Grown-Up Gigs Wedding Dance Choreographers

Grown-Up Gigs Wedding Dance Choreographers When I first read about POP N WedLOCK on Effervescence , I think it might have taken me all of 30 seconds to head straight over to their Holla Back form and ask/beg Jessica and Karmen for a Grown-Up Gigs Interview! I mean, really two amazeballs ladies bringing in bank choreographing  weddding videos?! And with the best business name ever in all the land (in competition with Fart With Headphones On and Steak Me Home Tonight, a fictional steak sandwich truck on my fave new comedy, Happy Endings)?! How could I not ask/beg?! Youre welcome! ?? What did you wanna be when you grew up? Karmen: I wanted to be a veterinarian up until 9th grade, but I couldnt handle the death and mistreatment of animals  so I opted out.   Then I wanted to be a concert bassoonist up until I had to choose between music or dance for college.   I opted to be on top of the stage, rather than under it. Jessica: In Elementary school, I wanted to be a Scientist. I always drew pictures of myself in a white lab coat with crazy electrified hair, while holding glass beakers and test tubes. By the time I entered middle school, I went through a megalomanic phase in which I wanted to be famous when i grow up.   Seriously, that is what I wrote in my diary.   Whether it was acting or dance, I had to perform and I was always cooking up ideas for shows to put on at our middle school that Karmen and I both attended. We met in the 6th grade.   In high school,  Karmen and I both attended  Fort Hayes, the performing arts high school of Columbus, Ohio.    In the 9th grade, I auditioned for the musical, Into the Woods.   I had never auditioned for a musical outside of our middle schools plays. I was featured in leading roles in middle school and thought, well,  since Im a dancer, Ill be a shoe-in for this musical. After I finished my monologue,  the  acting teacher, Todd Decker, asked me what song I had prepared.    Song? I didn’t know you had to prepare a song for an audition. So he asked me to sing Happy Birthday. I did and two seconds after I finished the song, he burst out laughing. It was kind of cruel but this guy was a character. And so ended my dreams of acting. I laugh about it now but it was pretty traumatizing as a 9th grader.    That same year, Karmen and I were both asked to join the pre-professional program at our local, regional ballet company, BalletMet Columbus.    We trained intensively 25 hours (6 days a week) to become ballerinas.    It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done and I learned early on the realities of the ballet world and what it takes to make. That being said, I burned out on dance by the age of 19 and dramatically threw all of my pointe shoes in the trash but I always held onto my passion for being involved in dance in some way, whether it is teaching, choreographing, writing or cross-training dancers with Pilates. I always have side dance projects up my sleeve and I have even more ideas in mind for future endeavors. It also keeps me sane from my 9-to-5 grant writing job at GMHC.    I’m definitely in a place right now, though, where I’m really thinking about how to leverage my projects into a full-time job that supports me.    POPn’wedLOCk is the first (lucrative) step in that direction. BalletMet gave Karmen and myself a lot to work with in terms of dance. They made us take everything, from flamenco to afro-carribean, all types of jazz, modern dance and ballet.    We are diverse dancers. ?? How the heck did you form Pop N Wedlock? Karmen: Based on a phone call from Jess who came up with the idea.   Read the blog.   Lol. Jessica: I helped two girlfriend’s prepare a Bollywood dance for their wedding reception in 2009 and everyone went nuts at this event.    After we performed it the first time, everyone at the wedding asked if we could do it again while they do it behind us. Then, I told someone I knew how to do the Thriller, and when the song came on, I was pushed to the front and they asked me to do the dance while they mirror me from behind.    That’s when I realized, OMG, this could be huge! My friend Jason Conover, came up with the name POPn’wedLOCK, and the company was born.  Karmen and I used to try to learn pop dances together so it seemed natural for us to make this a business model. POP N WedLOCK is a partnership. Why did you two decide to go into this business together, instead of making it a solopreneur endeavor? How did you know the partnership would work out well? Karmen: Again, read the blog.   lol   But to not give a smarty pants answer we always ventured in creative projects together we both had a role and were comfortable with each other as creative individuals. Jessica: Karmen and I have been friends since the age of 10.    We went to the same middle school and high school and we attended the same ballet program from the age of 11-18 years of age.    I have a lot of fun bouncing ideas off of Karmen and she runs with it with her personal stamp of style. More importantly, we trust each other and I think that is necessary for partnerships.    We also know each other so well that we already knew (without even discussing it) what tasks I would do and what tasks Karmen is better suited for. We have set up a division of labor that works for us really well.    And it’s just more fun doing things with your friends ?? Did ya deal with any haters who told you that your idea was crazy (or something to that effect)? If so, howd you deal with them? Karmen: For me, I  never have dealt with haters on this project (I cut such obvious negativity out of my circle long ago), but there are distinct differences between the people who voice their support and those who dont.   To one person, theyll ask you all the time how your project is progressing because they either believe in what youre doing or just in you as a person.   All others will immediately change subject when youre speaking of positive things in your life, which Ive attributed to taking the role of haters.   They dont care or want to hear that your life is progressing in positive ways  and they wont vocally support you.   I dont confuse them with the patient voyeurs who like to see how it all pans out, these undercover haters cant help but show some disdain for your success. Jessica: I like Karmen’s answer. I’ve had the same response but for the most part, people respond REALLY well to the idea. Everyone loves the name. Thank you Jason and the genius ideas that come out of your head!   Even then with all of the warm reception, I always had doubts about the business and that is why it took almost a year before we officially incorporated as an LLC. There’s always that voice in my head that says, well, what if all of my work and money goes toward nothing? What if it doesn’t work out?   Although, I’ve always been mostly positive about the company, our recent feature article in the Philadelphia Inquirer finally changed my perception for good. If you had to give the current version of yourself advice to your Pre-POP N WedLOCK  self, what would you tell her? Karmen: I would tell Karmen of the past nothing new that my mother told me when I was bullied for being a band nerd   Keep working at what you love and let the chips fall where they may if you worked to the best of your ability, youll never be disappointed in the outcome. Jessica: The advice that I would give pre-Jessica, is that you’ll never know until you try.    If you have an idea to make money with something you genuinely enjoy doing, go for it and don’t worry about the outcome.    As long as the process is enjoyable, that is all that matters.