Little Anecdote · The Garden

Nov '22 (edited) in The Garden

Little Anecdote

Next, I will tell you a little anecdote so you can learn from my mistakes.

I am a dancer and years ago I used to work in an urban dance company. With this group, we were working on a very important TV show called NBC World of Dance, recorded in LA. The show was very important because it was produced by Jennifer Lopez, plus other celebrities like Ne-Yo, Dereck Hough, and others were involved. The pressure was high, time was short, and we had to make an impeccable impression. For 4,5 months we were training and rehearsing a lot.

Without exaggeration, there were days when we spent 12 hours in the studio. The quality of the shows had to be almost perfect. During the project, it was normal to sleep 4 hours, and even on the night before the final we slept 2.5 hours. We were constantly traveling between Europe and the USA and every time we were in Europe we slept during the day and trained at night so that the jetlag would not affect us. In short, we worked very hard...

The prize in case of winning was a million dollars and according to the contract of the television station each participant would have a certain percentage, not to give exact numbers let's say that it was 10% each member, we were 9 members Altogether so it was pretty fair. However by the time we got to the semi-finals there was a plot twist.

We had an early morning rehearsal on stage however the person in charge of the company's finances told us to meet her in her hotel room before going to the bus to the studios. I thought that this was just a motivational talk, but when we entered the room, some multi-page contracts were on the table waiting for us, without prior notice.

The joke of the whole contract is that in case of winning each member will have 5% of the prize and we couldn't get off the room without signing. Despite not agreeing and being very unhappy, seeing that most of the ensemble did it without arguing, it put me in a very uncomfortable situation since if we were late for rehearsal with the celebrity team I would be responsible for it, so I signed.

In the end, we did not win the competition. Despite having everything necessary to win, I firmly believe that God did not let us win because of the bad actions and bad intentions of our managers. I learned a lot and I do not regret having participated because I am very proud of the work and of course, I learn a lot.

What I learned that may be useful for you:

- Never act with bad intentions because above there is a God who sees everything.

- Defend your ideals with conviction and confidence. I did not have to have signed that contract, but the pressure, inexperience, and accumulated exhaustion guided my actions at that time.

- Work hard for yourself. All the members of that ensemble also worked 12+ in the studio. But in the end, despite being proud of the work and of oneself, one worked for the name of the company and not for oneself perse.

- Work is not family, at least in my experience, people can be very kind, but when it comes to difficulties your boss or superior will not shake his hand to eliminate you if necessary.

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