One thing I so love about my really hard working students, is that they are not only working hard at pursuing a career as a performer… they are working hard an everything they do. They are good students, several of them do well in sports, they are involved in volunteer organizations within their communities. They are total over achievers! Now, being one who is totally unable to say no… I have to say that I understand the addition to over achieving, yet I also understand it can be incredibly difficult and I can see why many people would think it's impossible.
I've had students ask whether or not going to school is necessary and if it would be better to simply skip college and go straight to auditioning full time. I am so grateful for the years I spent earning my BFA as a student at Chapman University for hundreds of reasons that I will get into in a future post, but I see why some students might feel like they are ready to hit the audition ground running.
Well, I'm happy to let you know that I've found a great new website/podcast and there's an episode that touches in on exactly this dilemma!
Courtney Miller has choreographed for Michael Jackson, Usher, Beyonce', and Britney Spears and is the Author of the book “The Business Of Dance – Everything you need to know about the Hollywood dance industry”.
His site is chocked full of great info for performers who are looking to have a career as dancers in Hollywood. I especially love his free Hollywood Dance Survival Kit!
In one of his recent podcasts he interviews Hollywood Dancer Karen Chuang about how she managed to tour with Willow Smith and others while maintaing a 3.9 GPA at UCLA!
And, I've been talking with Courtney about my plans for a podcast, and I'm totally looking forward to have him on the show (once I launch it) so we can pick his brain about what it takes to be a dancer in Hollywood.
Let me know what you if you have any questions and what you think about his site and his podcast in the comments below!
