Category

Family

Director Brazil Launches One Take Sparks

By | Dance, Family, Friends, Vlogs, Work | No Comments

I have been working with Director Brazil – Helton Siqueira – on my videos since I started my YouTube channel in 2013. Brazil and his longtime friend Will Willdabeast Adams invented today’s popular class video format in the dance scene around Los Angeles, California in February of 2013. Shout out to Will for introducing me to Brazil. Being a member of immaBEAST has been a great learning experience for me. Not only have I learned how to train hard, but how to be a citizen of the dance community, a better person, and a better professional. Brazil gave me the experience in front of the camera, knowledge about YouTube, editing, and other things that I would have not been able to get from just doing jobs.

At first, my video channel was a way for sharing what I was doing in dance to family and friends. As my channel grew, I started to experiment with how to monetize my channel. Now my channel is different thing for me. It’s a place to curate my development as a dancer.

One of the things that you do not see much in dance videos today is one take videos. For a million different reasons, one take videos are rare because it’s incredibly hard to get everything right in a dance shot. Sometimes the camera angle is better in a particular run, other times the lighting is better, and a lot of times the dancer is better at different portions of the dance on different takes. You can do a lot to cut videos and add effects today to make videos look great. But it’s a bit harder to try to get it in one take.

One of the benefits of shooting over 100 videos with someone is the relationship and trust that develops between the director and the artist. So many of my videos were made better by Kalyne Lionheart who is an amazing editor. Between Brazil getting footage and Kalyne doing the edits, they turned out amazing. If you want to work with a great team, Brazil-Lionheart Productions is the way to go. They have so much experience.

Brazil has always been an innovator. When we set out to shoot 4 videos in a day, we knew that we were in for a long day. It was over 100 degrees in a warehouse in downtown LA the day of our shoot. When we started shooting, everything just clicked. We shot the first video 4 times and we honestly thought that every shot was great. So we stopped. That was when Brazil came up with the concept of One Shot Sparks – a series of one shot dance videos with no cuts. It is so different from the class videos you see everyday, or your typical concept video. So, we went with it. All of these dances were one take videos.

There are four videos in this series. The first one dropped on September 16, 2018. I danced to a song and an artist that I really love, Jade Bird. The choreography is special to me. One of my favorite people to work with is Cat Cogliandro. I love her work and am blow away by what an amazing woman she is. This video was my contemporary solo for the 2017-2018 season. It is very different than competition pieces that you see. It celebrates the spirit of Jade as an artist, and I really found a lot of sincerity in the dance. Thank you, Cat! Something American will always be one of my favorite dances ever. I appreciate you giving that to me.

The other three videos are choreographed by me. I have been working on my choreography for the past couple of years. I am teaching 5 classes a week and setting pieces on junior and teen dancers. I booked my first choreography job with a major TV studio this year (Thank you Disney and Bizaardvark). I hope that I will get more of those.

Thank you so much Brazil. You picked a great location for the shoot and made it all work for One Take Sparks #onetakesparks – 

Summer Craziness

By | Competition, Convention, Dance, Family, Friends, Travel | No Comments

Hey Guys, sorry I have been a slacker at posting. The school year ended with intense finals and preparation for our DPAC Studio Nationals. If you take AP classes, you feel me. I left home the day after finals and literally only spent 9 days at home all summer!

My summer started out by training with ImmaBeast and preparing for Buildabeast. I had the blessing of working with the Immabeast team which consists of all young professional working dancers on pieces choreographed by the amazing Janelle Ginestra and Will “Willdabeast” Adams. If you have attended Buildabeast, you understand the amount of heart, soul, and preparation that they put into their company pieces. As usual, Buildabeast was extraordinary and the training in many hip hop and contemporary styles was over the top.

ing In Janelle Ginestras ClassI literally left Buildabeast on Sunday and flew to Las Vegas for Hollywood Connection Nationals with my studio (DPAC). It was a very special Nationals for me as I danced for the last time with my long-time dance partner Trevor Quesada who graduated this year. I cannot express how awesome it has been to dance with Trevor over the past 7 years. We did great at Nationals and I was a Icon Dancer of the Year finalist. When I won Junior Dancer of the Year at age 10 for Hollywood Connection, it literally changed my life. I am so grateful for Bill and Kimberly for creating Hollywood Connection and the amazing faculty that we have the opportunity to train with. Our Duo won top overall duet and top senior contemporary!

