
7:14
SPEAKER_03: And that was in uh a long time ago.
7:18
SPEAKER_03: And actually, I was competing against John Crutchman, Alan Sheffield, and if I know they're like big names in the dance world.
7:25
SPEAKER_03: Anyway, it was that, and then there was an audition for a show, and Dolores goes, I think you should audition.
7:30
SPEAKER_03: So I went and I I said, okay, so we flew to Miami, so we went back home to Atlanta, flew to Miami for a job, and I auditioned and I got it.
7:37
SPEAKER_03: And I went, wow.
7:38
SPEAKER_03: I go, here's this little southern country boy, and I'm gonna get I'm doing a job in Miami, you know.
7:43
SPEAKER_03: So I got this job, and it was it was amazing, and that's how my kind of my was it was a theater, it was uh broad, not a Broadway, it was uh a theater show at the in Miami at the Sheraton Bell Harbor.
7:54
SPEAKER_03: Anyway, that's that started that way, and then um that led to like 18 years of just straight working.
8:01
SPEAKER_03: I worked in Miami, Acapulco, I worked in Canada, I worked in Montreal, I worked in Puerto Rico, I worked in Vegas, Reno, I I worked everywhere.
8:09
SPEAKER_03: And and dances kind of was became my my passion and my and my my love, you know.
8:15
SPEAKER_03: And I since I felt like when you start late, you have to train, so I kind of trained more.
8:19
SPEAKER_03: I would go to classes, different places, you know, because I wanted to get better.
8:22
SPEAKER_03: But you know, it's hard sometimes when you're working because you know, you're like, oh, I want to sleep today.
8:26
SPEAKER_03: But then I would get up because there was a lot of things that I wanted to do anyway.
8:30
SPEAKER_03: So and then just like life life went on, and then I worked everywhere, and then in about 19 uh ninety-one, something like that.
8:41
SPEAKER_03: I met John at we were both doing doing a job.
8:44
SPEAKER_03: We both got hired for the same show, and they hired him as my opposite.
8:47
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, whoa, check it out.
8:49
SPEAKER_03: Look at this guy.
8:50
SPEAKER_03: I've heard about him.
8:51
SPEAKER_03: He can do everything I can do, or I can do everything he can do.
8:54
SPEAKER_03: Anyway, and we met each other, and I go, and I was sitting watching him and go, like, wow, that boy's really cool.
9:01
SPEAKER_03: You know, so we did the show here in Miami, and uh, and then we just we just became best for became great friends, like we became best friends.
9:09
SPEAKER_03: We worked great together, and then everyone and we worked for a lot of people because they were like, Oh, I want those two boys because they're they're really good kids, you know.
9:18
SPEAKER_03: And um then that we both John got me to work at a dance studio with him, you know, because I was just I would just do the show at night during either in the day.
9:26
SPEAKER_03: Anyway, I started working with them at a dance studio here in Miami, and then um we worked there for a while, and then one day we decided, you know, we wanted to do our own, like have our own thing.
9:37
SPEAKER_03: And we were trying to figure out how we're gonna do this.
9:41
SPEAKER_03: And I go, okay, what do you think?
9:43
SPEAKER_03: Let's come up with a name that has a song, like so they always have a theme song.
9:47
SPEAKER_03: So John had a solo from John's, okay, he's gonna tell you a story.
9:51
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna give I'm gonna jump into his story.
9:52
SPEAKER_03: He's from Ruby Daughtery's School of Dance in um Pittsburgh.
9:56
SPEAKER_03: So Rui had done a dance to for this girl named it's called Dance Attack.
9:59
SPEAKER_03: It was by Sergio Mendez, which if you look it up, it's it's only on LP.
10:04
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
10:04
SPEAKER_00: Oh wow, yeah.
10:05
SPEAKER_03: So he had done a solo for one one of the girls at the studio that we were working at, and I and we're in the car, and I go, like, what do you think?
10:12
SPEAKER_03: Dance Attack, because there's a song.
10:14
SPEAKER_03: And he goes, Hey, okay, that's not bad.
10:16
SPEAKER_03: Because I always wanted something that had a song, something that has a song that goes with it.
10:20
SPEAKER_03: A recital, we do it, there's so we find some song that goes with it.
10:24
SPEAKER_03: So that that's like your like your lead, your song.
10:26
SPEAKER_03: Anyway, so we kind of that's how we come up with dance attack in 1995.
10:31
SPEAKER_03: Wow, yeah.
10:32
SPEAKER_03: We had we left where we worked, didn't take anyone with us, didn't tell nobody, nobody.
10:37
SPEAKER_03: We did the thing, building a lady that owned it, didn't think we did, right?
10:41
SPEAKER_03: Tell anyone.
10:42
SPEAKER_03: I'm not gonna mention her name, but you can figure it out.
10:44
SPEAKER_03: We did the right thing.
10:45
SPEAKER_03: We got a place, it was called Miss Doris School of Dance.
10:48
SPEAKER_03: She had just closed, it was 600 square feet.
10:51
SPEAKER_03: That was it.
10:51
SPEAKER_03: One little room, yeah, with everything stuck in in the window, in the yeah, no waiting room, you had to sit outside.
10:58
SPEAKER_03: But and it would it would freeze.
11:00
SPEAKER_03: The recognition would freeze, I have to open the door and get a get a blow dryer.
11:04
SPEAKER_03: And yeah, you know, you know, money's tight.
11:06
SPEAKER_03: We just started, yeah.
11:07
SPEAKER_03: And we didn't know we didn't know what to do, but we had a lot of friends that owned dance studios and helped us and said, Okay, guys, this is how you have to do this is how you do pricing, this is how you do this, this is how this is how you do that.
11:17
SPEAKER_03: And they helped us kind of to show us, and you know, trial and error, because you mess, you mess up, you know, things happen.
11:24
SPEAKER_03: But we were there for a year and a half because then the people next door left.
11:28
SPEAKER_03: But we so originally we opened, we only had seven people.
11:33
SPEAKER_06: Wow, that's it.
11:34
SPEAKER_03: It was seven.
11:35
SPEAKER_03: That's it.
11:35
SPEAKER_03: Seven to one class.
11:36
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, there was one class, and they were all older.
11:39
SPEAKER_03: And from the seven people, we went to Star Power in 1995.
11:43
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
11:43
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
11:44
SPEAKER_03: And we won the Victory Cup.
11:46
SPEAKER_03: And they go, Yeah, John did a beautiful dance called Indian Dreams, and yeah, and we had so it was like, and these were kind of students that these were his students that he had been teaching from another place, and they decided to come on their own.
11:58
SPEAKER_03: We didn't have a mask, but it was it was a great beginning, and everybody goes, What's your name?
12:01
SPEAKER_03: Who are you people?
12:02
SPEAKER_05: Right, who are you?
12:03
SPEAKER_03: People goes, Who are you?
12:04
SPEAKER_03: You know, they didn't know who you were, and but you know, it took time, and it took, and I guess, and we're not really like I'm not uh we're not like I won't say conceited, people that think like, oh, you know, like we're we're the best.
12:17
SPEAKER_03: I go, no, we appreciate everybody's work.
12:20
SPEAKER_03: There's a lot of great studios.
12:21
SPEAKER_03: They're great studios.
12:23
SPEAKER_03: I mean, all those years we would go to all these dance competitions and we would see all these like um Suzette Masters and we would see DC dance, and we go, oh my god, these people are amazing, you know.
12:34
SPEAKER_03: And they would go, Your people, your kids are great.
12:36
SPEAKER_03: I'm like, yeah, but I like yours better.
12:38
SPEAKER_03: I you know, because I always we appreciate talent.
12:42
SPEAKER_03: And it was wonderful.
12:43
SPEAKER_03: It it was a great thing, and you know, and we made a lot a lot a lot of friends.
12:47
SPEAKER_03: We would do all this, we went all these cruises and we'd go all these cruises with all these dance teachers and stuff, and we would all talk about the same thing.
12:52
SPEAKER_03: And I we would ask our questions, like, um, your kids all come to class.
12:57
SPEAKER_03: They go, no.
12:58
SPEAKER_03: Yes, they miss this, they miss that.
13:00
SPEAKER_03: You fight with I go, yes, because we just want them to come.
13:07
SPEAKER_03: So anyway, I'm I'm not I'm gonna let him go.
13:09
SPEAKER_03: After we so then this all went on 20, yeah, like 96.
13:14
SPEAKER_03: We went to we we had the same group of four, and we went to Joe Lanteri, and those girls, they won like they won the judge's choice.
13:22
SPEAKER_03: And the I mean, we were young, we were a young studio, we just started, but we had good people and they were all trained.
13:27
SPEAKER_03: John had trained them all because they all came from from little kids, from younger kids, he trained them.
13:31
SPEAKER_03: So there was you know, and they happened to come with us.
13:33
SPEAKER_03: There was there was a few and there was new ones, you know.
13:36
SPEAKER_03: We had it was a nice, it was a nice thing.
13:39
SPEAKER_03: And then and then and then we built, we built from nothing.
13:43
SPEAKER_03: From uh ever most most of the time we had only older, like teens and up, we had no juniors, and then through the years, you know, now we have pee-wees, minis, juniors, teens, seniors.
13:54
SPEAKER_03: You know, it's it's a different story.
13:55
SPEAKER_03: It took a long time to build a baby program.
13:57
SPEAKER_03: It did, yeah.
13:58
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, oh yeah.
13:59
SPEAKER_03: Absolutely, yeah, yeah.
14:00
unknown: Right.
14:00
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because in the beginning it was just him and I.
14:02
SPEAKER_03: We taught most of the classes, we had a ballet teacher who would come in, except for the older.
14:07
SPEAKER_03: We had a tap teacher that would come in, and then and then, you know, so we had some teacher, but most of it was just us.
14:14
SPEAKER_03: For like 20-something years, we did everything, we never brought anybody in.
14:18
SPEAKER_03: Now we we realize that it's nice to have a different mix of styles within your repertoire because everything doesn't is it doesn't end up the same.
14:28
SPEAKER_03: So every you know what I mean.
14:30
SPEAKER_03: So it's like it's kind of nice when you see, oh wow, I like this.
14:32
SPEAKER_03: I like this is this style, this is this style, this is this style.
