Speaker 1: Welcome to Behind the Influence, a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and TDC Media. I guess like I went through
Speaker 1: like a certain life experience, and I felt like the
Speaker 1: only person that would understand that certain life experience was Casey.
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone really truly understand. Most of our
Speaker 1: resumes are on YouTube or on Instagram, showing people what
Speaker 1: you're able to do with your body. It's kind of
Speaker 1: like you're using dancing to show people what you're able
Speaker 1: to do with your heart and with your soul and
Speaker 1: with your mind. And it's like and what you can
Speaker 1: explain without having to say a word. Casey Rises Shanlu
Speaker 1: pro dancers. In real life, theffs are in the house,
Speaker 1: in the house. Not only are you in the house,
Speaker 1: you're you're in the house and coordinated in the house.
Speaker 1: You guys want to tell the people who can't see
Speaker 1: us right now, what's going on with the ensemble. Well,
Speaker 1: we always for some reason like color coordinate. It's scary. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the guys, this is not just a color a white
Speaker 1: chop and a jean jacket, and it's almost like the
Speaker 1: same texture gene jacket. I mean literally, there would be
Speaker 1: times where like we would either like see each other
Speaker 1: in class or walk down on the lobby, and I
Speaker 1: would wear colors that I would never wear at all,
Speaker 1: and I'd be like, you know, I'm gonna throw in
Speaker 1: some yellow. And then I walked down and then she
Speaker 1: walks down. I'm like, so you're wearing yellow. I'm wearing yellow.
Speaker 1: When do you wear yellow different? Today? That is so funny.
Speaker 1: So you guys are you guys obviously have a long
Speaker 1: history of working together and being friends. Let's take it
Speaker 1: back to where it all began for people who don't
Speaker 1: know the backstory of Casey and Sean. Who wants to
Speaker 1: take this tale or one of you can start at
Speaker 1: the other convenish it. You're so insanc I feel like
Speaker 1: it could work. I can start it. So we started
Speaker 1: competing like seven to eight years ago. I had a
Speaker 1: separate studio and she had a separate studio, and we
Speaker 1: kind of competed with each other. But then it was
Speaker 1: always like just like, hey, hey, you're good, you too,
Speaker 1: And then and then after that we started when I
Speaker 1: started moving into the classes in l A and everything
Speaker 1: like that, I also saw her in classes there too,
Speaker 1: and so we always kept bumping into each other. But
Speaker 1: like when we first met each other, it was far
Speaker 1: from like being like even friends at all. We were
Speaker 1: always just like, like I admired her, admired her as
Speaker 1: a dancer when I first saw her on stage and
Speaker 1: everything like that. But I was never like, I want
Speaker 1: to grab some lunch. I was just gonna say, for
Speaker 1: people who are not aware of how young both of
Speaker 1: you are, sixteen and seventeen, yeah, when you met, you
Speaker 1: had to have been at the ripe age of eight
Speaker 1: and nine. It was more like our parents were doing
Speaker 1: the talking, so you're not really necessarily being like, want
Speaker 1: to go to soho house talking to each other, and
Speaker 1: then we just hear your parents like, Hi, this is
Speaker 1: my son, this is my daughter. Yeah, I mean, but
Speaker 1: all in all, it was really just like we kept
Speaker 1: seeing each other a lot in like competitions and then
Speaker 1: in classes and all that stuff. So it was really
Speaker 1: just kind of this like sign where I was like,
Speaker 1: maybe we should just be friends. See where that goes.
Speaker 1: Had you seen the video of Casey when she did
Speaker 1: is it work that Katie didn't carry? Katie Perry tweet that,
Speaker 1: okay when I saw that video today because I was
Speaker 1: watching it this morning and just to you know, go
Speaker 1: through all the research. Yeah, well that's what I do
Speaker 1: every morning. I like that I have my coffee that
Speaker 1: I do. You but oh my goodness, so talented. How
Speaker 1: old are you in that video? I was ten years old.
Speaker 1: I mean like when she does those like hit thrust, like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, those are like powerful, they were power power,
Speaker 1: And then Katie Perry sees it. How was it as
Speaker 1: a ten year old? Honestly, I didn't really quite know
Speaker 1: what was going on at the time because I was
Speaker 1: so young. I just remember like one of my fans
Speaker 1: like commented on one of my random selfies on Instagram.
Speaker 1: I was like, hey, Katy Perry just retweeted as your
Speaker 1: solo and I was like what, And we all thought
Speaker 1: it was like something like it was a fake account.
Speaker 1: So we went and did like the research and we're like,
Speaker 1: oh no, it's like the actual Katy Perry. But at
Speaker 1: the time I was just kind of like cool, I
Speaker 1: don't I don't know what this means, Like I don't
Speaker 1: even know what you do with this, yeah exactly, And
Speaker 1: my parents were like, oh my gosh, like this is
Speaker 1: for real, and it just blew up and it was
Speaker 1: one of the very first dance videos to actually sort
Speaker 1: of go viral. So that was like really really cool,
Speaker 1: and I got so many opportunities after that. That's just
Speaker 1: been insane and it's just crazy. Well you are too,
Speaker 1: I mean a lot of your stuff went viral as well.
Speaker 1: That's obviously probably your first memory of something really going
Speaker 1: viral and people you kind of became a household name
Speaker 1: at that point. Yeah, and then what was it for you, Sean,
Speaker 1: when you realize that this was something because obviously dance
Speaker 1: is something that people take very seriously. Some unfortunately, do
Speaker 1: not have the careers that you guys have had. And
Speaker 1: you're you're so young, you saw the world in front
Speaker 1: of you. You had a moment in your career, your
Speaker 1: career as a ten year old perhaps where you realized
Speaker 1: this is something I could really make into a longtime career. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, was there a moment for you, like a
Speaker 1: a video got a lot of attention, or somebody asked
Speaker 1: you to choreograph something where you were like, they're taking
Speaker 1: me seriously, this is something I could really do well. Actually,
Speaker 1: when I think when I was ten, it was generally
Speaker 1: a competition and I was like I asked my studio owner.
Speaker 1: I was like, hey, can I just choreograph my own
Speaker 1: solo and like try it in the studio and it
Speaker 1: was like no, I don't do that, and like there's
Speaker 1: no point and I was like, no, I really want
Speaker 1: to try, and she was very doubtful about it, and
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, if I really prepare and if
Speaker 1: I go into the next one by myself, will you
Speaker 1: let me? And I was like I'll even like even
Speaker 1: compete away from your studio. I'll go independently, and she
Speaker 1: just like okay, fine. So then you know, I spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time, you know, choreographing like my own solo,
Speaker 1: and do you remember what song it was to um?
