Well, that went well. I'm not at liberty to discuss it but I'm thinking you really should tune in to your local Fox network this summer.
So, I feel like I'm on vacation. Like at summer camp (except it's f*-ing cold). After ending my days as a corporate hamster, I have moved to Little Rock in pursuit of excellent, polished, badass dancing. I have come to study with a mentor of mine. We'll call her (as I call her) "Miss A". Miss A is a classical ballet aficionado. She is, in my opinion, the best thing to happen to anybody who studies ballet technique. Now, a lot of ballet dancers may not agree with all of her ideas and methods - but we will deal with them after I make my millions...
To catch you up if you, yourself, are not a dance junkie, ballet dancers have many "styles" and "techniques" to choose from to execute ballet movement. Wikipedia: classical ballet to catch yourself up. Understandably, there are many different lines of thought then when it comes to execution of ballet. Some people say the leg should do this, some say it should look that that, some prefer this kind of extension - and it's not that they're is one way of doing things, there are many ways to do practically the same movement. Unless you're talking to Miss A. Miss A's approach to ballet technique (ballet being the supreme elite dance technique in all the world - I can barely do ballet, and I still think this) is that there is only one way to execute all movement possibilities. That is, literally working from an anatomically aligned position (held through built musculature) in which the pelvis hangs straight up and down - so that basically you can put the arms, legs, torso, and head anywhere you want to. Just like playing tag when you're a kid - when you know where base is (base being anatomically aligned with a stable pelvis) you can do whatever you want to with your body. If you get lost (i.e. can't perform a movement possibility like high extensions, or a super arabesque, or a badass jump) just come back to base.
So that all might be lost on you, which is fine - you don't really need to know any of that. But I do. I pretty much plan on being a major breadwinner for whatever family I plan on having down the line, and since I want to dance, I need to know my shit. And that means knowing my instrument. And that means knowing my body. And that means more than just dancing for art's sake. It means scientifically being able to count on my body to do amazing things. April will be my next milestone in my career, and the next time to check to see how my plan is coming along. It's painful to be dancing all the time, and be literally deconstructing how my body works - but honestly, I wouldn't haven't any other way.
As far as 2008 - so far, so good...
1.31.2008
1.16.2008
So... big audition tomorrow.
So.... big audition tomorrow.
I don't know what it is.. if it's the 20 degree weather, the thousands of other dancers that will be there, the cut throat producers, or the hours of sitting around just to have 20 seconds in front of the judges - but I'm so excited. I think the audition is going to go well. I'm pretty sure I'm going to score yet another trip to Vegas for callbacks (per tab of the television network that hosts the show). I won't be able to announce it on this blog when I get it - but let's just say - I'm pretty hopeful. And that's all you get to know about the show - tune in and watch Summer 2008.. most likely - I'm gonna need your vote!
I'm actually doing this audition en route to Little Rock, Arkansas - where I will be training/ being a guest artist with a ballet company there. It's a great opportunity and a great business move (as you if you know me, you know while I make a good artist, I make a better business tycoon). So far so good in 2008. Things are going pretty much the way I have decided they should go - and it feels very refreshing to be able to guide my life. I think discovering that you do have some control over your life is so beneficial. I think so often, life is a bitch (and then you die) and we got caught up in what circumstance says, and get surprised by the unexpected. But I think, if you can look past the whole "life's not fair" idea, and just kinda go with your gut and do what you know will serve you and the people you come into contact with best, life becomes more than just surviving the next big problem. I don't know about you - but I want life to be an experience. Don't you?
We're all going to die anyway (sorry it's true) and when I go out... hopefully, many, many years from now - I want to look back on my life and say, "yeah, I had the balls to do that" and "yeah, that experience was f*ing awesome" and "that turned out to be a blast". I'm coming to a place where I feel like it's my personal responsibility to ensure I have a badass life. Yes, we are all aware that life happens, that people die or get sick, or that circumstance changes. Yeah, talk to anybody who has lived and I am sure they can tell you about a "valley of the shadow of death" or two (or seventeen). But beyond that - I want people to understand that as a human being, as a thinking, moving, breathing organism - you are able to set up life the way you want. As long as you don't mind working hard, getting in there and doing all the hard shit, putting in the elbow grease (i.e. quitting the job you hate, leaving the unhealthy relationship, standing on your own two feet, pursuing you passion/ purpose) - you can do anything.