14:35
SPEAKER_03: You know, everybody has different style, and you know, and and I think it's been great because a lot of people ask us, you know, and I and they because a long time ago, like, no, we did we do all these ourselves.
14:44
SPEAKER_03: He pretty much does every solo.
14:46
SPEAKER_03: This journey has been great.
14:47
SPEAKER_03: It hasn't ended, but it's been a journey.
14:49
SPEAKER_03: And I don't call it like it's a job, it's a journey.
14:52
SPEAKER_03: We are not a make a mega 500 studio because we never wanted that.
14:57
SPEAKER_03: We have like a I think we have four, we have 52 kids in our company, which is yeah, which which is which is for me, it's great.
15:04
SPEAKER_03: I like it, I think it's fine.
15:05
SPEAKER_03: You know, I don't have to have 150, 200 who, you know, no, no, I'm I mean, I've we're fine with it.
15:11
SPEAKER_03: And we've always our motto was quality beats quantity.
15:16
SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
15:17
SPEAKER_03: So that's how we've always been there with that.
15:19
SPEAKER_03: Because you know, you and and if you want to be a dancer in the real world, you know, you you you have there has to be a stepping stone and a way to do this.
15:28
SPEAKER_03: So you hope that your kids, a lot of them, when they're done, they go to school, they're in a dance team, or they want to be it, they want to be in the business.
15:35
SPEAKER_03: If they don't, you know what?
15:37
SPEAKER_03: They had a great time growing up until they were 18.
15:40
SPEAKER_03: You know, it taught them to not to be nervous, not to be shy, to go out and speak in a meeting, like talk to you and say, Hey, hi, my name is so-and-so.
15:48
SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
15:49
SPEAKER_03: Now that came from the arts.
15:52
SPEAKER_03: Totally.
15:53
SPEAKER_03: So I I do believe in that.
15:54
SPEAKER_03: Now I'm gonna turn you over to uh Johnny Wani because he has good stories.
15:59
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
16:00
SPEAKER_01: John, I can't wait to hear your story.
16:01
SPEAKER_01: That was a great story, Cookie.
16:05
SPEAKER_03: I'm John, I'm from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
16:07
SPEAKER_03: I'm from Ruby Dockery's dance studio.
16:10
SPEAKER_03: I started dance.
16:11
SPEAKER_03: Okay, I'll try it.
16:13
SPEAKER_03: And then once I tried it, then I liked it.
16:15
SPEAKER_03: And I was good at it, you know.
16:17
SPEAKER_03: You like whatever you're good at.
16:19
SPEAKER_03: That's always yeah.
16:20
SPEAKER_03: So then my sister ended up quitting since I was good at it, you know.
16:26
SPEAKER_03: That's one of those things.
16:27
SPEAKER_03: You can't be too good at something, you know.
16:29
SPEAKER_03: The other you're sibling quits.
16:32
SPEAKER_03: So then I went to like competitions and um I did Mr.
16:36
SPEAKER_03: Dance of Pennsylvania and I won.
16:38
SPEAKER_03: It was not my first time.
16:39
SPEAKER_03: I the first time I got first runner up, which is fine, you know, because I didn't know anything about dance.
16:46
SPEAKER_03: I didn't even know how to take a convention class because I was only dancing for like a few months, and everybody else had trained their whole life.
16:53
SPEAKER_03: So the second year I came back knowing better how to do it.
16:57
SPEAKER_03: You had to like also do an interview, which is really hard for me because I'm much more of a dancer than a speaker.
17:05
SPEAKER_03: You're doing great right now.
17:06
SPEAKER_03: You're doing great nailing it.
17:08
SPEAKER_03: And after that, I went to Point Park College in Pittsburgh, and um Disney came by and they were having auditions.
17:16
SPEAKER_03: So I auditioned.
17:16
SPEAKER_03: It was my second year of college, then I got a job for Disney.
17:20
SPEAKER_03: So I went to I went to Orlando and I was like, I'm gonna just go there for like six months and come back to college.
17:26
SPEAKER_03: And they said, You're never gonna come back to college.
17:29
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, I really am.
17:31
SPEAKER_03: I never went back.
17:33
SPEAKER_03: They were right because I hated studying, I hated the academics.
17:37
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I I only went to college to take the dance classes.
17:41
SPEAKER_03: And then from there, I moved to New York and I worked for Frank Hatchett.
17:46
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and we yeah, we toured Japan and Sheila Barker was in the cast with me.
17:52
SPEAKER_03: Oh my god, yeah, yeah.
17:54
SPEAKER_03: It was, it was kind of I always say it was the first thing, but Disney was first.
17:59
SPEAKER_03: So I feel like, but I felt like that was the first real job.
18:02
SPEAKER_03: You know, okay, I'm gonna tip my butt in here because John, like through the years, like there's only been a few.
18:08
SPEAKER_03: Oh, he was on dance moms number one.
18:10
SPEAKER_03: You know, he had dance moms.
18:12
SPEAKER_03: Yes, and his dance was the only dance just to get 100.
18:15
SPEAKER_03: He got a perfect score with the boys.
18:16
SPEAKER_03: Oh my god, wow, yeah, the all the all the all the only time.
18:19
SPEAKER_03: And he's had a few dances that have just had a perfect score, and it's very, very rare that you have five judges that say, you know what, this dance was amazing.
18:30
SPEAKER_03: I think it's not as rare these this day and age, but years ago it was more rare.
18:34
SPEAKER_03: Yes, you know, for sure.
18:36
SPEAKER_03: It was yeah, like now, like the um competition wants to keep everybody happy.
18:41
SPEAKER_03: So if you get 100, there, you know, it's a business.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: It's it was it was way more, I feel like just more real back in the 90s and the early 2000s.
18:51
SPEAKER_03: Like that's the only problem when I go to judge, you really can't be real, right?
18:56
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'm like, you have to candy coat everything, you know, and that's not the real world.
19:00
SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
19:02
SPEAKER_03: But John did so many commercials and stuff, like we worked with New Kids on the Block when he was with them, and you guys are kind of young for that.
19:08
SPEAKER_02: Oh, I love a new kid.
19:09
SPEAKER_02: No, listen, we had a poster, don't play.
19:11
SPEAKER_03: I did a blockbuster commercial that tells you how old we are.
19:15
SPEAKER_03: Oh my gosh, yes, Crawford.
19:17
SPEAKER_03: Oh, actually did it with um what's it with Chris Chris Judd?
19:21
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, because he weren't pleasure.
19:24
SPEAKER_03: He worked the pleasure out of it.
19:25
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, wow.
19:26
SPEAKER_01: See the dance world is really small, like you work together in Disney, like you you know, it's crazy, and then next thing you know, you're dancing on a blockbuster commercial.
19:36
SPEAKER_01: Like I don't think that people really understand how small this dance world is.
19:39
SPEAKER_03: But you have to really be careful not to burn any bridges.
19:43
SPEAKER_01: Right.
19:44
SPEAKER_03: You have to be careful in kids this day and age, they don't realize that.
19:47
SPEAKER_02: Oh, for sure.
19:48
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
19:49
SPEAKER_02: Well, and with all the other options for burning bridges, like back in the day, it was like I said something and somebody heard something.
19:54
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
19:55
SPEAKER_02: Now it's I typed something, I posted a video and somebody heard like stay there forever.
20:00
SPEAKER_03: I did not say it, but now you couldn't do that.
20:04
SPEAKER_02: Oh man.
20:05
SPEAKER_02: So all right.
20:05
SPEAKER_02: Well, so you when did you guys meet?
20:07
SPEAKER_03: We met working in uh in the show.
20:10
SPEAKER_02: In the Miami show.
20:11
SPEAKER_03: In the Miami show, and then oh yes, okay, there we go.
20:13
SPEAKER_03: Then we worked there, and then we opened a company called CJ Production, which we have done so we still have it.
20:19
SPEAKER_03: We've done so many corporate events, and we have like a whole group of dancers, you know.
20:23
SPEAKER_03: We you name it, we've done it.
20:26
SPEAKER_03: We've we've done so many cruise ships shows for um for Costa Cruz Line, we've done for Norwegian.
20:32
SPEAKER_03: Um, there's been a lot.
20:34
SPEAKER_03: Like remember that khaki gap commercial we had recreates a bunch of times.
20:39
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, oh fun.
20:41
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so we've done so many events for like May Tag, Westinghouse, American Press, Merle Lynch.
20:47
SPEAKER_03: We just throughout the years, and we do a lot of we do a lot of um galas here too.
20:52
SPEAKER_03: Um like um and we try to hire the students so they get experienced the older ones.
20:57
SPEAKER_03: That's why they when they leave our studio, they're already experienced in the industry.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: Smart.
21:03
SPEAKER_03: For example, is we had a girl who left and she auditioned for Brittany Spears.
21:09
SPEAKER_03: When Britney Spears, no, was it Brittany Spears?
21:11
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, Brittany Spears, she was doing the soda like a 40s kind of style.
21:15
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and the and Haley calls and says, Guys, I just booked this job, I just booked this video.
21:20
SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much.
21:21
SPEAKER_03: Because you know what?
21:22
SPEAKER_03: It was all 40s and nobody could do it.
21:24
SPEAKER_03: And it was because of you guys, yeah, because we had we had done that whole 40s thing that I knew what sugar foot was and all these hands, right?
21:31
SPEAKER_03: And I knew that and I go, wow, because we try to teach diversity, so like everything, like you know, right now, but you have to realize in time contemporary isn't where it's at.
21:41
SPEAKER_03: No, yes, you have to be able to do it.
21:44
SPEAKER_03: And that really made me feel good when she said that.
21:46
SPEAKER_03: When she said, you know, I go, wow, that's great.
21:49
SPEAKER_03: You know, I mean, something some people take it for take it for granted, but like, you know, they don't know how to do like 40 style dance.
21:56
SPEAKER_03: But video is a 40 style dance that you're going for.
22:00
SPEAKER_03: You have to know how to do it.
22:00
SPEAKER_03: And you're like, what?
22:01
SPEAKER_03: You know, you you come across well, we kind of teach, we teach like we've done, we've we teach philosophy, we've taught all different kinds of styles of Martha Graham.
22:09
SPEAKER_03: Different styles just so that they understand there's more than one style of dance.
22:13
SPEAKER_03: You have to have a signature trick.
