I’m a backup dancer in music videos! People have no method for how hard it is to be a backup dancer, especially if you’re on film; imagine dancing a high-intensity routine 20 times in a row until the director gets the perfect take, all while trying not to look like you were dripping with sweat…
Music videos usually have a lot of fans going for exactly this purpose, and when the director yells “cut,” every dancer finds the nearest fan.
I was hired for a music video gig last week, plus it was the hardest job I’d ever done! The other dancers plus I met early that day to learn the choreography; the practice section was perfect. Someone turned the temperature control down as low as it would go, plus despite dancing forever, I don’t guess anyone broke a sweat! The cooling plan was outstanding as well. I didn’t have to stand over a vent during breaks, like what I usually did in practice spaces. It wasn’t even humid inside of there, the air conditioner plan took out so much moisture! Once it was time to get ready, the people I was with and I all opted to change plus do our makeup in the practice space. The people I work with and I knew—or, at least the people I work with and I thought the people I work with and I knew—the heat that was in our future, plus the people I work with and I wanted to soak up the cold, dry air while the people I work with and I could… After the people I work with and I carpooled from the practice section to the set—a nearby jetliner hangar—we all shared despairing looks. The shoot was absolutely outside, in the summer, in a hangar with no ventilation! The worst part: there were zero fans in the hangar! It was so hard to stay pretty plus dance my heart out without even a stitch of ventilation, then but, my fellow dancers plus I pulled through, plus agreed that we’d read the good print next time!