After HC, I was able to go home for 2 days to repack for Hollywood Vibe Nationals. I have been a company member for Hollywood Vibe since the second year of the program and, like HC, Chris and Anne with the help of company director Liz Imperio put on an amazing convention. For me, Hollywood Vibe Company has become a family for me. I have had the opportunity to dance in cities across America representing Hollywood Vibe and be mentored by some of the best faculty choreographers in the world. They truly build dancers and they have contributed to my growth as both a dancer, an assistant, a choreographer and enormously as a person.

After HV, I was able to go home for a week and do the DPAC summer intensive. Johnna Clark brought in some exceptional teachers such as Peter Pinnock and Hayley Roderick!

Alexandra Sparkles Lund BellyacheAfter the intensive, we traveled back to Los Angeles where I had the opportunity to work on filming Mitchel Federan’s choreography to Bellyache. Mitchel is such a talented choreographer and is an amazing person to work with on a shoot. Not all people who teach the steps can make them look great on film. Not to mention Jon Hernandez with the dope cinematography!

After the shoot, we headed down to San Diego for a week of training at DancerPalooza and to start my marketing internship with Capezio. It was the first year that Randi and Hefa produced Noizey – the hip hop intensive. I had the opportunity to take from many of my favorites. As I write this, I am in New York City continuing my marketing internship. I am also looking at colleges while I am here.

I will be dropping a bunch of work on my YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/sparkleslund so subscribe to get notified. I will also be putting a bunch of my favorite class footage on my Instagram page http://www.instagram.com/sparkleslund – so follow me there too if you are interested.

School just started up again on August 16th – my junior year. I cannot imagine what 2018-2019 will look like. If it is anything like the year I just had, it may be a little crazy.

Summer 3 – Leaving Las Vegas

By | Family | No Comments

If you missed the first posts in this series, go back to the beginning.

Summer 1 – LA Sparks and Trip To New York

Summer 2-  Hollywood Vibe DOTY and Team Larkles

Leaving Las Vegas broke up the #teamlarkes tour for a few days. Grandma Anne, my mom, dad, @AustinDoodle and I took a round-about way down to Phoenix. We went up to Bryce Canyon in Utah then drove South down through Nevada along the Grand Canyon and through Sedona. It took us three days and we really were glad that my mom got a new comfy car. If your parents ever ask you if you want to go see one of these places, say YES! I cannot tell you how beautiful it was. Pictures do not do it justice. The size of everything is amazing. I liked Bryce Canyon the best. The Grand Canyon was huge, but it is really a big wide ditch. Definitely something to see, but the upward spires of Bryce Canyon and Sedona are more dramatic to me. We finished the three day tour in Phoenix where #teamlarkles was reunited.

Leah and her family are so nice. We stayed at an amazing 5-Star resort (my parents had free vouchers). We got to see  Leah every day since she lives in Scottsdale. One day we worked with a photographer  and got new headshots. Another day we took a private lesson with Leah’s favorite choreographer (kayci). Another day we splashed around in the pool. Another day we went to the Roga’s house for her brother’s amazing birthday party. It was a great visit. Phoenix rocks!

After Phoenix, #teamlarkes went back to Los Angeles for a week of training with Jessica Star for the Mini Muse intensive. Mini Muse is an intensive that is hard to get into because of the high standard of dance and the commitment to giving back by supporting anti-bullying. Here is a video highlighting the classes we took with amazing choreographers. Our anti-bullying video releases in October. It was shot on the Santa Monica pier! My favorite class was silks. If you have not taken a silks class, seek one out. Everyone at mini muse was wonderful and I met dancers from all over America. We had a blast and I hope to do it again. Check out the Muse Effect on Facebook or Instagram (MuseDanceCompany) for more information and follow them! Thanks again Jessica for being so flexible with my audition and work schedule. It is hard to do this stuff as a working dancer, but you made it happen!

Check back or subscribe to see post #4 in this summer series – Dancer Palooza and BuildaBeast

If you missed the first posts in this series, go back to the beginning.

Summer 1 – LA Sparks and Trip To New York

Summer 2-  Hollywood Vibe DOTY and Team Larkles