Unknown Speaker 0:18 This is the culture zone, a dancers hub, I'm Krista Shepard. For most dancers pursuing the craft professionally is nothing but a dream. Today we're going to hear about JL ms Sanchay story. JL is a professional dancer represented by 10 talent management. You might have seen him recently in his newest film, bring it on Halloween. Unknown Speaker 0:50 Dancers in Winnipeg have like this, like a dream, that's almost kind of impossible. You, you still want to dream as much as he can reach it. Unknown Speaker 1:00 This is how JL went from any old dancer in Winnipeg to a big shot in the big city. Unknown Speaker 1:06 Nothing's handed to us. So a lot of what we do is we just kind of take that to the chest. And then we're like, Okay, well, let's move on to the next thing. And I feel like a lot of wind pickers can agree that we're just like a, like a tougher community. I have always wanted to move to a different place, I didn't know what that place was, I've always knew that I was somehow bound to leave Winnipeg, and venture off into doing something that I'd love to do. So I originally had the idea to move somewhere in 2019 for dance, because that was the one thing that actually kept me traveling. So I was in LA for, for a little bit, auditioning for a couple of things and love that life of being able to be in an area of community that kind of aligns with what your dreams are. And it really solidifies that like, you're here for a reason. And so that was in 2018, I kinda was just like, oh, I want to go somewhere. I didn't know where I sit somewhere, I had the opportunity to go to LA so I went and I said, Yes, Unknown Speaker 2:09 as a dancer who has moved from a smaller city to Toronto, myself, I know this feeling that JL is describing. When you get a taste of dancing in a big city, there's no going back. You meet incredible dancers take classes whenever you want and have opportunities everywhere you look. Unknown Speaker 2:25 In Winnipeg, we we have really, really talented people. And we have a lot of people who can really make it out here. The bare truth is that it's just not attainable for for more training, because there's just not a lot of one certified and like people who are like expert of that like type of style, or even Foundation, there is people that are going a bit but there's not a lot of people are going to pay. So we're very limited to the to who we train with and what we train. I throughout the pandemic when we could we, my partner and I traveled to Toronto, often to just like vacay stuff, and I fell in love with the city. Unknown Speaker 3:09 Jail never wanted to be signed, he had no interest in the industry. But after he took a job for fun, he realized it could be his thing. Agents fell into his lap asking him to come to Toronto. But the time wasn't right Unknown Speaker 3:21 yet. Originally, there were two agencies that reached out one of them essentially kind of just said, well, sorry, you actually don't live here. And so when I when they reached out to me, the current agency that I'm with, or word of mouth, I kind of was shocked that somebody wanted me, Unknown Speaker 3:39 your agency as your way in, you have to be on the same page with them and have to be excited to work with them. Unknown Speaker 3:45 After doing my first movie, I essentially saw myself giving myself a little bit more credit and I was like oh, like I actually am quite good at what I do. Unknown Speaker 4:04 The Morales is a professional dancer and choreographer born and raised in Toronto. He's worked with the rafters, artists like Nyla blue, Serena Pisces and choreographs Frick Toronto's up and coming crew out accompany. Over the years, Matthew has seen dancers come to Toronto and make the most of it. Unknown Speaker 4:20 Firstly, if you're considering moving here from somewhere else, take a bunch of trips here first, like see how you actually feel about this city? Yeah, your first trip you're probably going to do everything in anything as like a young person would then get a better idea of the spaces that feel right for you. And the choreographers that you actually vibe with and want to like continue training with Toronto is really good for if you want to do like film and television work like commercials and stuff like if that's what you want to do with dance and dope. This is a place to do it. So many productions come here. If you want to go on the route of working with artists, there's so much like performing arts culture out here and like music and and live music. It's Huge I hear Unknown Speaker 5:01 from from the moment on you're on set and that spotlight is on that is work that's your clock in Unknown Speaker 5:18 the job of the choreographer is to be able to communicate with like different people that are involved with certain productions and then also different types of dancers, I get the feeling that like you kind of just need to know what you're you're offering out there and be conscious of that energy that you're expelling out towards others whether it's in the studio like in rehearsal, that I don't know that feeling that you give people that's what they're going to remember and stuff and when the when a job that fits you comes into their hands, you're already in their minds and they haven't been able to Unknown Speaker 5:55 repay Winnipeg is very comfortable within itself. So like a lot of us tend to stay in Winnipeg because they're comfortable. A lot of it is because that dream as we get older is like we become to like hate with reality pretty quick. Unknown Speaker 6:25 Petra, IFC is a professional dancer now based in Toronto. She moved here from Vancouver during the summer of 2022. In search of a more fulfilling dance community. Unknown Speaker 6:35 This is not being confined or that view but like I just I'm saying this out of love, because I know that there is so much room to grow in that community. And I feel like everybody can put the work in. A lot of people in Vancouver are just so comfortable. Unknown Speaker 6:51 What's interesting is even though Petra and Jael come from completely different cities with entirely different dense communities, they both found their hometowns to be too comfortable. They found more creative inspiration here in Toronto. Unknown Speaker 7:04 So I think my relationship with Dan's now that I've lived here, I love it even more, because I'm more inspired by other people who do the same. Unknown Speaker 7:14 I used to dance beside people that have been dancing since they were seven, eight years old, but haven't trained fundamentally. Since they were like 11, but we're still getting all the opportunities as someone that has been putting in the work and grown. You have been coming to Toronto, I feel like everybody just knew what it was that they were doing. Yeah, they have stuff that looks the same, but they are all foundation with trains, which is super inspiring to me. Unknown Speaker 7:51 Three years ago, I was like, hey, so I want to move to Toronto, and I want to get to Toronto. But reality kind of struck and was like Well, at the time I wasn't signed. I wasn't doing any really professional work. I was just a community dancer that was hungry to do more. In what about I love dance already. But coming here, I realized that it was really really meant for me. Unknown Speaker 8:22 This episode was produced by Krista Shepard. Thank you Transcribed by https://otter.ai