Booby Dacones in the Studio

 

 

Great New Clients This Week!

Great Clients in this week! Here are a few great ones!

Apparantly these girls are hot stufff assisiting some of the BIG names choreographers at some of the big conventions across the country!  They were sweet and knew what they were doing in front of a camera!

Miss Dayna Frintz

  

Jade Chynowith!

  

The missing part of a dancer's career

This is one of my favorite commercials EVAH! 

I work every day with talented dancers, actors, singers, acrobats, musicians - it's great.  I love nothing more than to see someone get an amazing gig and do great.  As a young performer I always had my eye on the prize.  For me - it was a Broadway show, for you it might be a world tour with an amazing artist like Britney or Lady Gaga.  What's amazing is getting to experience your dream - it's amazing.

 It's a challenge when a young dancer moves to LA, has to pay rent, bills, parking tickets - this city can cost a pretty penny - I've lived here ten years I know all about it.  In your early twenties it's easy to just be concerned about the next job, the next class, the next choreographer, the next tour.  Most jobs come and go in a split second in this town.

How about a long term vision for your career?  The realities of a dance career ending are pretty real.  What happens if you get injured?  A friend of mine - a YOUNG dancer - hurt her knee and spent 6 months at home with her parents unable to dance.  It was torture for her.

What happens when you wake up one day and realize that the dancers around you at an audition are ten years younger than you - and much much faster as well?  Have you given thought to where you would go, what you would do or how you would even survive if, God forbid, you couldn't dance? - Don't start singing "What I Did for Love" - It's a very real question to face.

I, personally, feel like I've got a great solution for most of you out there - Diversification in your career.  Instead of focusing on just getting Glee, a world tour or that next music video - what if you started diversifying your career into commercials and print modeling?

We all know that a career in this business takes time - sometimes years to press through until the breakthrough happens.  Now is the time to consider how much money you made last year dancing and decide if it's not a great idea to jump into the commercial world and give it a go.  You can do commercials till you're 92!

I told a client who was complaining about not having enough dance jobs what he was doing with his time when he wasn't auditioning or in class.  He said "Nothing".  Well - that's what "Nothing" will get you... "Nothing".  This city requires you to bust your ass in order to succeed because for every 100% you are giving, someone else is giving 150%.  Can you keep up?

DANCERS HAVE AN EDGE OVER EVERYONE ELSE IN THE COMMERCIAL WORLD!!

Dancers have a few things that most actors in this city will never have:

1) Camera Time: Dancers spend SO much time in front of cameras doing music videos, awards shows, concerts etc... that it's like second nature to them.  Most actors out there only have the experience they've had in an acting class or an independent film.  Use this to your advantage!

2) Body awareness - as a dancer you are moving constantly.  You know every muscle in your body.  With a few classes, you can learn about how to move as an actor in a commercial and learn techniques that might take an actor twice as long to learn!

3) Agencies with commercial representation.  All the dance agencies, CTG, MSA, Treo, Bloc, DDO and Abrams all have commercial departments who will at least really take a look at your and see if your ready to work in commercials and give you viable feedback that can help you in that process.  Most actors fight for years just to FIND an agent that will be real with them and give them feedback, send them out, care about their career.  Your dance agencies already do that!  What a better way
Taking a step into the world of commercial acting than with a great agency already behind you!

4) Dance agents in LA are DYING for you to know this!  I've had conversations with at least 4 dance agents who send me their clients to get great commercial shots because they know their clients could work MORE in commercials - BUT they need the tools - photos and training.

Are you ready to take another step in your career.  You have so many advantages above all the other actors out there trying to make it in this city.  I encourage each of you - formulate a plan - talk to your agents - as them what you need to do to run in that direction.  They'll be sure to have your back!

Let's Shoot Soon,
Levi

January Specials!

Jose says, "It's the New Year People - Time to get new headshots!"

And he's right! 

This January - save $100! Buy a three look package and get one free look to add to your online casting portfolio ($75 value) AND get $25 off Hair and Makup!

Call 310-591-5595 or email bookings@leviwalker.com to book!

See u at the studio!

Expand your Marketing in 2011!