And I'm going to prove it to anybody who knows me... starting tomorrow.
I don't know what it is.. if it's the 20 degree weather, the thousands of other dancers that will be there, the cut throat producers, or the hours of sitting around just to have 20 seconds in front of the judges - but I'm so excited. I think the audition is going to go well. I'm pretty sure I'm going to score yet another trip to Vegas for callbacks (per tab of the television network that hosts the show). I won't be able to announce it on this blog when I get it - but let's just say - I'm pretty hopeful. And that's all you get to know about the show - tune in and watch Summer 2008.. most likely - I'm gonna need your vote!
I'm actually doing this audition en route to Little Rock, Arkansas - where I will be training/ being a guest artist with a ballet company there. It's a great opportunity and a great business move (as you if you know me, you know while I make a good artist, I make a better business tycoon). So far so good in 2008. Things are going pretty much the way I have decided they should go - and it feels very refreshing to be able to guide my life. I think discovering that you do have some control over your life is so beneficial. I think so often, life is a bitch (and then you die) and we got caught up in what circumstance says, and get surprised by the unexpected. But I think, if you can look past the whole "life's not fair" idea, and just kinda go with your gut and do what you know will serve you and the people you come into contact with best, life becomes more than just surviving the next big problem. I don't know about you - but I want life to be an experience. Don't you?
We're all going to die anyway (sorry it's true) and when I go out... hopefully, many, many years from now - I want to look back on my life and say, "yeah, I had the balls to do that" and "yeah, that experience was f*ing awesome" and "that turned out to be a blast". I'm coming to a place where I feel like it's my personal responsibility to ensure I have a badass life. Yes, we are all aware that life happens, that people die or get sick, or that circumstance changes. Yeah, talk to anybody who has lived and I am sure they can tell you about a "valley of the shadow of death" or two (or seventeen). But beyond that - I want people to understand that as a human being, as a thinking, moving, breathing organism - you are able to set up life the way you want. As long as you don't mind working hard, getting in there and doing all the hard shit, putting in the elbow grease (i.e. quitting the job you hate, leaving the unhealthy relationship, standing on your own two feet, pursuing you passion/ purpose) - you can do anything.
And I'm going to prove it to anybody who knows me... starting tomorrow.
1.13.2008
1.10.2008
Did someone say Friction?
You know what's really fucked up?
When days before you are to experience a "supposed" life breakthrough, right about the time you would be putting the finishing touches on an astounding life transformation, you instead become super ill. (Pauses typing to cough up left lung). That's right folks, after all that "do what you love and get paid for it" and getting myself jazzed up to go and live the dream, I have to stay put long enough to get over whatever viral concoction my lungs are incubating. Imagine, if you will, me - a portrait of the American Dream - going out there to kick ass and take names. Except in this very pressing time, when I need to be focusing on strategizing my hostile take over of the dance world - all I can do is sit and focus on my breathing. Anytime I walk farther than 3 feet, I have to grab my inhaler and try to gain control over my asthma (which has flared up due to the viral infection in my lungs). It sucks - to need to be a rockstar when you feel like a chump. It's another practical joke life plays on us.
I don't appreciate life's twisted version of Murphy's law regarding my audition next week. All, I'm saying - kinda fucked up...
However, as a strategist, "friction" (as is the name given for any situation or circumstance that arises unexpectedly and can trump your plan) is to be expected, and to be fair, I am playing a game against life. It's objective, to beat me - to defeat me. My objective, to overcome and manhandle life myself. It does us no good to get angry when things don't go the way we planned. I often hope things don't go the way I planned - I instead hope things go way better than I planned. That is the perspective I always try to look at when "friction" arises. What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger... well what doesn't stop you - only really aids you....
