David Slaney II

DSII

David Slaney II more commonly known as David Slaney was always in love with dance through his growing years. It was not until he was 14 and after he reached high school that he started formally training after having a run in with a his schools dance team. There he met his teacher who encouraged him to pursue dance seriously and consistently sent him auditions and would motivate Slaney to take more classes out of his comfort zone, which helped him along the way fall in love with the art. Being born and raised in California, Slaney was originally from Moreno Valley, after high school he would constantly drive up to Los Angeles in order to take workshops and train with professionals.

Milo McManus

Photo by Rocko Luciano

Born and raised in San Jose Milo McManus took his first dance class on accident by attending his brothers rehearsal at the age of 12 in flip flops learning to DMX’s “Party Up” Slowly after taking his first class he fell in love with hip hop dance and joined Future Shock, and competed at Hip Hop International in Vegas. He continued dancing in the Bay Area joining teams like Culture Shock Oakland from the age of 12 – 16 and was part of the first class of Funk Beyond Control (FBC) from the age of 16 -18. Shortly after ending high school McManus moved to Los Angeles to pursue his dancing career where he was contracted by Bloc Talent Agency in 2007.

Youth vs. Adult

 

Not many realize but the divide between the youth division and the adult division is pretty different. Being on a youth team means being mothered till the break of dawn. You are told what to do and what you need work on, it’s a lot like the difference between college and high school. Not many realize but being on a youth team is such a blessing. Many find their first families while being on a youth team. They get their first set of training while making their first set of friends.

Season Calendar

Unlike the Gregorian calendar, dancers have an agenda of their own. They follow a more scholastic type calendar in which their season begins in the fall. Fall auditions for a dance team are the most cut throat due to the season of dance as a whole coming to a start. Many community teams come from college campuses so it only makes sense to start at the same time school starts. many auditions happen in August and September and some in October for those quarter system schools like many of the Universities of California.

Difference between Teams & Projects

What some people do not notice is that being on a dance team can be extremely time consuming, so much so that some people put their lives on pause in order to do so. So why do people do it? Some for the love of dance, others for the family that the team brings but for many its for the mere chance to perform on stage. Because of this avid factor, the beauty of the project was created. A project is nothing more than a temporary dance team, they pretty much do everything a regular year long dance team does just in the short amount of time that they have before their big show. 

What is a dancer?

It does not take much to be a dancer, anyone can start at any given time. Some of the most talented dancers in the industry started in their teens, so this stigma of all amazing dancers starting from birth proves to be false. It all depends on the drive of the individual and how they choose to train from the moment they decide to embark on their journey of dance. So the question is, where does one start? The answer is really simple actually, it starts with movement. Any movement in general, whether it be imitating the dances one sees online or merely just creating your own movement, as long as there is music present.