22:16
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
22:17
SPEAKER_03: That's true.
22:18
SPEAKER_03: Improv, you have to just throw it in there.
22:20
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: That's true.
22:26
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22:30
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23:38
SPEAKER_01: We can't wait to see your dance.
23:49
SPEAKER_01: Because that improv is, and I try to tell dancers that all the time.
23:52
SPEAKER_01: Like most of the time you're gonna improv at every audition that you go to before the music starts, you have to improv, and then you need to do the 50s or the 40s style choreography.
24:03
SPEAKER_03: And are you gonna like you?
24:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
24:05
SPEAKER_01: Like you need to be able to have that wow trick that makes my eye go to you before you've even started the choreography.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
24:12
SPEAKER_01: Because then I'm already interested.
24:13
SPEAKER_01: And now I need to see, okay, I can tell you're great and there's something special going on here.
24:18
SPEAKER_01: But now are you able to deliver the choreography in the style that I'm looking for?
24:22
SPEAKER_01: And then I can hire you.
24:23
SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
24:24
SPEAKER_03: I agree.
24:25
SPEAKER_03: But I tell dancers when they improv just to like feel the room and watch everybody see what they're doing and don't go that route.
24:32
SPEAKER_03: Don't visit.
24:34
SPEAKER_03: Yep.
24:35
SPEAKER_00: That's great advice.
24:37
SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
24:37
SPEAKER_02: I love it.
24:38
SPEAKER_02: So okay, so we've covered your backgrounds, which first of all, y'all just y'all got so lucky.
24:42
SPEAKER_02: I wish I was older because I feel like your heyday, like when you were working on the blockbuster commercial and the gap and all that stuff, like that's when I feel like dance was just like anything goes.
24:53
SPEAKER_02: They were trying different things and there were opportunities everywhere, and it wasn't as competitive, it feels like.
24:57
SPEAKER_02: So, like, ugh, lucky you.
25:01
SPEAKER_02: It prepared you for the business of running a studio that can produce dancers that can do anything.
25:08
SPEAKER_02: So, on that note, what does your competitive level like training program look like?
25:13
SPEAKER_02: Are they taking ballet five times a week?
25:15
SPEAKER_02: Are they taking tap?
25:16
SPEAKER_02: Are they taking ballroom?
25:17
SPEAKER_02: What are they, what are you doing with them?
25:19
SPEAKER_03: Try to keep it the most minimal as possible.
25:22
SPEAKER_03: So because that we want them to be involved in school also.
25:26
SPEAKER_06: Okay.
25:26
SPEAKER_03: And that's kind of where we differ from everybody.
25:29
SPEAKER_03: We only require them like Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
25:33
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
25:34
SPEAKER_03: The other days, you know, dance team, they love it, you know, with our schools, because that's what how we keep seniors.
25:41
SPEAKER_03: Right.
25:41
SPEAKER_03: Uh most of our kids are on dance team, either middle school or middle school or high school.
25:46
SPEAKER_03: Right.
25:46
SPEAKER_03: Really?
25:47
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
25:47
SPEAKER_03: They're most of them are on dance team, and we don't have no problem with it.
25:51
SPEAKER_03: Because you know what?
25:51
SPEAKER_03: This is my motto that high school is a time of part of your life that is very short.
25:57
SPEAKER_03: And that and and you make your friends, high school and college, but you make your friends in high school and you make these memories.
26:04
SPEAKER_03: And if I make you choose that you cannot do dance team because you have to just come to dance studio every day, you're gonna resent it.
26:11
SPEAKER_03: You're gonna resent.
26:13
SPEAKER_03: And I go, no.
26:14
SPEAKER_03: So let everybody enjoy themselves.
26:15
SPEAKER_03: I complain, he complains, we deal with it.
26:18
SPEAKER_03: We know it's over, it's over.
26:20
SPEAKER_03: Okay, guys, now it's our time.
26:21
SPEAKER_03: You know what?
26:22
SPEAKER_03: You've had him the whole time.
26:23
SPEAKER_03: You know what?
26:23
SPEAKER_03: No, I need him on Wednesday because we haven't managed a rehearsal.
26:27
SPEAKER_03: Our first comp is next week.
26:28
SPEAKER_03: So, but we have a dance team this weekend.
26:30
SPEAKER_03: There's another dance team event, which one person, so we've never had every single person together at one time.
26:37
SPEAKER_03: Oh wow, because of every dance team, every dance team.
26:41
SPEAKER_03: Yes, and I know it's frustrating, right?
26:43
SPEAKER_03: You know what?
26:43
SPEAKER_03: You deal with it.
26:44
SPEAKER_03: And I tell the kids, they go, you know what, don't get mad at us.
26:46
SPEAKER_03: We gotta vent.
26:47
SPEAKER_03: We vent at the moment, but we understand.
26:50
SPEAKER_03: Once it's done, it's done, you know.
26:52
SPEAKER_03: But um, the kids take ballet, they take, they take um jazz, they take contemporary, they take lyrical, they take hip-hop, and they take ballroom.
27:00
SPEAKER_03: We don't we have to subs, we have to take the tap out for the ballroom because most of the kids took tap when they're young, when they're little, but or else they're here till 10:30.
27:10
SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
27:11
SPEAKER_03: And it's like and we can't get the kids, they don't start till six.
27:15
SPEAKER_03: They cannot do five.
27:15
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
27:16
SPEAKER_03: That's late.
27:17
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we start at six, six and nine thirty.
27:20
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
27:21
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
27:21
SPEAKER_03: We're my older, the younger kids start to start at four.
27:24
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
27:24
SPEAKER_03: So they do get they get a quality dance, and that's that's what I say.
27:30
SPEAKER_03: Because to be honest with you, you can say I take ballet every single day, and I can look at you and say, You do.
27:37
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
27:37
SPEAKER_03: You're right.
27:38
SPEAKER_03: You're wasting your money.
27:38
SPEAKER_03: You're wasting your money.
27:39
SPEAKER_03: You should be much better than what you are then.
27:42
SPEAKER_03: So you're not you're not putting um what do you call it a pen to paper.
27:46
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, no, because you're just you're just going through the motion.
27:50
SPEAKER_03: If you take it every day, you better be good.
27:52
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you're putting your arms better be good.
27:54
SPEAKER_03: You better have your you better be good.
27:56
SPEAKER_03: You better have to see it.
27:57
SPEAKER_03: And you know what?
27:58
SPEAKER_03: And our some of our our a lot of our some of our younger kids go to a ballet school like during the week, and and and they do take just straight ballet, like a straight ballet class from another from another teacher, which we have no problem.
28:11
SPEAKER_03: True ballet studio.
28:12
SPEAKER_03: There's different places that they go to, which is fine, you know.
28:15
SPEAKER_03: But they do know that the ballet is important because that is the their foundation of your technique.
28:20
SPEAKER_03: And I do, I do, you know, and it doesn't, and and you need to take it.
28:24
SPEAKER_03: But they don't they only come, some of the kids come twice a week for for ballet.
28:28
SPEAKER_03: For ballet, yes.
28:29
SPEAKER_03: But my my younger ones do.
28:31
SPEAKER_01: Are you doing like a full hour and a half ballet class or are they hour classes?
28:34
SPEAKER_03: It's an hour.
28:35
SPEAKER_03: An hour and a half, yeah.
28:36
SPEAKER_03: One's an hour and one's an hour and a half.
28:38
SPEAKER_03: And I have a lot of kids who take a double class on Tuesday.
28:41
SPEAKER_03: They take the first one for an hour and the second class for an hour and a half.
28:44
SPEAKER_03: Nice.
28:44
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
28:45
SPEAKER_03: And I I respect them for that because you know, they're young.
28:47
SPEAKER_03: They're younger, but they they do it because they go, okay, they do it, they know that this is gonna benefit me, you know.
28:52
SPEAKER_03: So, yeah.
28:53
SPEAKER_03: So that's so so as far as they're not, we're not in the studio where you're here seven days a week.
28:58
SPEAKER_03: They don't come on Saturdays because we have recreational on Saturdays.
29:03
SPEAKER_03: We have a great teacher who's run this program for like 12 years, 13 years already.
29:07
SPEAKER_03: She was one of our students, yeah, and she does a great job.
29:09
SPEAKER_03: And and she takes care of the pee-wee and the mini company.
29:12
SPEAKER_03: Her and her sister, they run that, and they kind of have and they've really done a grow oh get this right.
29:18
SPEAKER_03: They've done a great job, like, you know, and we're really proud of them.
29:22
SPEAKER_03: I mean, I'm proud of our kids.
29:23
SPEAKER_03: Our kids, I think our kids are are for their age and stuff, they're they're they're pretty good.
29:28
SPEAKER_03: You know, I I I call this a small studio.
29:31
SPEAKER_03: Like we had like two girls leave us like a couple years ago and go to a different studio, and then this year they came back because they were like, they trained for five days a week at another studio.
29:42
SPEAKER_03: They're like, Oh, your little kids are better than us, you know.
29:45
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they're saying they made them come and they can't they went six no six days a week.
29:51
SPEAKER_03: And it's like there was no where where's the where's the progress?
29:54
SPEAKER_03: And they spent a fortune, and a fortune, and she said, and then they came back and they go, like, wow, in the time that we've been back, the the the kids have learned so much more.
30:03
SPEAKER_03: You know, and I mean because remember, it's not it's remember, it's the quality, you know.
30:08
SPEAKER_03: Yes, it's not the you know, I mean, we're we're I'm a big stress.
30:11
SPEAKER_03: People ask all the time, they think this year because they go like they call them every day.
30:15
SPEAKER_03: I go, no.
30:16
SPEAKER_03: I go, no.
30:16
SPEAKER_03: If they came every day, first of all, no, no, they they'd be so miserable, they'd be miserable, like those faces.
30:23
SPEAKER_03: I know some people think, yes, I got you.
30:25
SPEAKER_03: I'm not condemning anybody, but some people think that yes, you know, you have to take valet class five times five days a week.
30:31
SPEAKER_03: Okay, fine.
30:32
SPEAKER_03: Then you better be you better be Nartina.
30:35
SPEAKER_03: And I think in different parts of the country, you can require them to come five days a week, not in Miami.
30:41
SPEAKER_03: Because they have so many things they just want to do.