Speaker 1: It was so long ago. It was so long ago,
Speaker 1: and it was so brief. It was just like it
Speaker 1: was just a moment for me that kind of like
Speaker 1: stuff like this light where I was like I realized that,
Speaker 1: you know, as I cho ground, was like, oh, no,
Speaker 1: one knows me more than myself. So so I really
Speaker 1: tried to push it out there. And then at that point,
Speaker 1: I beat all my other solos and I beat all
Speaker 1: like my other like routines that I did in the
Speaker 1: competition with that solo, and I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: this is like something I want to do and this
Speaker 1: is something that I want to share. And so then
Speaker 1: I started like teaching in any possible way I could,
Speaker 1: either in charities or in fundraisers or in just my
Speaker 1: sister's high school. And from that point on, it was
Speaker 1: kind of just like, I want to keep doing this
Speaker 1: forever and beat that studio owner success story. So, you
Speaker 1: guys were so young at this point, and obviously big
Speaker 1: things are happening for both of you, you know of
Speaker 1: each other. How was it because you're obviously were you
Speaker 1: still in school at that point, yes, So how are
Speaker 1: you balancing because obviously you're in a different tier of
Speaker 1: talent of dance. How are you balancing practicing and taking
Speaker 1: dance seriously and maybe going pro and also taking school
Speaker 1: seriously as well. Well. At the moment, we're both graduated
Speaker 1: from school. But at the time it was tough, like
Speaker 1: separating dance and school and also, yeah, finding that balance,
Speaker 1: but we always like managed to do it. And obviously
Speaker 1: school does come first, but dances also our passion and
Speaker 1: our loves. So it was just really finding that balance
Speaker 1: between studying but then also doing what we loved. And
Speaker 1: it's also just kind of the idea of knowing that,
Speaker 1: like school is a priority, so because dance is our passion,
Speaker 1: we kind of have to make sure that we get
Speaker 1: the school thing done first, and then you go into
Speaker 1: like moving with dancing. Because I feel like every time
Speaker 1: you decide to push school away when you have to
Speaker 1: do it and you start to kind of go into,
Speaker 1: you know, your passion, you're always distracted by knowing that
Speaker 1: you still have to do school, and like at a
Speaker 1: certain point, you know, so it pulls away from that,
Speaker 1: you know, you giving that whenever you are dancing. So
Speaker 1: for us, either for us when we were on set
Speaker 1: or when we were rehearsing or this, this, and that,
Speaker 1: it was always just making sure that we at least
Speaker 1: finished school. We at least had to finish what we
Speaker 1: had to finish for school, and then we can move
Speaker 1: on to you know, and in your mind was what
Speaker 1: you had to finish was high school. Yeah. So I
Speaker 1: always wondered this about child stars and your actors who
Speaker 1: are land big TV roles at a very young age,
Speaker 1: how you can really commit to two things equally, because
Speaker 1: I feel like you're taking from one to focus on
Speaker 1: the other, knowing that you had to finish school and
Speaker 1: just get it done, and you both knew that you
Speaker 1: had this promising career in dance. Were you taking school
Speaker 1: less seriously just because you had this career that you
Speaker 1: felt you could fall back on or was it the
Speaker 1: other way around where school was taken really seriously because
Speaker 1: you never knew where dance would take you. Oh, I
Speaker 1: felt like a new where dance would take me. I
Speaker 1: feel like I feel like in our case, I feel
Speaker 1: like we we kind of looked at dancing as like
Speaker 1: our guiding hand kind of thing, because I mean, obviously
Speaker 1: we took school very seriously, and at least for me
Speaker 1: and my parents are very strict about making sure that, like,
Speaker 1: you know, you had to finish this year to firms
Speaker 1: that otherwise you don't get to do this and that
Speaker 1: kind of thing. So it was kind of like school
Speaker 1: was my motivation. Would dance get taken away from you?
Speaker 1: You think if you started slipping in school for sure?
Speaker 1: For sure? For sure? Yeah, I mean, I mean it
Speaker 1: makes sense. You know. I love that your parents both
Speaker 1: did that for you guys, but you'd be surprised in
Speaker 1: the industry how many parents would say, you know what,
Speaker 1: don't worry about it, you just gotta you know this
Speaker 1: series regular on this show. We'll focus on school later.
Speaker 1: I mean, when you think about it, like at the moment,
Speaker 1: we were obviously like, fine, well, every high school kid,
Speaker 1: you're not You're not a bad person for not wanting
Speaker 1: to go to class by the way, nobody likes. I mean,
Speaker 1: there would be like tough moments at certain times because
Speaker 1: it was like we had to sacrifice this for school
Speaker 1: or sacrifice that for school. You know, once you kind
Speaker 1: of like look back at it, you're kind of just
Speaker 1: like really grateful for the fact that, like our parents,
Speaker 1: we're super strict with what our priorities had to be
Speaker 1: at and just knowing that, like I said, I feel
Speaker 1: like dancing was really our guiding hand into what we
Speaker 1: wanted to do in the future. Is settled that in
Speaker 1: our heart, and that's why we were able to commit
Speaker 1: so fully into school and then going back into dance,
Speaker 1: just because we kind of trusted that dance would continuously
Speaker 1: take us to where we needed to be at while
Speaker 1: we're still doing school. So and then as far as
Speaker 1: post high school, a lot of dancers, I guess would
Speaker 1: try to apply to school like Juilliard or some kind
Speaker 1: of dance institution. You guys were already making moves in
Speaker 1: the real world. So did you ever have a conversation
Speaker 1: with parents, or with yourselves or amongst yourselves and try
Speaker 1: to decide, Okay, do we go into the real world
Speaker 1: now or do we continue to maybe foster this through
Speaker 1: school in another way that was focused on dance. I
Speaker 1: think for dancing, I just knew I love to do it.
Speaker 1: So since we kind of already dove our feet into
Speaker 1: like the real life world in the industry and everything,
Speaker 1: I think that's just where our paths are taking us.
Speaker 1: And at the moment, I don't think like we want
Speaker 1: to study dance like at school, because dance is more
Speaker 1: than just studying it. It's also a feeling and it's
Speaker 1: something that makes you feel good. It makes you who
Speaker 1: you are. Yeah, a lot of people say that your
Speaker 1: real life experience always trumps right, And I'm sure you
Speaker 1: guys are learning so much more actually doing the routines
Speaker 1: and trying things out versus getting it from a textbook
Speaker 1: or Yeah, I just feel like the way that we
Speaker 1: approach dance isn't necessarily I guess you could say, supported
Speaker 1: from like she said, textbooks and from you know, certain limitations.
Speaker 1: I feel like for us, we kind of look at
Speaker 1: it in a way where we're driven from, like she said,
Speaker 1: of feeling, rather than it being a certain technique or
Speaker 1: a certain you know, rule that you get from school.
Speaker 1: You know. So yeah, a lot of schools are formulaic.
Speaker 1: Whereas you guys, I feel like just from all the
Speaker 1: videos I saw of you guys dancing together, it's very
Speaker 1: it's almost created between the two of you, or you'll
Speaker 1: create something or you'll from a thing exactly, and you're
Speaker 1: not necessarily in a box of a certain kind of dance.
Speaker 1: You're kind of creating your own lane. Is that? Would
Speaker 1: you agree that you're creating your own lane? So what
Speaker 1: is the lane that you've created? If you were to
Speaker 1: describe to somebody your styles of dance, I would kind
Speaker 1: of say it's a fusion. There really is no specific
Speaker 1: word to describe what we do or even anybody in
Speaker 1: the dance industry nowadays. It's all just based off of
Speaker 1: who people are, and they kind of create their own
Speaker 1: style based on what feels good to them, which is
Speaker 1: like really cool. So not everyone's doing the same thing,
Speaker 1: and you're constantly learning new things from different people and
Speaker 1: stepping outside of your comfort zone. Yeah, it's it's really
Speaker 1: just about that certain lane that you're talking about that
Speaker 1: represents who you are, not as a dancer, but as
Speaker 1: like just a regular human being, because I feel like
Speaker 1: it really shows as to what you do every day
Speaker 1: outside of dance, and you kind of infuse that when
Speaker 1: you're dancing, and so not not saying like oh, I'm
Speaker 1: a hip hop dancer or I'm a contemporary dancer, I'm
Speaker 1: a lyrical dancer. It's like whenever they're dancing, they're not
Speaker 1: limiting limiting their selves to that certain style. They're limiting
Speaker 1: themselves to how they feel and that day even just
Speaker 1: like on that certain time or that certain moments. So
Speaker 1: I feel like nowadays dance is really driven by just
Speaker 1: who we are as people and who we surround ourselves
Speaker 1: with and how we prepare ourselves just to the world.
Speaker 1: Someone used around yourself with this Casey and Casey surrounds
Speaker 1: herself with you and you guys were and are basically
Speaker 1: very exactly when did you guys decide it was a
Speaker 1: good move to start collaborating. It was a feeling, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it really was. It wasn't something that like we were
Speaker 1: always talking about like texting, like oh, we gotta collapse,
Speaker 1: we gotta do this together, like and then like it
Speaker 1: never happened that kind of situation. But I guess like
Speaker 1: I went through like a certain life experience, and I
Speaker 1: felt like the only person that would understand that certain
Speaker 1: life experience was Casey, And I felt like she was
Speaker 1: the only person that kind of stood out from whatever.