So I had a solo prepared for next week... I stopped liking it. I chucked it. So now I'm sick and I have no solo - but I have a feeling, that since I put the pressure on, something fabulous will breed itself out of me. I'm kinda glad to be the way that I am. I just don't feel like playing by anybody's rules - or doing things a certain way. If life doesn't play by the rules... why should I?
When days before you are to experience a "supposed" life breakthrough, right about the time you would be putting the finishing touches on an astounding life transformation, you instead become super ill. (Pauses typing to cough up left lung). That's right folks, after all that "do what you love and get paid for it" and getting myself jazzed up to go and live the dream, I have to stay put long enough to get over whatever viral concoction my lungs are incubating. Imagine, if you will, me - a portrait of the American Dream - going out there to kick ass and take names. Except in this very pressing time, when I need to be focusing on strategizing my hostile take over of the dance world - all I can do is sit and focus on my breathing. Anytime I walk farther than 3 feet, I have to grab my inhaler and try to gain control over my asthma (which has flared up due to the viral infection in my lungs). It sucks - to need to be a rockstar when you feel like a chump. It's another practical joke life plays on us.
I don't appreciate life's twisted version of Murphy's law regarding my audition next week. All, I'm saying - kinda fucked up...
However, as a strategist, "friction" (as is the name given for any situation or circumstance that arises unexpectedly and can trump your plan) is to be expected, and to be fair, I am playing a game against life. It's objective, to beat me - to defeat me. My objective, to overcome and manhandle life myself. It does us no good to get angry when things don't go the way we planned. I often hope things don't go the way I planned - I instead hope things go way better than I planned. That is the perspective I always try to look at when "friction" arises. What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger... well what doesn't stop you - only really aids you....
So I had a solo prepared for next week... I stopped liking it. I chucked it. So now I'm sick and I have no solo - but I have a feeling, that since I put the pressure on, something fabulous will breed itself out of me. I'm kinda glad to be the way that I am. I just don't feel like playing by anybody's rules - or doing things a certain way. If life doesn't play by the rules... why should I?
1.05.2008
Mission 2008: Dance Like Everyone's Watching
I spent the day at the Monsters of Hip Hop Dance Convention.
I arrived at the hotel this morning at 7:30 am. Hip-hop dance convention... here we go. In the short time I have been a dancer, I have never really participated in a dance convention. For those of you who aren't dance savvy, many dancers - especially if they've been dancing since their early toddler years, go to these dance conventions for years on end. Some of these dance conventions are lyrical (see: studio dance), some are jazz (see: Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders) some are "professional" (see: Alvin Ailey) some are what I participated in today (see: You Got Served). As a late bloomer (in terms of my dancing; I started when I was 19) I was fully unprepared for being schooled by trained 12 year olds. I knew I was being trumped by Johnny-Goode PowerRanger when during one of the dance combinations this one little boy actually got all up in my space, stepped in front of me and got all Stomp-the-Yard and shit. Nothing prepares a person, even at young and strapping 24 years old, to be topped by someone in their chosen career that can't even drive yet. Fuckin' A.....
And let's talk about careers (well, at least mine). Stay tuned in the next couple of weeks, I have some really awesome things lined up. This week I'm doing the hip hop convention. Next week I finally will quit my run on the corporate hamster wheel. The week after that, I am auditioning for a prominent dance reality show (that will remain nameless). Two days after that I am going to Arkansas to study/perform with a ballet company based out of Little Rock - and that's where I'll be through the spring. In my opinion, I'm getting old enough to start making some things happen regarding my dance career. Yes, there is much to be said for dance and other art forms that express a person's ideas on society or relationships or the inner workings of us as human beings. But I have a lot to say about friggin paycheck. I just want to do what I love - and get paid for it. I want to do what I believe I should because I have a passion for it - and get paid for it. I am not above saying "Someone, anyone send me a fucking paycheck."
Someone.... anyone.... send me a fucking paycheck.