30:43
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
30:44
SPEAKER_03: Really?
30:45
SPEAKER_03: Or whatever.
30:45
SPEAKER_03: I think if you're in Minnesota and it's freezing cold in the winter, I would very different.
30:51
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
30:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'd rather be at the beach than ballet class if I lived in Miami.
30:56
SPEAKER_03: There's a lot of kids who will take if there's a teacher coming in and they say, Hey, there's a master class here, kids will go, I want to go take that class, you know, because they they like doing that.
31:06
SPEAKER_03: We do conventions and we do a bunch of conventions.
31:08
SPEAKER_03: We do rebel, we do Nouveau, we do a bunch of different ones, and they we you know, so we take them to conventions because we think that that's I think conventions good because it shows you dance-wise where you are, it shows you it shows you your your retention, how to pick up, shows you how to how to function in a in a room where you have a hundred and something people, and it's like I gotta learn this, you know, and and I I think it's good.
31:32
SPEAKER_03: Some people don't like it.
31:33
SPEAKER_03: I go, I go, yes, but it's good for you.
31:36
SPEAKER_03: Because then you you're everyone's a different style.
31:39
SPEAKER_03: You have all these different teachers, and it's like, and you're learning something new for that weekend.
31:43
SPEAKER_03: And I think I think it's good.
31:44
SPEAKER_03: It teaches you how to stand out.
31:46
SPEAKER_03: I look at it that way.
31:47
SPEAKER_03: Some people do not like it.
31:48
SPEAKER_03: You're like, oh, I go to convention.
31:49
SPEAKER_03: I go, it kind of shows you where you are in dance.
31:52
SPEAKER_03: Because if if you're in a dance studio and all you do is practice a dance routine, you go to a convention and all they do, they sit back there and they can't pick up.
31:59
SPEAKER_03: They're like lost, like, okay, uh, what came after the number four?
32:03
SPEAKER_03: You know, and it's like that's because their brain is a muscle and the brain has to work in order to retain choreography.
32:08
SPEAKER_03: The only thing we can do as a studio is um go to a convention and compete.
32:14
SPEAKER_03: And we hate that because not everybody can afford it.
32:17
SPEAKER_03: Oh really?
32:18
SPEAKER_03: You get you get those people that just don't have that kind of money, you know.
32:22
SPEAKER_03: You have to pay a convention fee then numbers, you know.
32:25
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because you're an eight, we have kids that are like eight, nine numbers, nine numbers, uh, a duo and three so two solos.
32:31
SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
32:32
SPEAKER_03: Do the mouth, you know.
32:33
SPEAKER_00: Right.
32:34
SPEAKER_03: You know, and I'm just saying we we most of the time we don't do that's us.
32:38
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
32:39
SPEAKER_03: We don't do, we'll go to the convention, but we won't compete.
32:42
SPEAKER_03: If somebody wants to do solos, they can, but we don't do we don't do groups, they don't do groups.
32:46
SPEAKER_01: Right.
32:46
SPEAKER_01: You don't make it mandatory for the because they can't afford it.
32:49
SPEAKER_03: Because it's, you know, it's you're always gonna have a few people that you have to read block and don't want to read.
32:54
SPEAKER_01: Right.
32:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
32:55
SPEAKER_01: It is interesting to hear that because that is, I think, the biggest struggle with a lot of studios with how the industry is shifting to more of the pre-professional, highly competitive, advanced level studios who want that actual competition experience, who want someone to compete against at competition.
33:13
SPEAKER_01: Whereas, like when you go to a leveled comp, we talk about this all the time.
33:17
SPEAKER_01: A lot of time that advanced category, that highest category and level at competitions these days is non-existent.
33:22
SPEAKER_01: No one goes into it because they're intimidated by it.
33:25
SPEAKER_01: So all of those dancers are going to the convention competitions because there's no levels and the caliber and quality of dancers is usually higher.
33:34
SPEAKER_01: And with but but the flip side to that is yes, conventions are amazing because you get to train and you get to take class and you get to learn something new, but it's more expensive than a regular competition.
33:46
SPEAKER_01: So that's what makes it hard to add that competition aspect.
33:48
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of studios are in that same predicament where they're like, we want to transition to more convention competitions, but our parents just can't financially afford it.
33:57
SPEAKER_01: And it's a lot.
33:58
SPEAKER_03: I would do it in two seconds, but you know, not everybody can do it.
34:01
SPEAKER_03: Well, we do our kids do it.
34:03
SPEAKER_03: We have a lot of kids that do a lot of they do compete at the conventions.
34:07
SPEAKER_03: They go to uh they just do the solos.
34:09
SPEAKER_03: We we have a lot, which which is good.
34:11
SPEAKER_03: And I do agree with you.
34:12
SPEAKER_03: There is there's only one level because all these levels is just even judging, it's so hard to judge with all those levels.
34:21
SPEAKER_03: Yes, like, oh girls in intermediate level, she is it in a triple turn, and she's in the Oscars, and she should be friends out of it.
34:29
SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
34:30
SPEAKER_03: And she should friend outside a girl.
34:31
SPEAKER_03: I go, no, she is not intermediate.
34:34
SPEAKER_03: I go, why?
34:35
SPEAKER_03: Because you want to win.
34:36
SPEAKER_03: You know, that's how I look at it.
34:38
SPEAKER_03: And I is it's just kind of it's just uh it's just a for me, it's it's a sore.
34:42
SPEAKER_03: I look at people, I go like, guys, come on, put him in the right level.
34:46
SPEAKER_00: Right.
34:49
SPEAKER_03: She's an elite, she's the only person competing.
34:53
SPEAKER_03: Right.
34:53
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
34:53
SPEAKER_02: So hooray.
34:56
SPEAKER_03: But and I know the other studio, they should be an elite.
35:00
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
35:00
SPEAKER_01: Right.
35:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, especially when you know the scene, you know the dancers.
35:03
SPEAKER_01: You can we can tell as judges of like 10 seconds, 15 seconds in what your technique level is like, I can probably get an idea as to how frequently you train at your studio just on how you articulate through your feet, how you're using your plie, and what your posture looks like.
35:18
SPEAKER_03: We just shove them all in elite and just either sink or swim, just deal with it.
35:24
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, just you know, I guess that's it, you know.
35:27
SPEAKER_01: Speaking of that side of the studio, so how many events are you going to as a collective studio?
35:34
SPEAKER_01: I know you said you go to conventions, you often don't compete as a studio, you'll have soloists optional if they want to, but how many required competitions are you going to?
35:43
SPEAKER_01: And are you able to find competitions where you are you do have competition in that highest level?
35:50
SPEAKER_03: We go four, we do three regionals, and we do one nationals.
35:54
SPEAKER_01: Nice.
35:54
SPEAKER_03: And usually we do we do showbiz, we do car, we we've done what?
35:58
SPEAKER_03: Showbiz car, we've done showstoppers, we've done this year.
36:01
SPEAKER_03: We're doing star systems.
36:02
SPEAKER_03: Oh, we're doing star systems this year.
36:04
SPEAKER_03: We've done um pick them because wherever however we attend all their school schedules, everybody can go to that competition.
36:12
SPEAKER_03: We have we can go to that.
36:14
SPEAKER_03: That's the only way.
36:15
SPEAKER_03: We just don't pick them.
36:16
SPEAKER_03: I think there is there's good, there's good talent.
36:18
SPEAKER_03: Showbiz has great, good, great talent.
36:20
SPEAKER_03: So you know, I know some people think like, oh, the only good dancers are at a dance convention.
36:24
SPEAKER_03: I go, no.
36:25
SPEAKER_00: There's a million, especially not in Florida.
36:28
SPEAKER_03: Right.
36:28
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
36:28
SPEAKER_03: And we try to go every other year, we go, we we go out.
36:32
SPEAKER_03: Our in Vegas was great.
36:34
SPEAKER_03: Oh, wow.
36:36
SPEAKER_03: Everybody was all from LA.
36:39
SPEAKER_03: You know, those little kids are amazing.
36:41
SPEAKER_03: I was like, how are they getting those little kids to turn?
36:43
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, no one's so hard.
36:45
SPEAKER_03: It was great.
36:46
SPEAKER_03: Wow, yeah.
36:46
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we it was like, wow, we we thought these people are so good, but somehow, I mean, our kids were good.
36:53
SPEAKER_03: I felt like they were better dancers, so we looked different.
36:56
SPEAKER_03: We looked different because everybody looked all they were all doing the same thing.
37:01
SPEAKER_03: Yes, you know, right, they're all from the same area, so they were doing the same tricks and the same transition.
37:06
SPEAKER_03: I mean, then we came from like here in Florida and doing something totally different than everybody.
37:11
SPEAKER_03: So we just sort of oh they were like people were like this.
37:15
SPEAKER_03: These solos are good, these two groups are good, and they're you know these people, yeah, yeah, exactly.
37:19
SPEAKER_03: There are these people because we never we had never been out there.
37:22
SPEAKER_03: Remember, and car has those it's like a red room and a blue room.
37:25
SPEAKER_03: I don't know if you ever if you know that.
37:27
SPEAKER_03: No, so it's there was like 1300 in each side, which is a lot, yeah.
37:33
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, like supposed to regionals or nationals, yeah, we're all national, but the left and 1300 on the right.
37:39
SPEAKER_03: So you have 1300 going on, so you had like twists.
37:41
SPEAKER_03: You could mean so and then if you how they do it is if you score a certain average, that means you're a more powerful studio, you go on this side.
37:52
SPEAKER_03: And if you score, like if you're you score it, you go on this, you go on this side.
37:55
SPEAKER_03: Which we didn't know that.
37:56
SPEAKER_03: We didn't know that they're like we're like, why are we on this side?
37:59
SPEAKER_03: So we were with all those California studios.
38:02
SPEAKER_01: Is that how it was like determined from regionals?
38:06
SPEAKER_03: Yes, that comes from the regionals, from the regionals.
38:08
SPEAKER_03: Oh, interesting.
38:09
SPEAKER_01: So, like they kind of like accumulate your score from regionals as a studio whole, they know you're coming to nationals and then they put you where you belong.
38:16
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, which is odd because your judging panel could be a high judging.
38:21
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, exactly.
38:22
SPEAKER_03: And some other judging panel could be lower, which you could get, you know.