Speaker 1: I was always taking class with her. Whenever I saw
Speaker 1: her dance, it was like this level of commitment that
Speaker 1: wasn't necessarily always around in the world, you know. So
Speaker 1: I kind of took that really seriously and I was like, Casey,
Speaker 1: do you want to do this video? It wasn't even
Speaker 1: a video. I just told her, like what it was
Speaker 1: about was just like, Casey, there's a certain thing that
Speaker 1: I want to tell people about and this this isn't that.
Speaker 1: And I was like, I would love for you to
Speaker 1: be a part of it. Was that the first do
Speaker 1: you do you want to tell us what that was? Yeah?
Speaker 1: It was this video called wrong Words, and actually the
Speaker 1: title of it's called life Experience Wrong Words. And I
Speaker 1: feel like that's basically like what we strive for when
Speaker 1: we're dancing. It's just especially for when I'm creating something
Speaker 1: or when we're creating something it's built off of a
Speaker 1: life experience, because that's one of the most genuine feelings
Speaker 1: and the most genuine ways of portraying something comes out.
Speaker 1: And so, you know, after it came out, a lot
Speaker 1: of the responses like it was more than I could
Speaker 1: ever imagine, and it was it was just that the
Speaker 1: idea of what we do as dancers could be so
Speaker 1: much more than just showing people what you're able to
Speaker 1: do with your body. It's kind of like you're using
Speaker 1: dancing to show people what you're able to do with
Speaker 1: your heart and with your soul and with your mind.
Speaker 1: And it's like what you can explain without having to
Speaker 1: say a word exactly. And I think that kind of
Speaker 1: that kind of way of showing people that sticks in
Speaker 1: people's heads because it's like you can tell people one thing,
Speaker 1: but then when you're putting your full commitment into telling
Speaker 1: people something that you don't even have to say, it
Speaker 1: like creates this longevity in their head where it like
Speaker 1: always sticks in their head and it's like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I always remember this, This isn't that, and it's all
Speaker 1: from this certain video. And I guess that that was
Speaker 1: really the first time that I felt like I really
Speaker 1: used dance to fully impact someone's life rather than just
Speaker 1: trying to impress someone, you know. And I think that
Speaker 1: from just the whole process of doing it with Casey
Speaker 1: and and creating it, it wasn't like it was far
Speaker 1: from being stressful. It was just literally like us clicking
Speaker 1: back and forth being like this, this, this, this, this, this,
Speaker 1: even no one knows what this means exactly. I was
Speaker 1: like this, well, yeah, like as we're like going back
Speaker 1: and forth with like the whole idea of the video,
Speaker 1: it was always just going back and forth with the
Speaker 1: right ideas, and it always stuck to the same concept
Speaker 1: of what we were trying to say rather than pulling away.
Speaker 1: And I don't know, I guess my favorite part about
Speaker 1: that whole first experience of creating that video with her
Speaker 1: it was just the process of it and then seeing
Speaker 1: people truly become affected by it and become fully aware
Speaker 1: of what we were trying to say for their lives.
Speaker 1: I think that was just like the greatest feeling possible.
Speaker 1: And we both we both talked about it. We were like,
Speaker 1: you know, when this video comes out, it's not necessarily
Speaker 1: about how big it does or how many views it gets.
Speaker 1: It was like, as long as we're able to at
Speaker 1: least impact someone from them just watching the video, that
Speaker 1: for us is like the biggest thing we could possibly achieve.
Speaker 1: What was the message of the video? I mean the
Speaker 1: message of it was just basically, the wrong words may
Speaker 1: not hurt yourself, but or no, may not hurt other
Speaker 1: I don't know. It's your video, other people, but yourself
Speaker 1: in the end as well. It's just being careful about
Speaker 1: what you say because it could really do damage to
Speaker 1: other people but yourself mainly in the end. That's so
Speaker 1: evolved for you to be thinking like that because and
Speaker 1: there's no problem with this, but there's so many I
Speaker 1: see a lot of dance videos we were actually scouring.
Speaker 1: As I told you guys before we went, we started
Speaker 1: recording so many dancers on the internet, so many dancers
Speaker 1: on YouTube, Instagram. Rarely are feelings evoked. I mean sometimes
Speaker 1: you're like, oh wow, they look hot and like that
Speaker 1: was a sick dance move. But it sounds like you
Speaker 1: guys really honed in on something that moved you because
Speaker 1: you were moving others and you were I don't know,
Speaker 1: you were evoking feelings and others that you didn't even
Speaker 1: people you didn't even know. Yeah, I mean, I think
Speaker 1: like you're saying, when you see when you come across
Speaker 1: all these videos, they're all great because everyone's doing it
Speaker 1: based off of, you know, what they love to do.
Speaker 1: And it's so cool being able to see seven just
Speaker 1: so many different kinds of people dancing into so many
Speaker 1: different kinds of songs, and you know, you get so
Speaker 1: high because you're just like, oh my god, they're all dancing,
Speaker 1: you know, like this is all coming from dance, and
Speaker 1: you can all see that like same kind of love
Speaker 1: that they all have for it. But at a certain
Speaker 1: point too, there's always that like little spark that we
Speaker 1: feel like we should be putting out that kind of
Speaker 1: reminds people like dances so much more, you know, and
Speaker 1: it can go beyond just the certain moves that we're doing,
Speaker 1: or it can go beyond the certain classes that we take,
Speaker 1: or you know, what we're capable to do with their body.
Speaker 1: You know, what makes us stand out from others is
Speaker 1: not necessarily what we can do with our body, but
Speaker 1: what we can say from our hearts, you know. So
Speaker 1: I think that that's something that we really wanted to
Speaker 1: take advantage of when it comes to not just dancing,
Speaker 1: but just in anything you know. So, so how long
Speaker 1: ago was this that first clab? Would you say that
Speaker 1: was okay? So it's been about two years since then.
Speaker 1: Since then, you guys have launched your YouTube channel that
Speaker 1: you are on together, and you also were on World
Speaker 1: of Dance Together. Walk me through one why you decided
Speaker 1: to do that show. I love that show. First of all,
Speaker 1: nothing makes me happier than watching people dance. But then
Speaker 1: also you made j Lo cry, which not a lot
Speaker 1: of people can say that. So to your point of
Speaker 1: bringing people's feelings forward, tell me about your experience on
Speaker 1: World of Dance. Well, how it all came about was
Speaker 1: we were actually asked to go on the show as individuals,
Speaker 1: as soloists, and neither of us really wanted to do that.
Speaker 1: But Sean then approached me one day, he facetimely awkward
Speaker 1: FaceTime call, like, so do you want to be again?
Speaker 1: That's exactly what you guys didn't see me. I was
Speaker 1: you're you're sitting next to me, yeah, and so he
Speaker 1: faced on me. He based it was like, so you
Speaker 1: want to do a World to Dance together? And then
Speaker 1: two hours went by of us not saying anything. But
Speaker 1: at this point, had they approached each of you individually? Yeah,
Speaker 1: was it for the same season? Okay, so they approached
Speaker 1: both of you, you both kind of didn't didn't give
Speaker 1: an answer or did you just say no? I said
Speaker 1: no because I did the first season, and after going
Speaker 1: through the first season, I was like, no way am
Speaker 1: I going back, Like, there's no way you can't make
Speaker 1: me Why there was a certain, like I guess level
Speaker 1: confidence that I was going through at that time where
Speaker 1: I was just like, there's no way I could pull
Speaker 1: it off, Like especially by myself. I was like, there's
Speaker 1: with a certain level of pressure that there isn't like competition,
Speaker 1: It's more than just you being a great d answer,
Speaker 1: you know. So I was like, it's just like I
Speaker 1: was like, no alone. So you said no, you did
Speaker 1: you say anything? I mean mine was just a shorter
Speaker 1: like no, thank you. Both of you say no, But
Speaker 1: then it sits with you for a second and you decide, Okay,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll do it if Casey does it with me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was on. I was gonna plane. Then after that,
Speaker 1: when I got back, I like called her and she's like,
Speaker 1: she said, it was a really awkward FaceTime call. And
Speaker 1: after I asked her the question, um, I just ended
Speaker 1: up staring at her ceiling about a very indecisive person
Speaker 1: with anything everything. So were you just thinking on FaceTime
Speaker 1: but not speaking? I couldn't tell because I was staring
Speaker 1: at the ceiling, like I said, I think't so she
Speaker 1: went downstairs to get some food or if she went
Speaker 1: out or if you know, to move into a phone call, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know you stuck around, I would have hung up.
