I often wonder what American choreographers and dancers think when they come to the UK to work with dancers here. What do they think of the quality of dancers they work with in their masterclasses and workshops? And how to we compare with other countries they may visit?

I tend to assume they will think that we lack passion and drive compared to the dancers their used to training, but then I remember that they usually run their workshops at places like Pineapple, where passion and drive is definitely not lacking. Still, it would be good to know from the top choreographers, if they had to describe the dancers all the countries they had been to workshops in in one word, what would it be?

I went to a workshop with an LA street dance choreographer - Janet Castillo - which it was really cool because she had her own unique style and taught really well, but she really had to break everything down and point out certain aspects of the choreography that we had to make sure that we get. Does she do this with everyone she teaches, or were we particularly lazy?

If we had been in a audition situation, would she have hired any of us? I mean, this was an int/adv class so it would have been good to know what kind of standard we are working on from her point of view. but maybe she told our usual teacher - it wouldn’t have been right to break some of our hearts right? lol

What amazed me about her was her own unique style. She may not have been the most jaw-dropping dancer in the world, but she had something that made you want to watch her and her choreography was HOT! She also had loads of confidence. Of course she had to after being credited with working with J Lo, Christina Milian, Jojo and many others, but it makes me wonder. These people, after all, are just people. Talent people? Lucky people? Right place and time people? I dunno, but their experiences shape them into the people we admire.

But what makes someone so appealing? Is it their choreography? Their credits? Is it their attitude? Is it their start network? Their dancing talent? Their choreographic awards? Luck? Or a mixture? I know for sure that there are some choreographers/directors in the UK who get by with just their network contacts. The actual work is not that great. But then there are fantastic choreographers with groups who don’t seem to do as much performances or made out to be as successful. When will it be about the talent?

Does someone have to have choreographed for big stars like Janet has in order to be admired? And does that really make a difference? I mean, think of the best three music video’s you’ve ever seen with the most fantastic dancing……. is any of them Jlo or Jojo? Unlikely. But it doesn’t mean that Janet doesn’t rock.

Dance is a very fickle industry indeed, and who you know seems to be more important than how good you are, but really it should come down to the raw ability to choreograph and dance, and that is why I love youtube. Its the only reason why I even have an account. This way we as dancers can see for ourselves how we compare to other classes across the world - without needing someone to tell us.

The only thing left for us to do it be true to ourselves and work like crazy to get to/maintain the level we wanna be.