38:26
SPEAKER_03: So all those competitions that do all that kind of stuff, all those cities they go to.
38:31
SPEAKER_03: Okay, if the three, if we were sitting on a panel, we would have one opinion.
38:35
SPEAKER_03: If four of the people on a panel, they have another opinion.
38:37
SPEAKER_03: That's the same thing we have, or we might go to a city and our highest score is a 94 or 95.
38:43
SPEAKER_03: These people go to city, they're giving 98s and 99s to a city that's not that strong, right?
38:47
SPEAKER_03: So when they do this and you do all those ranking things, it's like, oh, you're right.
38:52
SPEAKER_03: I go, you know what?
38:53
SPEAKER_03: It's just, I mean, we've been there, we've done it.
38:55
SPEAKER_03: We've had, we, we've we've been there, we've done it, we've won a lot of them, but still, it doesn't, it it's it's not, it's hard.
39:04
SPEAKER_03: We've also won it and lost and lost it.
39:06
SPEAKER_03: You know, people been in the same fix.
39:10
SPEAKER_03: These people have never ever ever beat us before.
39:12
SPEAKER_03: There's no way.
39:13
SPEAKER_03: We like scored so differently.
39:15
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but they were in a city, they were in a city that wasn't very strong.
39:18
SPEAKER_03: So those people were giving them 99s and 98s, you know.
39:21
SPEAKER_03: We were in a hard city and we were getting maybe 95s and 96s, but they outscored us.
39:26
SPEAKER_03: Right.
39:27
SPEAKER_03: See somebody annoyed, I get annoyed.
39:29
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, and that's the personal yeah, because it's kind of like, well, yeah, that's why we look at it like, hey, you know, we got it, you know, I get it.
39:38
SPEAKER_03: That kind of stuff to say who's the best.
39:41
SPEAKER_03: I don't think I think everyone's good.
39:42
SPEAKER_03: Because it really isn't who's the best.
39:44
SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
39:45
SPEAKER_03: Everybody's good at something.
39:46
SPEAKER_03: Everyone's good, everyone's good because you're you're gonna do your dance on stage, and they I mean, everybody, it could be so many dances up there, and they're all great in their own aspect, their own way, and it's only an opinion.
39:59
SPEAKER_03: So you get an opinion of what you like, you know.
40:01
SPEAKER_03: And sometimes I I re I remind people that when you're watching five girls that are all great, it comes down to an opinion.
40:09
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
40:10
SPEAKER_03: Top five, it's an opinion, guys.
40:12
SPEAKER_03: It's an opinion.
40:12
SPEAKER_03: Remember, don't take it to heart.
40:14
SPEAKER_03: Don't you don't you you did great just to be there.
40:17
SPEAKER_03: Don't feel like, oh, I'm a loser.
40:19
SPEAKER_03: I didn't, I didn't want, you know.
40:20
SPEAKER_03: No, I go, you were there with those, those people were great.
40:24
SPEAKER_03: We do that when we're in a lineup.
40:26
SPEAKER_03: It's like, okay, these are the top five groups.
40:27
SPEAKER_03: I'm like, damn, these are all good.
40:29
SPEAKER_03: Because I feel like if my grandma, my grandpa, and all those people out there, what are they gonna like?
40:33
SPEAKER_03: They don't know, they know if you're bad, they know if you you know you kick with flex feet.
40:39
SPEAKER_03: But I'm saying, now what else are you gonna bring?
40:41
SPEAKER_03: Like, like, okay, suck me in, pull me in, reel me in, get get show me, show me.
40:47
SPEAKER_03: So I feel like, yay, we we did a dance competition in um for a Canada for it's a new competition called Breaking Bounds.
40:55
SPEAKER_03: Oh, and talent was great, Canadians are great, very well rounded.
41:00
SPEAKER_03: They are so rounded.
41:01
SPEAKER_03: Oh wow, they're great.
41:02
SPEAKER_03: And there was a couple of numbers in there that kind of I was like, wow, that was so good.
41:06
SPEAKER_03: And I would like to send a message to John because he we were both judging.
41:09
SPEAKER_03: I go like that dance was so good.
41:11
SPEAKER_03: I really liked it, you know what I mean?
41:12
SPEAKER_03: And and I think that's a great feeling.
41:14
SPEAKER_03: And I'm not, you know what?
41:17
SPEAKER_03: Okay, we've been in this a long time, and there's some dance teachers that go to judge and they hate everything because the only thing that's good is what they do.
41:24
SPEAKER_03: No, you gotta be a realist, and you know what, enjoy somebody else's work and say, you know what, that dance is good.
41:31
SPEAKER_03: And that annoys me sometimes when it bothers me when they don't look at other people, other people's um work and say, and uh and appreciate it, right?
41:40
SPEAKER_03: You know, and and and we're very much appreciate, I appreciate other people's work.
41:43
SPEAKER_03: I go, hey, that dance was great, you know.
41:46
SPEAKER_03: I'll try to find a teacher and say, hey, good job.
41:48
SPEAKER_03: I loved it.
41:48
SPEAKER_03: It was so good, you know, which I think is great.
41:50
SPEAKER_03: And you know, we've been in this business a l a long time, you know.
41:54
SPEAKER_03: So we've seen a lot, we've done a lot, and and I feel like, you know, I don't know, I I I like to tell people when when I think their their kids are good and and their stuff is great.
42:02
SPEAKER_02: You know, I well, and I think that's a testament to to how long you've been in business.
42:06
SPEAKER_02: And you even said when you started your studio, you had friends who helped you that were studio owners.
42:12
SPEAKER_02: That's not everybody.
42:13
SPEAKER_02: You know, there's so many communities of studios that are like very, I'm not helping you, you're my competition, no way.
42:19
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
42:19
SPEAKER_02: But because y'all seem to be like welcoming of others and helpful to others, like how great is that?
42:25
SPEAKER_02: You're helpful with the dance teams.
42:26
SPEAKER_02: Like, there's again so many studios who are like, no, no, my kids can't do that.
42:30
SPEAKER_02: But you guys seem to have a great relationship with the people around you, and I think that's amazing.
42:35
SPEAKER_03: I always think Suzanne from Real Dance.
42:37
SPEAKER_03: I go, we do this.
42:38
SPEAKER_03: And she, you know, we we go back and forth all night, you know.
42:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, she's great.
42:42
SPEAKER_02: We love Suzanne.
42:43
SPEAKER_02: We need a Suzanne is helping out you.
42:45
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, she's who connected us.
42:47
SPEAKER_00: So shout out Suzanne.
42:49
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
42:50
SPEAKER_02: Well, I have I have one little um last thing that I want to talk about quickly because I know it's unique to your program, and I want to hear about where when you decided to add ballroom in and why, and what do you think it does for your kids?
43:02
SPEAKER_03: We probably I would say 15 years ago, right?
43:05
SPEAKER_03: Wow, yeah, like 15 years because I think originally when we first opened, we did not have ballroom.
43:11
SPEAKER_03: We did tap.
43:12
SPEAKER_03: We did tap.
43:13
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
43:14
SPEAKER_03: We noticed that every kid wants to do Spanish TV because it's a huge market here.
43:18
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
43:19
SPEAKER_03: So that makes sense is what is going to get them the job.
43:22
SPEAKER_03: So we hired a ballroom who came.
43:24
SPEAKER_03: He's been actually with us.
43:26
SPEAKER_03: We've had a few, but one has been here a long time, and another one we had for a while.
43:30
SPEAKER_03: And he really taught.
43:32
SPEAKER_03: Remember, it's it's dance, studio, ballroom, technically.
43:37
SPEAKER_03: Right.
43:38
SPEAKER_03: It is a different thing.
43:40
SPEAKER_03: Ballroom because that is so hard.
43:45
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
43:46
SPEAKER_03: They will work on a bevel and a shift shift with the hip twenty minutes because no throng the hip has to move to the left first.
43:55
SPEAKER_03: And then you know what I mean?
43:56
SPEAKER_03: They'll do that kind of so you get you teach them.
44:00
SPEAKER_03: Good feet.
44:01
SPEAKER_03: You teach them the technique of the ballroom, but it's almost like uh I call it ballroomish.
44:06
SPEAKER_03: Ballroom ish, ballroom, phone, ballroom jazz.
44:10
SPEAKER_03: It's like ballroom jazz.
44:12
SPEAKER_03: But you know, but you teach them arms and you teach them the feet and you teach them to walk and they learn all that.
44:17
SPEAKER_03: But it's not the same as ball going to a ballroom studio where you're gonna, you know, and and remember, ballroom is on the ballroom is on the two, not on the one.
44:27
SPEAKER_03: As a dancer, a lot of dancers are like, oh, guys, one, two.
44:33
SPEAKER_01: And that's when that tap musicality comes back out.
44:37
SPEAKER_03: I'll give you one thing.
44:38
SPEAKER_03: I think every all you little kids to take taps.
44:41
SPEAKER_03: You know why?
44:41
SPEAKER_03: Tap is what helps your mu uh musicality and it gives you rhythm.
44:47
SPEAKER_03: Because you need to learn how to hear the music.
44:50
SPEAKER_03: People are willing to surprise, okay, t clap the music.
44:53
SPEAKER_03: The music going fun and they're like going and they clap off the beat.
44:56
SPEAKER_03: You know why?
44:57
SPEAKER_03: Because they can they don't hear it.
44:58
SPEAKER_03: Tattoos, tap on the beat, tap on the beat.
45:01
SPEAKER_03: You know, so I think it helps kids.
45:03
SPEAKER_03: The little our little kids take tap for the musicality of it.
45:06
SPEAKER_03: Because you need it and it helps you.
45:08
SPEAKER_03: It helps you, helps your brain, helps your brain learn to hear, hear the beat.
45:12
SPEAKER_03: Because people think, oh, everybody hears the beat.
45:14
SPEAKER_03: No.
45:15
SPEAKER_03: They sure don't.
45:16
SPEAKER_03: Some people do not hear the beat.
45:18
SPEAKER_03: You see them dancing with somebody, you're like, okay, the beat's going one way, you're going another way.
45:22
SPEAKER_03: And it's like it happens, but but that's I mean, going back to it, that's how how we came up with the ballroom because and our kids really like it and they they enjoy it.
45:31
SPEAKER_03: And it gives you uh another sass.
