I just finished watching Step Up Revolution.

It was breath-taking and mind-blowing. I just wanted to shout all along the movie and shake my tushy off.

Here’s a clip from their opening scene:

[youtube id=”jxPjmr_9a_8″]

The dance and cinematography gimmicks are cool, but what’s really touch me deep is the dancers.

You see, I’m always close to the the dancing world. I think it is mainly because I dated a dancer for seven years in my younger years, so I can see their world up close and know what is really happening.

Dancers are one of the most passionate, determined and idealistic people. Their profession basically summed up what passion is.

I admire them. I really do.

A lot of us don’t realize this, but for every three minute dance performance we see, there are people that come to the studio for weeks just to practice and practice and get it right.

I know first hand on what it feels like coming to practice three times a week, going through traffic, amidst office deadlines, amidst exhaustion, choreographing, memorizing, working out the details, doing it over and over and over and saying “five, six, seven, eight” over and over and over and over and over and over… Just for a three minute performance.

I sometimes think, up until now, “Are you people crazy? All these? For three minutes? Some of the audience is barely looking.”

And they definetely don’t do it for the money. There’s no money in dancing. Even in a society where dancing is much more appriciated, it is quite hard to make a decent life based on dancing alone.

But they keep doing it. They keep dancing.

Because they love it. And that’s enough.

It doesn’t pay as much as the office job or the usual carreer path their friends are taking or their parents are approving, but they keep on dancing. Against what is established. Following their heart. Pursuing the dream. Not many people are like that nowadays. Not many.

I feel related to them, seeing these people jumping like rabbits from my dark theater seat.

My company too have lost sales and clients based on some idealistic terms and ideas that we have in place starting this year, but that’s okay, since we are now building the clientele with the right fit for our company. It might be not popular, yet, but we keep on going, we keep on ‘dancing’.

I feel like saying to the dancers on the screen, “I feel you man. I feel you.”

But of course to create great, idealistic mind-blowing projects, ‘the dancers’ have to learn how to sell it, how to make a sustainable carreer around these things that they love.

I love this expression ‘Passion and Profit’: It won’t be profitable if it wasn’t passionate, but without profit, it won’t last very long. The two have to exist together.

The passionate people have to learn how to bring the business side to their craft, and the businessmen have to learn to take risks by supporting these people.

Heck, all the genre-defining greats started out like that. Nobody wanted to touch Harry Potter, The Matrix, The Lord of The Rings. Too idealistic. Nobody has done this before. But somewhere along the way, there were producers and publishers that stepped up to take the risk. Passionate projects backed by good money. Bada-boom. Big bada-boom.

That’s why I always whisper a silent prayer if I saw a passion project/business, while also trying to support them the way I can. They need to know that there are people that still believe that dreams come true 🙂

If we don’t dream, what are we?

So here’s to all the dancers that I know: Francy, Evy, Suhanti, Aline, Cialing, Wiwiek, Santi, Yosandi, Aman, Leo, Suzan, Mona, Rita, Tisen, Vijay, Sandy, Cynthia, Yen Yen, Sella, Dada, Felice, Meimei and all of you out there who continue to come to the studio even if the world doesn’t know and the world doesn’t care: all of you have inspired me. To keep on going. To keep on doing what you love. Despite. Eventhough.

Here’s to the dancers:

Thank you.

* * * * *

A request: If you ever watch a dance performance, in the mall, in the church, on the stage, after they finish, come up to them and just say, “Hey, you did a great job there. Thank you.” It will mean the world to them 🙂

This was taken on August 2001. Can you spot Francy?

PS: I wrote a very popular post about my friend Leo >>> He’s a dancer.