Lord of the Dance?
Now, I am not a dancer by any means. Like, at all. That’s what I’ve always thought anyway. Even though I’ve had many booking for featured dancing roles, if I see it as “set choreography” I can get my head around it. Dancing in front of a camera has more than you’d think involved. There’s the context of the scene you need to take into account, your posture dictates the era and your facial expressions are more important than necessarily getting the moves dead-on.
Still, the apprehension of getting it right is always on the back of my mind. Especially when you get booked on a production with a fairly famous and prestigious choreographer for 3 days of rehearsals followed by 3 days of filming. What added to my nerves and made me think that I maybe over my head was the pedigree this choreographer has, and the fact everyone who I was rehearsing was were either professional dancers, dancer instructors or compete in dance competitions.
And then there’s me.
Even though I had a degree of panic over the weekend prior, I was relieved on the 1st day as the brief was we were learning a traditional wedding dance so we were meant to be sloppy and imperfect as our characters would’ve been drinking and having fun at a party. That’s my kind of dancing.
The moves weren’t very complex and we managed to do all 3 numbers within the first day. Even a mate of mine who competes in competitions said I did great for a non-dancer which is the confidence boost I needed to end the day on.
What I didn’t need, was the text message I received when I got home.
Apparently, not just mine, but the ENTIRE group’s performance wasn’t up to the choreographers standards and was going to use her own dancers instead. This vexed me not because of the validation of the competency of my performance but also as I’d be missing out on 8 great well-paid days.
I had a theory that if the choreographer used her own dancers, she’d be able to claim a 15% commission fee of each of her dancers, therefore gaining more profit from the shoot for herself. Obviously I have no way of confirming if this was the case but it is the kind of thing that does happen in this industry.
Still, it’s a load off my mind and don’t have to stress about strutting about anymore at least. Got a few new productions coming my way so going to focus my energies on them for the moment.