45:36
SPEAKER_03: Like really ballroom dancers have such a flair.
45:39
SPEAKER_03: They walk out with a face when I'm looking at you.
45:41
SPEAKER_03: You know, it's it's it's amazing.
45:43
SPEAKER_03: Like when you watch them, their face is what gets you.
45:46
SPEAKER_03: And they do that all the time.
45:47
SPEAKER_03: I I tell I tell people all the time, I know, you know what?
45:49
SPEAKER_03: We've been to the heritage and all these ballroom competitions because we had kids who would compete in them because they would take ballroom.
45:55
SPEAKER_03: And it's amazing to watch these dancers who come out, and for the minute they step on the stage, their face is like you know what I mean, and they get you with the face and they get you with that personality.
46:05
SPEAKER_03: And it's it's just it's the most amazing thing to watch because you see foxtrot, you see waltz, and you see you see triple step, you see all these different things, and they're so good.
46:16
SPEAKER_03: And it's great, you know.
46:19
SPEAKER_03: So we went to those, and then that's but we knew because this teacher who came into shows, he says, guys, listen, this is what you're gonna get.
46:27
SPEAKER_03: This is what you get out, you know.
46:29
SPEAKER_03: You won't get the truth.
46:31
SPEAKER_03: You're you're you're getting ballroom technique.
46:33
SPEAKER_03: It's not like you're just a ballroom studio.
46:35
SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
46:35
SPEAKER_03: But it's hard, right?
46:37
SPEAKER_03: It's hard.
46:37
SPEAKER_03: But I think for the most of it, our our kids do pretty good.
46:40
SPEAKER_03: Excuse me, they do pretty good.
46:43
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, I would say.
46:49
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48:25
SPEAKER_01: I think it's wonderful.
48:26
SPEAKER_01: I think that I love that studios are slowly starting to incorporate that into the training because I'm looking back at my I I never I didn't even know what any ballroom was at all before I became a professional.
48:39
SPEAKER_01: That was not a thing at all.
48:41
SPEAKER_01: Dancing with the stars wasn't even on television yet.
48:44
SPEAKER_01: Like it was like not a thing.
48:46
SPEAKER_01: And then Leslie and I go to our first job for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lance together and fresh little 18-year-old, and they, you know, throw you into the punches and teach you all this choreography.
48:56
SPEAKER_01: And there was so much partnering in the cushion.
49:01
SPEAKER_01: Yes, disco partnering.
49:03
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
49:03
SPEAKER_01: And then you're just like, okay, good luck.
49:06
SPEAKER_01: And then I'm like, I don't even know how to dance in a heel.
49:08
SPEAKER_01: And now I'm partnering with a boy, and I don't even know what I'm doing.
49:11
SPEAKER_02: And he's shorter than me, and like, how is this fair?
49:13
SPEAKER_01: And like, if I knew some basic ballroom before I got to that professional drop, I would have been more fixed.
49:21
SPEAKER_02: Can anybody tell me that?
49:22
SPEAKER_02: Like, why didn't we know that?
49:24
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
49:24
SPEAKER_01: I've I knew it from learning all everything that my um Latin teachers, Luis Elgato from In the Heights, he taught me everything that I know about Latin ballroom.
49:35
SPEAKER_01: And that was always like at the In the Heights audition, you step on the two to begin, to begin this sauce of partnering in the club scene.
49:43
SPEAKER_01: And like it is ingrained in my head.
49:45
SPEAKER_01: And that was like how I learned it at an audition.
49:48
SPEAKER_01: I shouldn't be learning it at the audition.
49:50
SPEAKER_01: I should be confident walking into the audition saying, I'm gonna book this because I've trained in ballroom and all these other people haven't.
49:57
SPEAKER_05: Yep.
49:58
SPEAKER_02: Well, and it's I think it's important that y'all mentioned that this is ballroomish or studio ballroom because I think that's a really very important distinction that, like, yeah, if you're trying to learn Latin ballroom styles, you need to go to that studio and do that because that is exactly like trying to learn point, you know, at the YMCA.
50:18
SPEAKER_02: Like it does not work.
50:20
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
50:21
SPEAKER_02: But what what we do in a studio, like, and I'm really curious, I would love to hear from a ballroom teacher, maybe your ballroom teacher at some point.
50:27
SPEAKER_02: Like, what is how do they how do they truncate it and make it enough to do this, but still being respectful of the art form?
50:36
SPEAKER_02: Because you want to do that too.
50:37
SPEAKER_02: You don't don't want to bastardize it so badly that it's unrecognizable.
50:40
SPEAKER_02: But like, I want to know what I want to know more.
50:43
SPEAKER_02: So, like, maybe we'll have to talk to your ballroom teacher.
50:45
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, he he does all the time.
50:46
SPEAKER_03: He comes in and he goes, like, he always tells them about their feet and the walk and the arms.
50:51
SPEAKER_03: He's really because he could that's uh that's like if you get the feet right, you get the arms right, and you get the walk right, you're good.
50:58
SPEAKER_03: But he he's pretty good because this is what he does.
51:01
SPEAKER_03: And he has good feet.
51:02
SPEAKER_03: We've had some great ballroom teachers, you know, through through the years that have come that have come by, you know.
51:07
SPEAKER_03: Like we had Jonathan, we had Jonathan and came in to teach out of our lat number, and they're both great.
51:12
SPEAKER_03: She's great, he's great, and it was really, really good, you know.
51:16
SPEAKER_03: And then you get you see them, and then it's like, and and they kind of like did a little correction, and then the kids were like, Oh, okay, okay, okay.
51:22
SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
51:23
SPEAKER_03: Like, okay, guys, no, lead it's this way, lead this way with your body.
51:26
SPEAKER_03: And they and but they knew enough, you know.
51:28
SPEAKER_03: I mean, so it it was what ship did you guys work on?
51:31
SPEAKER_02: Royal Caribbean Vision of the Seas together.
51:33
SPEAKER_03: Okay, the vision out of where the short ship.
51:36
SPEAKER_03: Where was it at?
51:36
SPEAKER_01: Uh Mexican Riviera.
51:38
SPEAKER_01: So we poured it out of Long Beach.
51:39
SPEAKER_03: Oh, Long Beach?
51:40
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
51:41
SPEAKER_03: So many Royal Caribbean clothes.
51:43
SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
51:43
SPEAKER_03: We have a lot.
51:44
SPEAKER_03: We used to buy them when they were done with them.
51:46
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
51:47
SPEAKER_03: We used to buy what?
51:48
SPEAKER_03: The shows?
51:49
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they're they're show costumes all the time.
51:52
SPEAKER_03: Oh, the costumes.
51:53
SPEAKER_03: We have them all in a warehouse.
51:55
SPEAKER_01: Well, you don't want our costumes, but because they're still on the hand, and that was 20 years ago.
52:01
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
52:01
SPEAKER_03: Oh wow, because we have a because we have we know we have a lot of we have a lot of friends at Royal Caribbean.
52:05
SPEAKER_01: Nice, yeah.
52:06
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they're right down the street from y'all.
52:09
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
52:10
SPEAKER_03: That's good for you guys.
52:12
SPEAKER_03: You know what?
52:12
SPEAKER_03: That's that's my big thing.
52:13
SPEAKER_03: I do dancers who want to dance, I do tell them, you know what, you want to dance, go on a ship.
52:18
SPEAKER_03: At least do six months.
52:19
SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
52:20
SPEAKER_03: Do nine months, do I go rural Caribbean?
52:22
SPEAKER_03: Is a nine-month contract.
52:24
SPEAKER_03: You know what?
52:24
SPEAKER_03: Do it because you can't stay on for the next thing you got to get off and go back to rehearsal.
52:29
SPEAKER_03: Because I go, but I says it's the best way to start your career out.
52:34
SPEAKER_03: To start living on your own.
52:36
SPEAKER_03: You get to work.
52:36
SPEAKER_03: I go, the shows are good.
52:38
SPEAKER_03: You know, you'll enjoy yourself and you'll kind of learn how to live as as a solo, and no one's telling you what to do.
52:46
SPEAKER_03: You send kids like, oh, you're gonna move to California.
52:49
SPEAKER_03: Oh, okay, I want to make it in the business.
52:51
SPEAKER_03: I got you, but you know what?
52:52
SPEAKER_03: Here, you got five thousand dollars, you don't have enough money.
52:55
SPEAKER_03: Right.
52:55
SPEAKER_03: And I got paper apartment, you know what I mean?
52:57
SPEAKER_03: And I feel like that's hard to do.
52:59
SPEAKER_03: I go, go do a chip, save your money.
53:02
SPEAKER_03: I go enjoy.
53:03
SPEAKER_03: You will never be able to see the world for free like you can if you work on it.
53:07
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that is correct, and get paid to do it.
53:09
SPEAKER_03: And get paid to do it.
53:10
SPEAKER_03: There's nothing worse than just training a dancer for years and they just become a teacher.
53:14
SPEAKER_03: What do you teach it?
53:15
SPEAKER_03: You don't know anything.
53:16
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you you have to like elaborate on your technique and stuff.
53:21
SPEAKER_03: That's how you when you do shows, that's how you learn different things.
53:24
SPEAKER_03: Get out of that, get out in the world and do it.
53:27
SPEAKER_03: We push it all the time.
53:28
SPEAKER_03: Which is ship is good because you have like different styles all the time.
53:33
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
53:34
SPEAKER_03: We have been working on a ship in Petersburg, Russia in in Russia.
53:39
SPEAKER_03: We've been to Denmark, we have been Iceland, we've been to the Panama Canal, we have been everywhere, we have been, we have been everywhere when you go into New York and you're gonna pass the and all that is traveling on.
53:53
SPEAKER_03: We have done transatlantic on a cruise working, we have done all the Mediterranean.
53:58
SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's like all that is knowledge, not knowledge, all that is working, doing what you love, the ending you're getting paid for it.
54:07
SPEAKER_03: You're getting absolutely you're getting to see all these great places.
54:10
SPEAKER_03: It really, if you think about it, in the long run, you would not be able to do that.
54:13
SPEAKER_03: How many people can say literally never like oh I've been like we we've we've been to Africa, we've been to Tunisia, we've been to all these places working.
