Webisode 2 -VP Goes Reality

The reality craze is everywhere! I can honestly say we have had a blast with our reality show and I hope you have enjoyed it. As we work with these shows, I can see how scripted "reality" television can be. We do not script and do not retake.....we show what we get.

So much of regular reality television has to be scripted......there are too many situations that follow a cohesive plot and storyline. Cohesive has been the key word with our show. "Cohesive" for us means that we are a dance group preparing for a show and we support different activities in each other's lives. We are a tight group that dance and we are friends. That is the only cohesion we can really have without scripting story lines.

Our conversations are real and we do not try to add characters to our existing personalities. I can see why reality shows fall into the category game of the "sweet girl" "bitchy girl" "overbearing jerk" "white knight".

If any of us appear in these roles, that is just because that is who we are. There are many outtakes and honestly many situations that we do not include. We have personal things in our lives and personal situations that we cannot and will not include in the show. Some things will stay within the VP family.

With that, we do hope you are enjoying the glimpse of our lives and we want you to feel like you are a part of the group! We you attend the December 18 show at the Mcwance Science Center (shameless plug) we hope you followed the show in a way to where you feel like you know where the ideas for the dances came from, know the people's inspirations, and know the laughter we had putting them together.

We would love to hear your feedback for what things you would like to be on the reality show!

Businesses! If you are interested in a sponsor package for the Dec 18 show, we will list you for free as a sponsor on the web show! We can even film on site at your location!

We hope to see you at class this week. This Thursday we are teaching Rumba and Samba, two of my favorites. We will hang out this weekend at the Birmingham Ballroom Dance Association's "A Dance to Remember" charity event and we hope to see you there. Visit www.bhamdance.com for details!

TJZjr

Vulcan Performers Go Reality!

The original concept for the Vulcan Performers two years ago was not just to create dance, but to create “dance entertainment.” Part of our concept of entertainment originally was to include a reality TV or documentary film following the creation of the dance group and the success (or failure-Hey! We didn’t know!) of the entire process.

We decided against documenting the process because originally we were founded out of our basement. We found our first dancers much like our current dancers, on facebook and myspace. Our house was in a new neighborhood and the road was not paved, yet (in more ways than one).

I honestly have to say that I was worried about recruiting new people saying “We are creating a dance group out of our basement, down a dirt road in the country, and we are filming it for a reality web show/film documentary….oh and there’s candy!”

We would have come off like the biggest creepers in dance history! Well, we may still enjoy having that title, but we would have assumed it much sooner than we did. In the early days, we fought to be legitimate. Everything was about how many times we could be on the news, how we could gain a studio, how we could produce more shows, and be at more events.

Two and half years in, two studios later, and 10 shows deep including our last sell out (shameless plug!) I feel the timing is right to bring back our original idea.

This is fun for me because my background and undergraduate degree from the University of Alabama is in television/film production. I am very much honored to have been trained from former CBS national news executives and many very knowledgeable professors from UA. I also offer them my most sincere apologies for not recognizing their knowledge and not taking more advantage of asking questions when I had the opportunity.

I was very lucky to have hosted many television shows on campus and also learned to direct, edit, production, etc. I also owe my grad school professors so much for their knowledge of social psychology and a deeper meaning of communication studies.

With all of this, I hope everyone enjoys “VP goes Reality” We invite you into the lives of our group and the heart and soul of operations. There are some things that will always be "VP family only" and those matters will stay off the camera, but we will subject you to much humor, drama, and dance!

This is a work in progress and we are learning as we go. There is not a “script” or “outline” to follow and we are honestly shooting reality. We are not staging or scripting anything that we are producing. We really are this goofy, sarcastic, happy, sad, sadistic, angry, crazy, or however you want to take what we are.

We are a “dance clique” and we are proud of our closeness. We are a group of people that maybe would have never been a factor in each other’s lives, but now we are everything to each other’s lives. We invite you to join us each week with “The Performers” and we hope you will help spread the word about our reality webisodes, classes at Rhythm N Motion, and our future performance shows.

We love dancing and we love what we do. We want to share our fun with you through the internet and hope to share this fun with you in person as a future student or audience member.

Thank you for allowing us to entertain you. It has been a fun ride for the past two and half years with a lot of ups and downs. We look forward to having you view this roller coaster of a life we call Vulcan Performers.

Fasten your seat belts, keep all arms and legs inside, and get ready to go fast!

TJZjr

www.bhamdance.com

Rhythm N Motion

Home of the Vulcan Performers
Professional Dance Organization

Birmingham, Al