(Taps on the computer keyboard while waiting for the phone to ring with somebody offering $100,000 for performing for the masses)
Well, phone didn't ring. Which is reality, people don't just send paychecks. But I can go get one. And so can you. My challenge to anybody who knows me in 2008. Do what you love - and get paid for it. In my opinion, managing your income based on your passion is a vital key to balance and happiness. I spent enough time in 2007 sitting at home watching people do what I love (and get paid for it) on the television. Ain't no way I wanna relive that experience. That sucked.
Do not let someone else do what you can do better and you can do first. You owe it to yourself to do what you love and make bank doing it. (Steps off soapbox)
I arrived at the hotel this morning at 7:30 am. Hip-hop dance convention... here we go. In the short time I have been a dancer, I have never really participated in a dance convention. For those of you who aren't dance savvy, many dancers - especially if they've been dancing since their early toddler years, go to these dance conventions for years on end. Some of these dance conventions are lyrical (see: studio dance), some are jazz (see: Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders) some are "professional" (see: Alvin Ailey) some are what I participated in today (see: You Got Served). As a late bloomer (in terms of my dancing; I started when I was 19) I was fully unprepared for being schooled by trained 12 year olds. I knew I was being trumped by Johnny-Goode PowerRanger when during one of the dance combinations this one little boy actually got all up in my space, stepped in front of me and got all Stomp-the-Yard and shit. Nothing prepares a person, even at young and strapping 24 years old, to be topped by someone in their chosen career that can't even drive yet. Fuckin' A.....
And let's talk about careers (well, at least mine). Stay tuned in the next couple of weeks, I have some really awesome things lined up. This week I'm doing the hip hop convention. Next week I finally will quit my run on the corporate hamster wheel. The week after that, I am auditioning for a prominent dance reality show (that will remain nameless). Two days after that I am going to Arkansas to study/perform with a ballet company based out of Little Rock - and that's where I'll be through the spring. In my opinion, I'm getting old enough to start making some things happen regarding my dance career. Yes, there is much to be said for dance and other art forms that express a person's ideas on society or relationships or the inner workings of us as human beings. But I have a lot to say about friggin paycheck. I just want to do what I love - and get paid for it. I want to do what I believe I should because I have a passion for it - and get paid for it. I am not above saying "Someone, anyone send me a fucking paycheck."
Someone.... anyone.... send me a fucking paycheck.
(Taps on the computer keyboard while waiting for the phone to ring with somebody offering $100,000 for performing for the masses)
Well, phone didn't ring. Which is reality, people don't just send paychecks. But I can go get one. And so can you. My challenge to anybody who knows me in 2008. Do what you love - and get paid for it. In my opinion, managing your income based on your passion is a vital key to balance and happiness. I spent enough time in 2007 sitting at home watching people do what I love (and get paid for it) on the television. Ain't no way I wanna relive that experience. That sucked.
Do not let someone else do what you can do better and you can do first. You owe it to yourself to do what you love and make bank doing it. (Steps off soapbox)
1.03.2008
So I quit my job Monday.
At heart, I am a story teller. Ask anybody who talks to me on a regular bases - I am always telling an ornate story about "what had happened" or a "you wouldn't believe" fabrication or often, my personal favorite, a "well I guess you had to be there" punchline. My friends rock because they just let me tell them yet another story. And so, for some time, I have been toying around with the idea of writing what I think and how I see it. And what I think I really want to share with the group - is my life's story. Seemingly, I have come to a place where I am ready to open up and tell it just like it is. (And no promises if it's gonna be "right" or "wrong".)
I want you to read about the time I spent in Salt Lake City with the Mormons, or the time I was a hair model (I now have a shaved head - as do many black/puerto rican men), or the time I got busted for holding a fraudulent car wash (in the name of the university I was attending). I want you to know about happens to a person when they go through a huge national audition, or why they seemingly turn down a good opportunity for a great opportunity (as I did when I decided not to take the job offer with the dance company in SLC). I swear I have an interesting life. (People tell me so all the time). I want you to think so too. I want to look back on what I wrote and be able to say to myself, "Now there's a man that's lived."
So I quit my job on Monday.