54:22
SPEAKER_03: That's just that's just how we've been to Mallorca, we've been everywhere, we've been to Portugal, we've been to the the we've been to the English Channel, I mean, all that kind of stuff, the Keel Canal.
54:31
SPEAKER_02: I mean, you know, and meeting all kinds of people from those places too, and it's like grow up fast, yeah, and you learn, you know.
54:38
SPEAKER_03: Yes, especially when when these kids go on a ship.
54:41
SPEAKER_03: Because I think rural Caribbean hires a lot of American, right?
54:44
SPEAKER_03: There's a lot of a lot of kids, yeah.
54:46
SPEAKER_03: Where other people hire a lot of English, English and all different other nationalities, yeah.
54:52
SPEAKER_03: So, you know, they have a lot of, you know, you meet a lot a lot a lot of friends, but that's my biggest thing.
54:57
SPEAKER_03: Go on a ship.
54:58
SPEAKER_03: Yep, do the ship first.
55:00
SPEAKER_03: You know what?
55:00
SPEAKER_03: You might you'll if you don't like it, you tried it, you did it.
55:04
SPEAKER_03: But you don't have to worry about anything, you're gonna get fed for free.
55:07
SPEAKER_03: Yes, but your food's paid for, you and then you're gonna see, even if you did Caribbean, you do Caribbean, you're you know how many times are you gonna go to San Juan?
55:14
SPEAKER_03: You're gonna go to St.
55:15
SPEAKER_03: Thomas, you're gonna go to St.
55:16
SPEAKER_03: Martin or Barbados, you know, you probably never, but you get to go on the ship, you know.
55:20
SPEAKER_01: You're on vacation.
55:22
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you work and you enjoy yourself.
55:24
SPEAKER_03: That I always tell you about it, and you get paid for it.
55:26
SPEAKER_03: I said that's the best job to do.
55:28
SPEAKER_03: And I really honestly, and you know what?
55:30
SPEAKER_03: Because we did it.
55:31
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
55:31
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
55:32
SPEAKER_03: And I I did I had a gross blessed.
55:34
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
55:34
SPEAKER_01: We we speak from we speak from experience all the time, like Leslie and I.
55:39
SPEAKER_01: I'm uh I actually now work for a cruise ship company called RWS Entertainment, which is based out of New York City, they cast for Holland America.
55:46
SPEAKER_01: And I I'm the audition choreographer for their tour.
55:49
SPEAKER_01: So I'm now on the other side of the table and seeing the dancers that are eager and hungry, and I and whenever I get to have talkbacks, or if even if I'm mentoring new dancers who are breaking into the professional world, I always tell them to go do a cruise ship.
56:01
SPEAKER_01: It was my first job.
56:03
SPEAKER_01: I got the job from Star Power Nationals and all this.
56:06
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
56:06
SPEAKER_01: You know, like now we're having the man of them.
56:11
SPEAKER_01: It's just, it's, it's, it was the best decision of my career to go do that cruise ship.
56:16
SPEAKER_01: And even like what you said of dancers who are like, I'm gonna move to LA and I'm gonna be a professional dancer.
56:21
SPEAKER_01: You have no experience on your resume.
56:24
SPEAKER_01: People are probably not going to hire you yet.
56:27
SPEAKER_01: You have to get some things on your resume to show that you're reliable, that you've completed a contract, that you're professional.
56:34
SPEAKER_01: And then once you have something from a reputable company on your resume, then we can try out LA.
56:39
SPEAKER_01: And now, guess what?
56:40
SPEAKER_01: You have you have money, you have experience, you are you know how to perform in a show.
56:46
SPEAKER_01: Like it's an it's a great place to start.
56:48
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of people look at it as like a only a starting point of their career, but people go back to cruise ships all the time.
56:54
SPEAKER_01: They pay better money than regional theaters.
56:57
SPEAKER_02: Like I mean, I have a friend, I have friends who are married.
57:00
SPEAKER_02: They met on a ship.
57:01
SPEAKER_02: She's a performer, he was a sports staff, they paid for their entire house pre-pandemic when housing was affordable.
57:09
SPEAKER_02: But no, the from cruise ship salary, they were on cruise ships for 10 years.
57:13
SPEAKER_03: That's great.
57:13
SPEAKER_02: And just they have no debt.
57:15
SPEAKER_02: They have they paid for their house, like because of cruise ships.
57:18
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
57:18
SPEAKER_02: And I thought, so anybody who says, Oh, a cruise ship, no, no, no, no, no.
57:21
SPEAKER_02: You want to be on a cruise ship.
57:22
SPEAKER_02: Oh, I say for your life on a cruise ship.
57:25
SPEAKER_03: I get I get that all the time.
57:26
SPEAKER_03: Is that oh, a ship?
57:26
SPEAKER_03: I go, like, don't say it like that.
57:28
SPEAKER_03: Don't say it like that.
57:29
SPEAKER_03: No, I go, you know what?
57:30
SPEAKER_03: I go, where else do you get you get a job that pays it pays everything?
57:33
SPEAKER_03: Oh, go get a job somewhere that pays housing and food.
57:36
SPEAKER_03: You know, and you and you and you're you're entertaining people.
57:40
SPEAKER_03: People are coming in, they're entertained.
57:41
SPEAKER_03: LA, and then they realize they have no money, and then they start calling us and they ask.
57:46
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, oh now the cruise ship sounds good to them.
57:49
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but I tell them, I go, you know what, you gotta I you gotta audition.
57:52
SPEAKER_03: I go, I can only go so far, I go, you know, audition yourself.
57:55
SPEAKER_03: Because we've we've been there, we've been and we've we've sent people and they they burn our name.
58:00
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
58:00
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
58:00
SPEAKER_02: Right.
58:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I well and it's and it's also really competitive.
58:03
SPEAKER_02: I think we we say these words like, oh, just do a ship.
58:06
SPEAKER_02: Well, okay, yes, but like audition for the ship, still got audition again.
58:09
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, send your video in.
58:11
SPEAKER_02: My my jobs were got from a video and an immediate replacement because somebody broke her ankle.
58:16
SPEAKER_02: Right.
58:16
SPEAKER_02: And I had just recently again submitted another video just to say, well, here I am again.
58:20
SPEAKER_02: I was too short last time, but maybe this time.
58:22
SPEAKER_02: Boom, job.
58:23
SPEAKER_02: Right.
58:23
SPEAKER_02: Right place, right time.
58:24
SPEAKER_02: You never know.
58:25
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
58:25
SPEAKER_02: And you just never know.
58:27
SPEAKER_02: And it's not as easy as it sounds, but but once you get it, it is easy.
58:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
58:34
SPEAKER_00: But also, it that rehearsal process was the hardest rehearsal process I've probably ever been.
58:40
SPEAKER_03: Especially because I was new too.
58:42
SPEAKER_01: Like I was here in Florida.
58:44
SPEAKER_01: So hot.
58:45
SPEAKER_03: In the six weeks, you guys are there for six weeks, right?
58:47
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we were there for two.
58:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we learned like five or six shows.
58:50
SPEAKER_03: Two or three shows.
58:51
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, maybe two.
58:52
SPEAKER_02: We we did two.
58:53
SPEAKER_02: This was a long time ago.
58:54
SPEAKER_02: There may be more now.
58:55
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, okay.
58:56
SPEAKER_03: You were in the in the new facility?
58:57
SPEAKER_02: Uh I don't know.
58:58
SPEAKER_03: We were not.
58:59
SPEAKER_03: Oh, you weren't in the new one everywhere.
59:00
SPEAKER_02: No, we weren't in the new one.
59:01
SPEAKER_02: We weren't in the new one.
59:02
SPEAKER_02: This was in 2008.
59:04
SPEAKER_03: Oh, you in Hollywood.
59:05
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
59:06
SPEAKER_03: You in Hollywood.
59:07
SPEAKER_03: Oh, now to see those shows, you know how they do a performance.
59:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the little preview show, yeah.
59:12
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, we've done that.
59:13
SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah, that but that was uh that was before.
59:15
SPEAKER_03: Now they have that nice big building by FIU.
59:17
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's it's pretty.
59:18
SPEAKER_03: Lucky.
59:18
SPEAKER_03: I've seen the photos, they look beautiful.
59:20
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they look nice.
59:21
SPEAKER_03: There's 25.
59:22
SPEAKER_03: There's 25.
59:23
SPEAKER_03: My my my friend, I have a friend of mine, and she teaches a lot of the shows.
59:26
SPEAKER_03: There's 25 rooms.
59:27
SPEAKER_03: It's it's huge.
59:29
SPEAKER_03: And they build housing for them.
59:31
SPEAKER_03: All the kids, all everybody stays there.
59:32
SPEAKER_03: Do you have your own dormant housing there?
59:35
SPEAKER_03: Dinner, breakfast, lunch, and dinner is made for you there.
59:38
SPEAKER_03: Everything is there.
59:39
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, oh wow.
59:41
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and there's a kitchen, they stink, they cook everything.
59:43
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's really nice.
59:44
SPEAKER_03: It's really nice for them.
59:45
SPEAKER_03: That's why I tell them.
59:46
SPEAKER_01: Everybody, doesn't that sound lovely?
59:47
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't don't you want to do that job in sunny Miami, Florida, and then go float away at sea dancing for your life and learning how to ballroom partner and part all the things?
59:56
SPEAKER_01: Like, everyone, do it.
59:57
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you, it's a great job.
59:59
SPEAKER_03: There's a ballroom show on Royal, one of the I don't know which ship it is.
1:00:03
SPEAKER_03: There's one I there's one because I remember it's something, yeah.
1:00:06
SPEAKER_03: There's a ballroom show because I think they hired the dancers actually in the audition.
1:00:10
SPEAKER_03: They wanted to make sure that you had some knowledge of a ballroom because it's the whole show is like parked.
1:00:15
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
1:00:16
SPEAKER_03: And I can't remember which one it was because Isabel was telling me, but it's really good, it was really good.
1:00:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:00:22
SPEAKER_03: There's one number they do that slow motion on.
1:00:24
SPEAKER_03: Have you ever seen it?
1:00:25
SPEAKER_03: Where the number starts and everybody moves slow.
1:00:28
SPEAKER_03: It's like everybody's frozen and you're moving so slow.
1:00:31
SPEAKER_03: It's so cool to watch.
1:00:32
SPEAKER_03: It's really good.