Speaker 1: I have such a hello, you're not there by I
Speaker 1: was literally staring at my phone, like just like hello.
Speaker 1: But then I knew it was like such like a
Speaker 1: big question. So I was like, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: like rush for anything. But did you ask this question
Speaker 1: already knowing that the show would have done it with
Speaker 1: the two of you together? Or were you just thinking
Speaker 1: maybe they'll take us in together? No, I asked her,
Speaker 1: knowing that they would take both of us in, But
Speaker 1: it was just more of the matter of like, are
Speaker 1: we both wanting to do it? You know, because it's
Speaker 1: like it's one thing for one of us to do
Speaker 1: and then we both come in. But you know that's
Speaker 1: not going to work because it's going to affect the
Speaker 1: whole journey and process of us being doing the competition.
Speaker 1: For me, it was like if she wasn't going to
Speaker 1: do it, I mean, there's no point in doing it
Speaker 1: at all because I mean, I'm not going to push
Speaker 1: her into doing something that she doesn't want to do, right,
Speaker 1: But you guys decided to go for it. But what
Speaker 1: made you decide it was the move I think, like
Speaker 1: I said, it was like a two hour face to
Speaker 1: call and it was just like a simple all right,
Speaker 1: let's do it. Literally, what were your parents thinking at
Speaker 1: that time, because I'm sure they tried and my parents
Speaker 1: were like go for it, like do it echoes of
Speaker 1: like her mom just being like, yeah, go for it,
Speaker 1: just like as like I wasn't seeing anything on the
Speaker 1: FaceTime call and then and then I told my dad
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh my god, yeah, you should
Speaker 1: definitely do it. I was just like, all right, you
Speaker 1: guys want to go on. It sounds like you guys
Speaker 1: have really supportive parents, and I really think that that
Speaker 1: makes or breaks people's careers, especially as young as you
Speaker 1: guys were when you started out. I'm sure there were
Speaker 1: days when as young dancers had hard days you might
Speaker 1: have wanted to quit and maybe mom said, stick it out,
Speaker 1: let's go to one more class or whatever it is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's really interesting because for me, like me and my mom,
Speaker 1: like we're still learning too. It's just like there's not
Speaker 1: a certain thing where you know, she would know one
Speaker 1: thing that I would know a certain thing. It's always
Speaker 1: just like we're both learning it together and we're kind
Speaker 1: of like teaching each other. And that's a certain way
Speaker 1: because I would say I'm still like new to what's
Speaker 1: going on right now, Like I'm not fully aware of like, oh,
Speaker 1: this person lived in the cave for six years, so
Speaker 1: that's why he dances like this or anything. You know.
Speaker 1: I don't know those kind of like stuff. So for me,
Speaker 1: it's like being with like Casey and then you know,
Speaker 1: and then going through all these places with my mom
Speaker 1: and all the stuff. It's just like it's just learning
Speaker 1: as we're going. Um. And I think that's that's the
Speaker 1: best part about having such great people around you in
Speaker 1: great parents, because you know, you guys are both just
Speaker 1: learning together rather than always trying to like one up
Speaker 1: the person. Did you have any dance in your family
Speaker 1: or were you kind of like the pioneer before I
Speaker 1: started dancing, My whole family actually did taekwondo whenever, Like
Speaker 1: I would go to the competitions, I would kind of
Speaker 1: just go in like the sparring ring and let the
Speaker 1: other kids kick me because I didn't want to fight um.
Speaker 1: And so I was kind of like the lone ranger
Speaker 1: because my brother and my sister like, I just want
Speaker 1: to dance. Yeah, I start kicking you. I didn't even
Speaker 1: know anything else. I was just like, I don't like this.
Speaker 1: So then just one day as a fluke, my mom
Speaker 1: just put me in a dance class and you just
Speaker 1: went viral at the right page of ten. But it
Speaker 1: was just like not even knowing anything, but it was
Speaker 1: just love it first step, I guess you could say,
Speaker 1: and I just I just something clicked in me and
Speaker 1: I was like, this is what I was meant to do. Amazing.
Speaker 1: It really had a spotlight on her when she was
Speaker 1: taking her first class and they had a camera and
Speaker 1: she was like, this is what I was meant and
Speaker 1: her first class she did work and it went viral.
Speaker 1: It was her first just nailed it right up the gate. Okay,
Speaker 1: so at this point, you guys both say, yes, you
Speaker 1: are on World of Dance. This was your first time
Speaker 1: on the World of Dance, Right, You've already done it.
Speaker 1: How how was it going in a second time around
Speaker 1: with Casey? Was the whole vibe different for you? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean the one was because I was in such
Speaker 1: a large group in the first season, so going in
Speaker 1: with just another person by my side, I was like hesitant.
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't I was obviously going to
Speaker 1: tell her like, oh, this is how it works, and
Speaker 1: this is how it works. But then going in, like
Speaker 1: going on set with her, I was like, I don't
Speaker 1: even know what's going on in the second season, Like
Speaker 1: I don't, I have no idea. So, like I said,
Speaker 1: we were both like like learning what was going on
Speaker 1: with the season at the same time. I just walked
Speaker 1: in taking season one out of my head. And then
Speaker 1: obviously during interview questions they were like if a producer's dream,
Speaker 1: it's like the Last Sea. But it was definitely a
Speaker 1: different feeling that I got walking on set with Casey, because,
Speaker 1: like I said, obviously I was in a larger group
Speaker 1: in the first season, but it was more it was
Speaker 1: less about feeling like nervous and it was more like
Speaker 1: like I felt like it was more pressuring, which I
Speaker 1: don't know if that's there's much of a difference, but
Speaker 1: it was just because now like all their eyes are
Speaker 1: on like just us, rather than being like shadowed by
Speaker 1: other dancers. And so it was just this like rush
Speaker 1: of okay, if we screw up or if we don't
Speaker 1: do good, like you know, there's no there is there
Speaker 1: a fear when going into a show like this. We
Speaker 1: were having Maddie Poppion on Friday, she won American Idol.
Speaker 1: She I always wonder if you're wildly talented, but everyone
Speaker 1: has a bad day, right what if your bad day
Speaker 1: is on national television and it's the one time people
Speaker 1: see you, it is not not the biggest fear for sure.
Speaker 1: We were always so nervous, especially for our first round
Speaker 1: because obviously our first round dance, we had the blindfolds
Speaker 1: when we were dancing, but we didn't actually practice with
Speaker 1: the blindfolds until three days before we went on stage.
Speaker 1: And the blindfolds that we used, we couldn't really see
Speaker 1: out of them, like we saw like shadowy figures. But
Speaker 1: with the lights beaming down on you and everything, and
Speaker 1: that that stage as well had the light, you can't
Speaker 1: see anything. So the day of when we were doing
Speaker 1: tech rehearsal. There's this one move where my arm like
Speaker 1: smacks and he's supposed to duck, and like I hit him,
Speaker 1: and just like everything was going wrong. We're like, oh no,
Speaker 1: this is like our worst fear coming true. And we
Speaker 1: were blind that day and it was just like our
Speaker 1: last rehearsal before we actually did the real thing, like
Speaker 1: our last person and it was like we were able
Speaker 1: to do on stage, and then there was a certain
Speaker 1: lift in the end, and then they kept dropping her,
Speaker 1: and you know, we just kept adding and adding until
Speaker 1: the day of. We changed the whole dance the day before.
