I DIRECTED A DANCE BATTLE!

Last night was Night 1 of a three-night Pioneer Electronics commercial shoot that I'm helping out on for my very talented buddy Zack Mathers.   Part of the commercial is highlighting a new Pioneer product called STEEZ (steeze is a street term that is a combination of style and ease... "What's your steeze?" is like "What's your deal?  What's your thing?")

The product is a boombox designed specifically for dancers -- you can adjust the tempo, pick specific BPMs (beats per minute) without affecting the pitch of the song.  For anyone who has ever learned or taught a dance routine - you know that this is awesome... You can play back a routine at half speed to learn it clean and then pick up the BPMs as you get it down.   I heart this thing to bits.

Anyway, Zack and I always work really closely creatively on set, and, knowing my slight (read:  massive) obsession with dance movies, he let me direct the dance battle scene that played out with the Steez product!

I repeat:  I got to direct a dance battle scene!!!!!

So, I can officially cross "Direct a Dance Battle" off my bucket list.  (FYI: "Direct Dance Battle" is just below "Win Oscar" and just above "Get on SNL."  It combines my two favorite arts - Dance and Movies - in a battle, which is just good drama.   In fact, I pitch dance movies, typically climaxing in a dance battle in almost every meeting.  Studio Executive:  So what are you working on?  What do you want to do next?  Me:  A dance movie.  I was thinking like a Die Hard 5, the dance version.  Studio Executive:  Hahahah!  You're funny.  Me:  No, seriously.)

Here's some picks from the fun, freezing night of dancing it out...

Zack telling me not to eff it all up.

T and B together on set... again.  Now we just need to get
Luna working in Art Department and we'll be good.

Movie Magic Makers.

Mike Carrasco of ABDC working it. 

In closing, what I learned from this experience is that most things can and should be resolved through dance battles.   Family problems?  Dance battle.  Impending Foreclosure?  Bank v. Home Owner dance battle.   Conflict in the Middle East?  All together now... Israeli-Palestinian DANCE BATTLE.

Dance Battle for life.