Well, I put in my notice. To bide my time for the last nine months of 2007, and set myself up for 2008, I took a shitty... and I mean SHITTY - job at a call center, advising employees on human resource policy. Emphasis on SHITTY. (That's enough vulgar language for now). Now before I say this next statement, you should know that I love being a rockstar at everything I lay my hands on. I love overachieving, love gold stars, love making the Presidential Honor Roll, love being the star, love being the brain, love being the jock, love being the Renaissance man - I love being THAT guy. So, as you would guess, I love being a rockstar employee. It is one of my best habits. Make thyself indispensable. But I said to myself when I took this job, "Do not shine - don't be THAT guy - you're gonna have to quit - just lay low" But then it was December, and I get an email, along with the other thousands of employees in the company, stating that I won some awards and would receive a $300 bonus for my efforts. Congratulations to Jonathan - his name is now in every Inbox in the company. My thoughts on this bonus I received? "Jonathan, that's what we call shining. THAT IS NOT LAYING LOW. How are you going to perform well for the company, get a bonus, and then just quit?"
Well, apparently like this - because I quit on Monday.
And the really funny thing was, my supervisor was super cool with it. He wanted to know all about my dancing. All about the auditions/ performances/ teaching clinics I have lined up (which for right now is through April). He told me he would have never guessed I was a dancer, and that he completely believed in "chasing the dream". This is coming from a guy, I never speak to except to ask off. (Which reminds me, I need to fill out my timesheet since instead of coming to work tomorrow, I'll be doing a hip-hop convention in Dallas, Texas).
Stay tuned (if you're even tuned in) - I hope to refine my language and style so that anyone reading will feel how I often feel. Slightly jaded, but surprisingly enthusiastic about the life they've been given.
I want you to read about the time I spent in Salt Lake City with the Mormons, or the time I was a hair model (I now have a shaved head - as do many black/puerto rican men), or the time I got busted for holding a fraudulent car wash (in the name of the university I was attending). I want you to know about happens to a person when they go through a huge national audition, or why they seemingly turn down a good opportunity for a great opportunity (as I did when I decided not to take the job offer with the dance company in SLC). I swear I have an interesting life. (People tell me so all the time). I want you to think so too. I want to look back on what I wrote and be able to say to myself, "Now there's a man that's lived."
So I quit my job on Monday.
Well, I put in my notice. To bide my time for the last nine months of 2007, and set myself up for 2008, I took a shitty... and I mean SHITTY - job at a call center, advising employees on human resource policy. Emphasis on SHITTY. (That's enough vulgar language for now). Now before I say this next statement, you should know that I love being a rockstar at everything I lay my hands on. I love overachieving, love gold stars, love making the Presidential Honor Roll, love being the star, love being the brain, love being the jock, love being the Renaissance man - I love being THAT guy. So, as you would guess, I love being a rockstar employee. It is one of my best habits. Make thyself indispensable. But I said to myself when I took this job, "Do not shine - don't be THAT guy - you're gonna have to quit - just lay low" But then it was December, and I get an email, along with the other thousands of employees in the company, stating that I won some awards and would receive a $300 bonus for my efforts. Congratulations to Jonathan - his name is now in every Inbox in the company. My thoughts on this bonus I received? "Jonathan, that's what we call shining. THAT IS NOT LAYING LOW. How are you going to perform well for the company, get a bonus, and then just quit?"
Well, apparently like this - because I quit on Monday.
And the really funny thing was, my supervisor was super cool with it. He wanted to know all about my dancing. All about the auditions/ performances/ teaching clinics I have lined up (which for right now is through April). He told me he would have never guessed I was a dancer, and that he completely believed in "chasing the dream". This is coming from a guy, I never speak to except to ask off. (Which reminds me, I need to fill out my timesheet since instead of coming to work tomorrow, I'll be doing a hip-hop convention in Dallas, Texas).
Stay tuned (if you're even tuned in) - I hope to refine my language and style so that anyone reading will feel how I often feel. Slightly jaded, but surprisingly enthusiastic about the life they've been given.
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