Speaker 1: Could you have removed the blind I mean it was
Speaker 1: possible that we could have removed the blindfold, but the
Speaker 1: only problem was just that like the story that we
Speaker 1: were trying to give out wouldn't have you needed the
Speaker 1: blindfold story. And also Jlo cried, yeah, I mean you
Speaker 1: nailed it. It was just that risk where we were like,
Speaker 1: we don't want to regret anything. You know, well, it's
Speaker 1: bigger impact, right if you're doing a crazy routine. Basically
Speaker 1: blind people are going to be like they know what
Speaker 1: they're doing. Yeah, I mean, like I said, we honestly
Speaker 1: just walked into that competition competition, not wanting to regret
Speaker 1: anything at all, even if it took a risk, even
Speaker 1: if it was you know, no one liked it, and
Speaker 1: at least we went forward knowing that we gave it
Speaker 1: at all. And I think that that was kind of
Speaker 1: just like our entire mindset throughout the entire competition. Did
Speaker 1: you guys notice after the show, more followers, more fans,
Speaker 1: because obviously in the dance community, people probably knew who
Speaker 1: you were, but you're not necessarily in the dance community.
Speaker 1: If you're watching the show, everyone watches World of Dance.
Speaker 1: It's a fun show to watch. Did you guys notice
Speaker 1: new fandom. Yeah, our fan base definitely grew since then,
Speaker 1: and I think because our main goal when we went
Speaker 1: on that show was honestly to not lose sight of
Speaker 1: who we were. And every round we didn't care if
Speaker 1: we had the coolest moves or like the biggest wow moments.
Speaker 1: We just we just wanted to portray our messages and
Speaker 1: portray stories that people could really connect with. Because after
Speaker 1: the show, after our dances aired, people reached out to us.
Speaker 1: I mean, like you guys like really touched our hearts
Speaker 1: and thank you for this because this message is very important,
Speaker 1: and that was just our main goal because we didn't
Speaker 1: want to just reach out reach out to dancers. We
Speaker 1: wanted to reach out to the world and too, people
Speaker 1: who may not even know about dance, but something in
Speaker 1: us clicked in them and they're like wow, like this
Speaker 1: like really touched us. So that was just our mangle,
Speaker 1: and I think that's why our fan base grew so much,
Speaker 1: because we stay true to who we are, and I
Speaker 1: think that was like the greatest feeling ever, you know,
Speaker 1: because like she said, we didn't walk in hoping that
Speaker 1: we were going to get a larger fan base or
Speaker 1: like you know, like, oh, this is great for exposure.
Speaker 1: Like for us, we we didn't need that. That's not
Speaker 1: what we were seeking for. It wasn't something that was
Speaker 1: going to give us longevity and what we wanted to do.
Speaker 1: It was just that it was just the mindset that
Speaker 1: we had to put in ourselves making sure that the
Speaker 1: world got to see us for who we were. And
Speaker 1: as long as that's been portrayed and we could leave
Speaker 1: the competition knowing that it's going to leave a stain
Speaker 1: to the world forever, then that's all we could have
Speaker 1: possibly wanted. You guys are so evolved for thinking that
Speaker 1: way because I think a lot of people and there's
Speaker 1: nothing wrong with this, but they may have picked the
Speaker 1: trendiest song and done the trendier moves that aren't necessarily
Speaker 1: on brand with who they are or authentic to themselves,
Speaker 1: not using mainstream So did you have to kind of
Speaker 1: pitch producers and say this is what we want to do?
Speaker 1: It was yeah, Like every round was very tough because
Speaker 1: we wanted to use songs that weren't the top forties.
Speaker 1: But it's also very hard because in the TV world,
Speaker 1: songs have to get cleared as well, so some of
Speaker 1: the songs that we wanted to use couldn't get cleared
Speaker 1: by the artist or the label our songs. Even for
Speaker 1: the second round, we had three different songs, three different dances,
Speaker 1: and we're changing it up up until like the week
Speaker 1: before because we didn't know which song was going to
Speaker 1: be cleared, and then they told us one song got cleared,
Speaker 1: but then they're like, oh wait, no it's not cleared,
Speaker 1: you can't use it. And it was just ya my stress,
Speaker 1: And that competition was funding songs, just music, Like I
Speaker 1: had to contact the artist at one time. For the
Speaker 1: second round just to get it like fully cleared, just
Speaker 1: so I can rush things up a little bit. It
Speaker 1: was like, we need to know what dance we're doing
Speaker 1: for the show, and it's tomorrow. Wow, that's but But honestly,
Speaker 1: I think it paid off. All the struggle paid off
Speaker 1: because now the show is not forever, right, but your
Speaker 1: careers are forever and you basically you set the tone
Speaker 1: and people know what to expect out of the two
Speaker 1: of you, and you're not going to have random people
Speaker 1: contacting you for jobs that don't make sense for your brand,
Speaker 1: but you get contacted for other jobs. Like I don't
Speaker 1: know Megan Trainer perhaps might have called. Did she call
Speaker 1: after seeing the show? Or well, actually, when I was
Speaker 1: a bit younger, I had been in one of her
Speaker 1: first music videos, all about that bass, so I had
Speaker 1: met her and she has been a fan of Sean
Speaker 1: for as long as she can remember. And um and
Speaker 1: one of like her choreographer's Charm, knew us and had
Speaker 1: worked with us before. And Megan and Charm got together
Speaker 1: and we're like, we watched Sean and Casey to do
Speaker 1: a dance to like my new song, and so Charm
Speaker 1: I've reached out to us and it was such a
Speaker 1: cool experience because we didn't expect it at all. Um
Speaker 1: and it's so cool to have artists like that support
Speaker 1: dance and support what we do, and we're so grateful
Speaker 1: to have had that opportunity. And it also allowed us
Speaker 1: to grow as partners as well, because it really helped
Speaker 1: us learn how to do more partner work, because even
Speaker 1: before World World of Dance, we never really did partner stuff,
Speaker 1: like we danced next to each other, but we never
Speaker 1: did lifts, we never did any partner work with one another,
Speaker 1: So it really helped us launch into that next phase.
Speaker 1: And also doing the Megan Trainer music video obviously helped
Speaker 1: us with that while still keeping the fact that we
Speaker 1: wanted to portray messages. Well, let's first of all, let's
Speaker 1: tell people what this music video is so they when
Speaker 1: they're listening to this, they can watch it and also
Speaker 1: know that Sean, you choreographed the entire dance. Don't be shy.
Speaker 1: Tell the people why are you so shy? Your star.
Speaker 1: I'm just going to continue to say the idea of
Speaker 1: like being able to not only dance for an artist,
Speaker 1: but dance for an artist like her, like Megan Trainer,
Speaker 1: but like like Casey was saying that supports dancers and
Speaker 1: it is so humble and I don't know it it
Speaker 1: gives you that really like like it motivates you to
Speaker 1: want to do your best, you know, because it's kind
Speaker 1: of just like you want to give them everything that
Speaker 1: you possibly could have and you possibly know, just because
Speaker 1: you feel like they deserve what we're able to do.
Speaker 1: Plus more charm. She she directs and choregrats a lot
Speaker 1: of meg and stuff. When she approached us, she looked
Speaker 1: at it as a collaboration because she was just like,
Speaker 1: you know, I could do this, and then you guys
Speaker 1: could do that, and this isn't that like. And I
Speaker 1: think she was aware of like our process of whenever
Speaker 1: we do create pieces. And so when she was showing
Speaker 1: me all the like parts of the music that she
Speaker 1: wanted us to do, I was literally just at her
Speaker 1: house and we literally just started like messing around with
Speaker 1: like certain concepts and ideas and one of them was
Speaker 1: on the couch and then the other ones that were
Speaker 1: on the the garage and I don't know. Hearing the song,
Speaker 1: it was it had such like a warm feeling to it.