1:00:33
SPEAKER_03: But it's on one of the I can't remember which ship it's on.
1:00:35
SPEAKER_03: I don't know if it's in if it's in Asia somewhere.
1:00:38
SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
1:00:39
SPEAKER_02: Well, there's so many now.
1:00:40
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because the fleet has just might be the ovation or one of those.
1:00:43
SPEAKER_03: It's out there somewhere.
1:00:44
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
1:00:45
SPEAKER_03: But it it's cool.
1:00:46
SPEAKER_03: It's cool.
1:00:47
SPEAKER_01: Well, y'all, this was such a great chat.
1:00:49
SPEAKER_01: I loved hearing all of your experience from your professional careers and what you're bringing to your studio at Dance Attack in Miami and all the different varieties of training that you're offering your dancers.
1:01:00
SPEAKER_01: And we, I mean, like I mentioned at the beginning, you are doing things right because you've had dancers that have broken off into professional careers and have been very successful on Broadway, in Los Angeles, um, living their dreams as professionals or getting that experience and then going back into the teaching world.
1:01:19
SPEAKER_01: And it's all thanks to what you've given them for the past 29 years at Dance Attack.
1:01:23
SPEAKER_01: So congrats on all that you're doing, congrats on making an impact in in our eyes as well.
1:01:28
SPEAKER_01: That's why we wanted to bring you on and feature you.
1:01:30
SPEAKER_01: And hopefully some of our listeners out there, maybe they're learning about Dance Attack for the first time.
1:01:35
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you've competed against Dance Attack at a competition.
1:01:39
SPEAKER_01: Be on the lookout for them this season at competitions in the Miami, Florida, Florida area, or maybe even at Nationals.
1:01:46
SPEAKER_01: Where are y'all heading this year for Nationals?
1:01:48
SPEAKER_03: Orange, Alabama.
1:01:50
SPEAKER_03: Orange Beach.
1:01:52
SPEAKER_03: Gulf Shores, Alabama.
1:01:54
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
1:01:55
SPEAKER_03: Everybody is like, where are we going?
1:01:56
SPEAKER_03: They don't know even.
1:01:58
SPEAKER_03: I think it's called Orange Beach.
1:01:59
SPEAKER_03: Orange Beach, Alabama.
1:02:00
SPEAKER_03: We don't even know.
1:02:03
SPEAKER_03: I think it's Alabama, Orange Beach, Alabama.
1:02:05
SPEAKER_03: Cool.
1:02:06
SPEAKER_03: All right.
1:02:06
SPEAKER_03: Well, yeah, Gulf Shores.
1:02:08
SPEAKER_03: I think it's Gulf Shores, Orange Beach.
1:02:09
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's one of those, isn't it?
1:02:10
SPEAKER_01: Amazing.
1:02:11
SPEAKER_01: Well, maybe some of our listeners will see y'all there.
1:02:13
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
1:02:14
SPEAKER_01: I hope that you have an amazing season.
1:02:16
SPEAKER_01: It sounds like it hasn't even officially started yet, so best of luck at competitions and conventions this season.
1:02:21
SPEAKER_01: And thanks for being here on our podcast, John.
1:02:24
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having us.
1:02:24
SPEAKER_03: Thank you for having us.
1:02:25
SPEAKER_01: We appreciate you.
1:02:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so if you guys would want to do one final thing to lead us out, and you can talk to either you both can go or one of you can go.
1:02:34
SPEAKER_01: Just one final thought when it comes to owning a studio.
1:02:38
SPEAKER_01: If you want to talk to other studio owners, other dancers, advice to anyone, just one final wrap-up thought with our studio spotlight feature, which is the owners of dance attack.
1:02:50
SPEAKER_03: I feel like you need to, uh, as a studio owner, be honest with honest.
1:02:58
SPEAKER_03: Honest, you know, you have to you have to like what you do.
1:03:01
SPEAKER_03: And remember, everything is not about a dollar.
1:03:03
SPEAKER_03: There's a little bit of there's a there's a little bit of pride in there, and there is more of a feeling of content, which you can't put a price on.
1:03:12
SPEAKER_03: So you I how can I put this?
1:03:16
SPEAKER_03: Enjoy in everybody that walks through your door is there for a reason.
1:03:20
SPEAKER_03: So that is a blessing in itself, because they're coming to you for something.
1:03:24
SPEAKER_03: And when the the people that are coming through your door, they're coming to you because there's a there's a reason behind that.
1:03:30
SPEAKER_03: That means that they trust you and they want you, they want, they want their children to learn from your establishment.
1:03:38
SPEAKER_03: And I think that is the biggest thing in the world because when you get your kids that have graduated already and now they have their own kids and they bring their their kids to you, it's such uh a beautiful thing.
1:03:52
SPEAKER_03: And you know what?
1:03:53
SPEAKER_03: We have great and and have your if you love your kids and you're really good with them, they will they will always be there and they will always come back to see you and they will always talk about you and say, hey guys, how you doing?
1:04:06
SPEAKER_03: Yes, you know, dan I uh I was a dance attack um when I, you know, until I graduated, you know, that kind of that kind of thing.
1:04:12
SPEAKER_03: I think we have alumni even like nationals every year.
1:04:16
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they come they come to watch the dancers and they come to support, you know, and they wear and we do they have their alumni jackets on and stuff, you know.
1:04:23
SPEAKER_03: So I just think be yourself and have make this a beautiful thing.
1:04:28
SPEAKER_03: And remember, it's dance.
1:04:30
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, what we do is not a necessity, not a necessity of life.
1:04:35
SPEAKER_03: We are this is an extracurricular activity that the kids should be very fortunate that the parents can afford to do it because not everybody can do it.
1:04:43
SPEAKER_03: There's a lot of good kids out there, their parents cannot afford to pay the hundreds of dollars it costs to take a dance.
1:04:49
SPEAKER_03: So really be respectful.
1:04:51
SPEAKER_03: Really thank your parents for all what they do and the sacrifices they make for you to be able to come to a dance studio and compete and do everything.
1:05:01
SPEAKER_03: You know, so that's what that's my biggest thing.
1:05:04
SPEAKER_03: I tell them all the time, thank your parents because you know what?
1:05:07
SPEAKER_03: There's a lot of other things, you know.
1:05:08
SPEAKER_03: When there's no money, it's like, guys, you can't take that because we have to eat.
1:05:11
SPEAKER_03: You know, so this is a super, super luxury thing that that uh there that you that you get you you have in your life.
1:05:18
SPEAKER_03: So respect it, love it, and you know, and and just embrace it that you're able to do it.
1:05:24
SPEAKER_03: You know, that's how I look at at what what we do.
1:05:27
SPEAKER_03: This is what we do because we're in a business where it's not where you don't have to come here.
1:05:31
SPEAKER_03: If you don't have the money, you can't come.
1:05:33
SPEAKER_03: And we I mean, and we would love everybody to come for free, but you know, we you you can't do it.
1:05:37
SPEAKER_03: You know, it's just the way it is.
1:05:38
SPEAKER_03: So we're very, I want to wrap it up to say be very appreciative for the people that come through your door and for the kids to be appreciative to the parents for the sacrifices that they make for them to do what they love because it's not easy.
1:05:53
SPEAKER_03: And but parents make the sacrifice because they love the kids.
1:05:56
SPEAKER_03: And I respect that.
1:05:57
SPEAKER_03: John and I do.
1:05:58
SPEAKER_03: We respect the respect a lot.
1:06:03
SPEAKER_01: We hope you enjoyed our latest studio spotlight episode featuring Dance Attack Miami.
1:06:08
SPEAKER_01: Thank you to John and Cookie for joining us on this episode.
1:06:12
SPEAKER_01: Be sure to follow Dance Attack on Instagram at Dance Attack Miami and learn more on their website at DanceAttackMiami.com.
1:06:21
SPEAKER_02: Don't forget to follow Making the Impact on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcast, and pretty much everywhere you listen to podcasts.
1:06:28
SPEAKER_02: And if you want more exclusive episodes, support our podcast by joining our Platinum Premium membership for only$5 a month.
1:06:34
SPEAKER_02: Join now at Impact Dance Educators.com/slash Platinum Premium or click the link in our show notes.
1:06:40
SPEAKER_01: Making the Impact a Dance Competition Podcast will be hosting a live podcast event in the heart of New York City at the Capezio flagship store in Times Square.
1:06:49
SPEAKER_01: Mark your calendars for Saturday, March 30th, 2024, and join us live in person for a jam-packed day of dance fun, freebies, and more.
1:06:59
SPEAKER_01: Our live podcast recording is completely free to attend, and all attendees will receive a swag bag sponsored by Capezio, making the impact exclusive merchandise and coupons from our sponsors.
1:07:09
SPEAKER_01: Meet your hosts Courtney and Leslie at the live event and ask questions from the audience during our QA recording all about the dance industry and the competitive dance world.
1:07:18
SPEAKER_01: Dancers, teachers, studio owners, professionals, parents, and all dance lovers are welcome to attend.
1:07:24
SPEAKER_01: And for all the dancers out there, we can't host a dance event without a dance class.
1:07:28
SPEAKER_01: I will be kicking off the event by teaching a one-hour jazz class for ages nine and up, overlooking Times Square in a beautiful New York City dance studio.
1:07:36
SPEAKER_01: Pre-registration for class is now open.
1:07:39
SPEAKER_01: After the live recording, it's time to mix, mingle, and shop.
1:07:42
SPEAKER_01: Take photos with Courtney and Leslie, network with the NYC dance community, and stock up on your dance season favorites with Capezio.
1:07:50
SPEAKER_01: We can't wait to bring our live podcast to New York City and would like to thank Capezio for sponsoring this event.
1:07:55
SPEAKER_01: RSVP now and register for class at the link in our show notes.
1:07:59
SPEAKER_01: And don't forget to spread the word and share with other dance friends and fans who would like to attend this free event.
1:08:04
SPEAKER_01: We hope to see you there.
1:08:08
SPEAKER_02: Coming up in the next few weeks of Making the Impact, look forward to episodes on cameras in the classroom, nutrition and dance, and advice from veteran dance parents.
1:08:17
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening week after week.
1:08:19
SPEAKER_01: We'll see you next week.
1:08:20
SPEAKER_01: Until then, keep dancing.