Speaker 1: So we wanted that to drive us into what we
Speaker 1: were going to do in the video, and then when
Speaker 1: we got into that, we literally just started playing around
Speaker 1: with it and then and we were like making it
Speaker 1: up as we were going either on the stairs or
Speaker 1: on a table, and the moment we finally figured it out,
Speaker 1: we literally just shot it right out there like once,
Speaker 1: like we were just like, okay, we'll do this. Then
Speaker 1: you move here and you move that, great, let shoot
Speaker 1: it right now. We were just like yeah, cool, cool, yeah,
Speaker 1: oh there's the camera. Um. But there were certain parts
Speaker 1: that we we kind of prepared before the shoot. As
Speaker 1: most people may know, like I like to overthink certain things, um,
Speaker 1: and so for me, it was kind of just that
Speaker 1: idea when we were creating, I was just like, okay,
Speaker 1: is this the right feeling or does this feel right
Speaker 1: for you? Do this just feel right at all? Does
Speaker 1: this fit the music? And you know, just the idea
Speaker 1: of like choreographing something from begging trainer and I was
Speaker 1: just like, I don't know. I was like yeah, I
Speaker 1: was like I don't know what represents us the most
Speaker 1: and this isn't that. And then her Casey being Casey,
Speaker 1: she was just like super super cheesy, was super helpful.
Speaker 1: She was just like just do what we always do,
Speaker 1: and that's what you guys did and it worked out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And honestly, like being able to do like a music video,
Speaker 1: it was a definitely it was definitely a much different
Speaker 1: experience from just doing like a concept video or a
Speaker 1: dance video that most of us usually do, which really
Speaker 1: gave us an insight of like the infinite possibilities that
Speaker 1: you can take a dance video with, because it didn't
Speaker 1: feel like a dance video. It felt like we were
Speaker 1: watching a story that was based off of what the
Speaker 1: song was about, a story, which was like a really great,
Speaker 1: great feeling because I was just like, I didn't expect
Speaker 1: it to come out like that, and I've never seen
Speaker 1: us kind of do something like that, which kind of
Speaker 1: drove us into really stepping into more of that kind
Speaker 1: of region whenever we started creating more after that music video.
Speaker 1: Just that whole experience being able to work with Charm
Speaker 1: she's the best um and the idea of all of it.
Speaker 1: It was just really great. And you guys definitely are
Speaker 1: pioneers in the sense that rarely are dancers in the
Speaker 1: forefront of these music videos oftentimes. Obviously you've been in
Speaker 1: music videos I'm sure you have some, but yeah, well
Speaker 1: we don't. We don't talk about that point being oftentimes
Speaker 1: dancers are in the background and they're not really the
Speaker 1: focal point very rarely. I mean Maddie Ziegler with Sia. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Sia put Maddie on the map for sure, and I
Speaker 1: love that, and she kind of has the same vibe
Speaker 1: of the storytelling, or at least Sia did, and that
Speaker 1: Maddie did the move. I think it's it's really awesome
Speaker 1: that you guys are in a small group of dancers
Speaker 1: that actually were put at the forefront, and not only
Speaker 1: put at the forefront, but trusted by the star, by
Speaker 1: this pop icon to say, you guys, take the lead.
Speaker 1: I trust you. I like what you're doing. That had
Speaker 1: to be a moment where one pinch me moment, and
Speaker 1: also just that validation, shin and reassurance that you needed,
Speaker 1: not that you needed per se, but we're humans. We
Speaker 1: all need somebody to say you're doing the right thing.
Speaker 1: Was that, in a sense validation that you guys were
Speaker 1: doing the right thing? Yeah, it was definitely validation for
Speaker 1: us that what we're doing is what we're meant to do.
Speaker 1: So when we got the opportunity to do that and
Speaker 1: be trusted by an artist like Megan, it really put
Speaker 1: in perspective for us that wow, like dance is so
Speaker 1: impactful and patful, clearly, but to be able to do
Speaker 1: that and also it helps us grow as artists ourselves,
Speaker 1: it was just the most validating feeling. Yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: really just motivating for us, Like it motivates us to
Speaker 1: want to do more because for us, it's like that
Speaker 1: that kind of feeling that you you get from working
Speaker 1: for beautiful artists like Megan and and working with great people,
Speaker 1: it makes you never want to stop. It makes you
Speaker 1: want to just keep going and just being like, okay,
Speaker 1: what else you can do exactly, like what's gonna what
Speaker 1: else can we do for the world? What else can
Speaker 1: we do that that will keep our names and people's conversations,
Speaker 1: that has to do with, you know, impacting their lives.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's just a whole different world that you
Speaker 1: step into whenever you get that sense of validation from
Speaker 1: just making sure that you are doing the right thing.
Speaker 1: And you know, like you said, we are humans, so
Speaker 1: we do seek validation at certain moments, but whenever we're
Speaker 1: creating or whenever I'm whenever I'm just with her doing something,
Speaker 1: you don't necessarily like I never feel the need for
Speaker 1: like me making sure I'm doing the right thing or
Speaker 1: making sure that I'm validated for doing this. It's just
Speaker 1: like because when you're working with such great people, when
Speaker 1: you surround yourselves with such like a great support system,
Speaker 1: that's all you ever really need. I feel like, because
Speaker 1: I guess the point in validation comment is more of
Speaker 1: there's a friends between something being on hobby and it's okay,
Speaker 1: and you can do your thing and do whatever you want,
Speaker 1: and then there's a career that can actually be your
Speaker 1: way of living and your your life's path, and the
Speaker 1: validation is needed to be because at some point you
Speaker 1: have to pay bills and at some point you know,
Speaker 1: luckily right now you guys probably don't have to, but
Speaker 1: at some point in life, yeah, I have to talk
Speaker 1: about Yeah, your mom told me before you guys started
Speaker 1: that you're kicked out. No, but you know, at some point,
Speaker 1: this this love that you guys have for dance has
Speaker 1: to have its return on investment at some level, and
Speaker 1: it seems like both of you guys are absolutely on
Speaker 1: the path for that. Where do you guys see the
Speaker 1: next couple of years, where would you like this career
Speaker 1: to go if you could rub a magic genie bottles
Speaker 1: that what they call a bottle. Okay, so you have
Speaker 1: a genie lamp, you have a magic wand whatever sorcery
Speaker 1: you want to use. Where do you see that the
Speaker 1: career is going? And maybe you have the same vision,
Speaker 1: maybe you have completely separate visions. You want to take
Speaker 1: this one shot or Casey. I think throughout the past
Speaker 1: things that we've done together, we kind of realized that
Speaker 1: it was far beyond dancing obviously, like we explained, and
Speaker 1: in order to achieve that, it requires a lot of
Speaker 1: like acting, and it requires a lot of like soul
Speaker 1: and requires a lot of like heart into it. And
Speaker 1: so I definitely hope for the next couple of years
Speaker 1: to kind of just seek into creating certain projects in
Speaker 1: certain films that will have a wider reach of an
Speaker 1: audience the world, that that's much more than just dance,
Speaker 1: that that actually may involve dialogue, that may involve lines
Speaker 1: that you will need to say and hopefully it happens
Speaker 1: in theaters and that kind of idea. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I just find that people start to from member your voice.
Speaker 1: Whenever you put yourself out on such a huge platform
Speaker 1: like like movies and in films, that's definitely like a
Speaker 1: goal that I kind of well, it seems like you're
Speaker 1: working towards that goal right now. Do you want to
Speaker 1: tell everybody about your film journey? At the moment the
Speaker 1: perfect segue, I feel like we just set that up
Speaker 1: so beautifully transitions. Yeah. For the past I guess three
Speaker 1: years now, I've been working on a certain film, a
Speaker 1: short film, and it revolves around that first experience that
Speaker 1: I explained earlier about wrong words with me and Casey.
Speaker 1: So yeah, this whole short film are certain aspects of
Speaker 1: lessons that I've kind of learned throughout life. Is Casey
Speaker 1: in the film, she's filming it. It revolves about me
Speaker 1: and Casey, so yeah, she's the majority of the film.
Speaker 1: And yeah, it's insane. Oh my gosh, I can't wait.
Speaker 1: When does it? When can we see this? It's undecided yet,
Speaker 1: just because it's still in the works and I'm not
Speaker 1: necessarily focused on the release date or how it's going
Speaker 1: to come out, or you know, where it's going to
Speaker 1: come out, just because I'm more just focused on making
Speaker 1: sure that it's worth people's time, because I asked, because
Speaker 1: I did um put out a go fund me um
Speaker 1: to just get people involved, to kind of motivate myself
Speaker 1: to really go for it. UM. I really want to
Speaker 1: make sure that's worth their money and their time and
Speaker 1: their support. But yeah, this whole film, it's then almost
Speaker 1: more than three years now, and it's really just certain
Speaker 1: things that I wanted to highlight that represent the definition
Speaker 1: of what life, what I think life is, and I
Speaker 1: just wanted to do this film with some of the
Speaker 1: most important people in my life and just people that
Speaker 1: have really impacted the world in their own craft, you know,
Speaker 1: because there's certain times where you can work with really
Speaker 1: great dancer and you can work with really incredible movers,
Speaker 1: but you're not going to remember that at a certain point,
Speaker 1: you know. But when you do start to work with
Speaker 1: not only great dance but really great people, it sticks
Speaker 1: with you forever. And I think that that's kind of
Speaker 1: something that that I really wanted to focus on. And
Speaker 1: I don't know it's the trailer will come out your time.
Speaker 1: I mean, between Winning Chopped, I had to say that
Speaker 1: starting a YouTube channel, choreographing music videos, it's fine that
Speaker 1: you're taking a little bit of time with this. There's
Speaker 1: people that their main focus is a short film for
Speaker 1: ten years and still nothings out. So you're okay, So
Speaker 1: is it safe to say that you'd like to move
Speaker 1: into the film world per um in the future. The
Speaker 1: point of that short film was creating a certain infusion
Speaker 1: of of acting and dancing. Great. It's basically an unspoken narrative,
Speaker 1: you know, so very cool. So like I said, it
Speaker 1: revolves around me in Casey because she holds, like I said,
Speaker 1: that level of determination and commitment, and also she can act,
Speaker 1: so it's like great, you know. So for me, it's
Speaker 1: like being able to really influence and push that sense
Speaker 1: of like, okay, if you really take the idea of
Speaker 1: actual acting with dancing, then when you think about it,
Speaker 1: you're really storytelling. Like I feel like sometimes the definition
Speaker 1: of people's storytelling and they're dancing gets confused because step
Speaker 1: it up or step up. It's like we're not talking
Speaker 1: step up here. This is and it's it's not like
Speaker 1: a driven film where it's like one person is going
Speaker 1: through a certain path. It's just certain scenes in this film.
Speaker 1: It holds different messages, very calm, and I think that's
Speaker 1: that's the biggest goal with that, and I don't know,
Speaker 1: who knows. Maybe if it does well. When it does
Speaker 1: it does well, you know, it can step up into
Speaker 1: a different series and maybe we could shoot it around
Speaker 1: the world or something like that. You know. Like it's
Speaker 1: just like that certain mister where I feel like pushing
Speaker 1: it to different boundaries and going into different even countries
Speaker 1: or different continents. It's like like being able to just
Speaker 1: have the idea of with with Dance and obviously being
Speaker 1: able to do with Casey. It's like it's just like
Speaker 1: something that you want to go for no matter the
Speaker 1: cost or the matter of the risk, you know, because
Speaker 1: it's like if you're not going to do it now,
Speaker 1: then when you're going to do it, you know. And
Speaker 1: what about you, Casey. Obviously you're the star of this
Speaker 1: Oscar winning film, so after you've taken your oscars home
Speaker 1: some more, you're an actress. Well not an actress now.
Speaker 1: I want to become one um sound acting and in
Speaker 1: a short film. For me, like obviously dancing requires a
Speaker 1: certain level of acting, and I think that's where I
Speaker 1: kind of grew the love of acting from. And to me,
Speaker 1: it's not so much acting because I feel like it
Speaker 1: just truly comes from a raw place. And I never
Speaker 1: like when I dance or when I portray messages. I
Speaker 1: never wanted to be portrayed as I'm portraying someone else.
Speaker 1: I wanted to be that I'm portraying myself or someone
Speaker 1: else through who I am as well, so it comes
Speaker 1: out as real as possible. But when I do get older,
Speaker 1: obviously like I want to get more into the acting world,
Speaker 1: and I think it's just really cool how you could
Speaker 1: dive into different characters and really create something out of
Speaker 1: the ordinary that you can't really do in reality, go
Speaker 1: past the imagination. Well, I mean, it's funny because you
Speaker 1: say you're you would like to become an actor, but
Speaker 1: really you are one. You said when you dance, you're
Speaker 1: taking on these different characters in essence and these different
Speaker 1: these feelings that made you know you're portraying something and
Speaker 1: you're you're showing the world and you're entertaining. So I
Speaker 1: think you're on the right path. And I also feel
Speaker 1: so obviously the show A Full Circle is about influence,
Speaker 1: and you guys have both individually and together created a
Speaker 1: platform where I truly feel that if you decided to
Speaker 1: try something whether it's acting or filmmaking or directing or
Speaker 1: whatever it is, you already have this platform, You have
Speaker 1: this experience to take you wherever you want to go.
Speaker 1: Do you guys feel like you're your visibility social media wise?
Speaker 1: And just the shows that you've done and the big
Speaker 1: winds like the music videos have helped you, helped open
Speaker 1: doors to things that you may not know that you
Speaker 1: want to do, but maybe you do it anyway. And yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure, Yeah, I mean you basically said it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's there's definitely power in social media. I'm sure you
Speaker 1: guys both know that already. I'm sure you can book
Speaker 1: jobs over other people because of the millions of followers
Speaker 1: you both have between yourselves. I think the biggest like
Speaker 1: thing about social media, and I usually say this, is
Speaker 1: that it's like, it's obviously one of the greatest things ever,
Speaker 1: but it's also one of the most dangerous things ever,
Speaker 1: you know, because what you put out is how Yeah,
Speaker 1: what you put out is forever, and it's what people
Speaker 1: hold against you and what people use for certain gigs
Speaker 1: and everything like that. But I think the biggest thing
Speaker 1: is when you do get a certain job based off
Speaker 1: of who you are on social media is that you
Speaker 1: almost have to prove to your like, at least, you
Speaker 1: almost have to prove to yourself that when you're doing
Speaker 1: a certain gig, it's not coming from it's not only
Speaker 1: coming from who you are on social media, but it's
Speaker 1: coming from what you're actually capable of, because it's hard
Speaker 1: to it's hard to like, book a job just from
Speaker 1: how many followers you have, and then when it's when
Speaker 1: that certain project comes out, you don't look so great
Speaker 1: at it, you know what I mean, because because they're
Speaker 1: not depending on your actual your actual capabilities, they're not
Speaker 1: actually they care more about the numbers. Yeah, and that's
Speaker 1: I think that that's something that's do you see that
Speaker 1: happen a lot with other people? I would say, I
Speaker 1: would say it happens. I'm not fully aware of it,
Speaker 1: but I just want I think that for us, it's
Speaker 1: like it's just making sure that if we do book
Speaker 1: a certain thing, we want to make sure it comes
Speaker 1: out in the most genuine, genuine way possible. Yea, the
Speaker 1: most authentic way possible. Because it's great to book a job,
Speaker 1: but if you don't, you know, if you don't feel
Speaker 1: like you fully deserve it, it's going to show, you know,
Speaker 1: And I think that making sure that we're able to
Speaker 1: you know, either if it is a dancing job or
Speaker 1: if it is an acting job, it's making sure that
Speaker 1: you know, we're not We don't look like we're trying
Speaker 1: to push into being someone else. It's like you are.
Speaker 1: It's come from who you are at a certain level
Speaker 1: of imagination, you know. So I don't know, it's just
Speaker 1: that it's just that level of pressure where you want
Speaker 1: to make sure that you feel like you do deserve
Speaker 1: it based off of your capabilities rather than your you know, numbers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like social media has definitely impacted our career
Speaker 1: so much because honestly, without it, I don't think anyone
Speaker 1: would really truly understand the dance industry, like all in all, because, um,
Speaker 1: most of our resumes are on YouTube or on Instagram.
Speaker 1: And I think that's one of the more positive sides
Speaker 1: of it, is that we get to share with so
Speaker 1: many people what we love to do, and if they
Speaker 1: love it as well, that's like a bigger plus. But
Speaker 1: for us, whenever post something, it's because we truly love
Speaker 1: and we truly think it represents who we are, and
Speaker 1: that's why we use social media the way that we do. UM.
Speaker 1: We don't use it to get clout, as as people say,
Speaker 1: I hate that. Hey if I could never hear get
Speaker 1: clout ever, I'd be okay. But like, we use it
Speaker 1: to just show who we are. And social media has
Speaker 1: grown so much and I feel like so many people
Speaker 1: are more aware of dance now than they were years ago.
Speaker 1: And that's one of the coolest parts because dance has
Speaker 1: become incredibly huge around the world and it's a form
Speaker 1: of communication in a way, people communicate through dance through
Speaker 1: their bodies, and that's really really cool. Brings people closer
Speaker 1: from all over the world. We've had a few really
Speaker 1: big dancers um in for interviews and in closing, I
Speaker 1: will say, because we're talking about social media, they also
Speaker 1: said that Instagram was basically their resume. And because it's
Speaker 1: Instagram and because this person had a lot of followers
Speaker 1: in the blue check, other artists are able to easily
Speaker 1: find them and slide into the d M and be like, Hey,
Speaker 1: do you want to work on this music video? Or oh,
Speaker 1: do you want to come on tour with me? If
Speaker 1: you guys could pick one person to slide into the
Speaker 1: d M and ask you to collaborate. Who would it
Speaker 1: be like? Who would make you drop the phone maybe
Speaker 1: possibly crack it and make you use your Apple Care app?
Speaker 1: Use the Apple Care because you cracked the phone. You're
Speaker 1: so excited take some time. That's like you're like, can
Speaker 1: I have a two hour FaceTime? Please? Um, I don't know.
Speaker 1: It could be an artist, It could be It could
Speaker 1: be literally anyone Sean Lou's going to see your name.
Speaker 1: You guys don't have an artist that it like? Um
Speaker 1: little way and slides into the DM and obviously or
Speaker 1: like you know, like Beyonce would be fantastic great. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think I feel like Beyonce would be a
Speaker 1: good one for sure. Yeah yeah, definitely anyone else. Um,
Speaker 1: we gotta put it out there. I mean, if we
Speaker 1: don't put it out Beyonce is obviously listening. Okay, Bay,
Speaker 1: did you hear this? Just give a call or slide
Speaker 1: to the DM. Give both of us a call. Um.
Speaker 1: I would also say probably uh not to um Day.
Speaker 1: What's his name? Um? You must love him? Because no,
Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of his work and it is
Speaker 1: kind of just like shadowing his life as an actor. UM,
Speaker 1: names and things he's been will help you. He did
Speaker 1: Robot and then he did oh he did? He mean Rhapsody? Oh,
Speaker 1: Ronnie Malick, there you go love him. So maybe he
Speaker 1: does like a limited series on Amazon Prime and he's like,
Speaker 1: it's spoken word, no, no word, it's just dance. These
Speaker 1: guys hire me. Just stick with me. We'll go straight
Speaker 1: to the top. Were all three of us together, Let's go. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's a good one. Do you have any casey? I
Speaker 1: don't know. It's so tough. I could give you Beyonce too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously, I don't know. It's such a tough
Speaker 1: question because like I don't know if I wanted to
Speaker 1: be like an artist or like an actor or just
Speaker 1: like an influencer in general. But yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Are there any dancers you guys would have liked to
Speaker 1: collaborate with it? You haven't yet? Yeah, um, there's a
Speaker 1: certain uh like I don't. I don't think I've ever
Speaker 1: really thought about that because I feel like, will you
Speaker 1: guys collab together all the time and it works perfectly? Yeah?
Speaker 1: For me, it's like, I think, the reason why I
Speaker 1: don't really think about it so much just because whenever
Speaker 1: the time comes where you know, we do end up
Speaker 1: collaborating with someone, where we end up dancing with someone,
Speaker 1: I feel like it happens for a reason. And I
Speaker 1: feel like every time I try to push myself into
Speaker 1: like like trying to meet with the person, will collaborate
Speaker 1: with the person, it doesn't necessarily end up with such
Speaker 1: a great collaboration or you know, just because it doesn't
Speaker 1: come off of it doesn't come it doesn't come from
Speaker 1: a hungry feeling. It just comes from like a feeling
Speaker 1: that you feel like you have to do it, so
Speaker 1: you're not seeking out collapse per se. I think that
Speaker 1: I just think that like, if it happens, it happens
Speaker 1: for a reason, and and we kind of just let
Speaker 1: that take us into who whoever we're dancing with, whoever
Speaker 1: we're collaborating with. Great. Okay, So in closing, because I
Speaker 1: could talk to both of you forever, but we can't. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: just face time you later. Um, what advice would you
Speaker 1: guys give someone who wants to follow in your footsteps
Speaker 1: a young dancer? Maybe a lesson you learned along the
Speaker 1: way that you wish you had known, or something that
Speaker 1: you just have done the whole way through, like staying
Speaker 1: authentic to to yourselves, which has obviously worked very much
Speaker 1: in your favor. Any advice you guys want to give
Speaker 1: your fans or just a hopeful dancer, Yeah, honestly the
Speaker 1: main thing. I know everyone says it, but it's just
Speaker 1: too continue to stay true to who you are, because
Speaker 1: the moment you try to be someone else, no one's
Speaker 1: gonna want to listen to what you have to say.
Speaker 1: Everyone is put on this earth for a reason, and
Speaker 1: everyone has their different reason and different paths, and I
Speaker 1: think it's really important to uh, just be who you
Speaker 1: are and not care what anybody else thinks, because as
Speaker 1: long as you're happy and you're doing what you you
Speaker 1: love to do, that's that's all that really truly matters.
Speaker 1: Whatever you're doing anything, either if it is sports, if
Speaker 1: it's dancing, if it's singing, if it's acting, if you
Speaker 1: don't truly love it, then it's never gonna last. I
Speaker 1: feel like I feel like you have to continue with
Speaker 1: a certain passion in a certain love that comes from yourself.
Speaker 1: You can't expect it from anyone else, So you have
Speaker 1: to truly love something in order to continue it and
Speaker 1: pursue it. Because I feel like I live by this
Speaker 1: where you know, where there is love, there is life. So, um,
Speaker 1: I just feel like thinking about that. When it comes
Speaker 1: to dancing, when it comes to just being with people,
Speaker 1: that's where you truly discover success, you know, because otherwise
Speaker 1: you can you can push yourself into feeling a certain
Speaker 1: way of being a certain person for a certain time,
Speaker 1: but it's never gonna last. Like you can keep telling
Speaker 1: yourself that, but it's never gonna last. And I remember,
Speaker 1: I just saw this a few days ago, and it's
Speaker 1: stuck by me so much. Um. This was Steve Jobs,
Speaker 1: but he said that if you want to go fast,
Speaker 1: go alone, and if you want to go far, go together.
Speaker 1: So for me, it's like that really stuck with me
Speaker 1: because I find the best experiences with with people, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's why I'm amos around her. So it's
Speaker 1: really just the idea of making sure that you you
Speaker 1: do what you love, you do it with great people.
Speaker 1: And like she said, see who you are. That was
Speaker 1: really good advice from both of you. All Right, we'll
Speaker 1: have a good rest of the day. We hope you
Speaker 1: guys enjoyed this interview. Make sure to check out Casey
Speaker 1: and Shawn's YouTube channel together. I'm sure They'll be on
Speaker 1: fifty other music videos, shows and films at your local theater,
Speaker 1: so just you know, anywhere you want to look, they'll
Speaker 1: be there, all right, by guys, all right behind the
Speaker 1: Influences a production of I Heart Radio and TDC Media