It's a New Year - new resolutions, new opportunities, new tv shows, new artists to dance for, new albums to promote, new movies.  Across the board, January starts off with a bang every year with a TON of gigs from award shows to pilot season we've all got no reason not to have work in these next few months! BUT we've got to own our careers, take control and work our butts off to land those gigs!

One way you can do this is to expand your marketing with additional looks.  Casting Directors, Agents and Choreographers are all insanely busy preparing for a massive awards & pilot season - helping them cast you is one of the most important things you can do.  Most jobs are receiving up to 1000 online submissions and i'm sure there are plenty of cross-eyed casting assistants out their staring at tiny little thumbnails trying to decide who MIGHT be right for the job.  When they see your photo - will it be easy for them to decide, or will they pass right by your photos?

Having lots of "looks" in your headshot portfolio can expand your chances of being called in for more auditions.  I know, I know... "it's so expensive to keep getting more photos" I hear all the time... BUT other than classes, headshots are pretty much the only other large expense for performers today!  Making the investment into your online portfolio can prove to be a massive payout if you were to just book ONE commercial or ONE regular on a series role all because your portfolio was diversified.

Look at Kenya Clay's shoot above.  Kenya is a dancer who has a fantastic mowhawk that her agents love and want to market her like that.  So we shot a younger looking Kenya with the hoodie (perfect for Nick/Disney jobs), then a more generic "womanly" Kenya with just a bright tank top (perfect for more mature jobs outside the Nick/Disney realm) and then a dance look that features her style and personality... NOW - to expand her portfolio, we threw a cute little sassy wig on her - cuz God knows that Celine Dion ain't gonna be hiring a girl with a mohawk any time soon!  Hopefully this photo will help her get in the door to auditions where she might be never be called in.

Girls are catching this like crazy lately.  Sometimes people don't want any blonde girls, or all they want is blonde girls!  So I've actually had several clients pull out the wigs for their photoshoots!

One of my BLONDE clients was actually watching all the blonde girls get cut at an audition and in front of EVERYONE, ran to her dance bag, pulled out a brown wig, put it on and ran back into the line.  They all laughed at her, kept her... and she booked the job!

NOW - I'm gonna make it REAL easy for you guys - in the month of January if you book a 3 look session with me, you get 1 extra look for FREE (a $75 value) AND you get $25 off Hair & Makeup! That's a $100 savings for January ONLY!  Make sure you book this right away  to ensure your spot!

Start the New Year off RIGHT!  Blow up yo careers peoples!

-love Levi

Clean Yo House and git Organamized in 2011!

Since it’s the new year, I’ve been pondering what to blog about – should it be something inspirational?  Motivational? Sensational? All the thinking actually ended up being a time waster.  Here it is, the FIFTH of January and I hadn’t blogged yet!  So this morning, I sat down and decided I wasn’t getting up until I had found something to blog about…

This is SO much fun.  I’m kind of a voyeur.  I’m obsessed with seeing how people live, decorate, clean, cook, what’s in their fridge, how much lint is in their lint trap and more… I don’t really tell anyone about it – for fear of never being invited to someone's house, but I can’t help it… I also LOVE looking at empty houses and imagining what I would do if I were to live there and walking into someone's home and redecorating it in my head.

The 20/20 Cure fulfills my inner-voyeur in the strangest way.  This guy posted videos for that shows his viewers how to make their homes beautiful, organized and healthy in 20 minutes/day for 20 days.  It’s sick, I know… I should be watching Real Housewives of Atlanta or something – but this really had me going for a while.

What a GREAT way to start the New Year!  It’s all simple stuff that we always SAY we are going to get to, but never do! So without further adieu… click here and dive into 2011 by making some changes around the house!

Merry Christmas from Levi

Merry Christmas everyone!

I've been a little quiet this week on FB and Twitter - mainly because Delta seriously jacked up my week and I was SOOO over it I didn't want to have to keep rehashing it... luckily I ended up with a full refund and 5000 extra airmiles!

I'm at home in Atlanta now, with my family.  It's already been a great week with my nieces Julianna and Samantha - we went on a date last night to Cracker Barrel :)

I was about to jump up and head to the Christmas Eve service at my sister's church - one of my favorite things to do - and I realized I wanted to let all of you guys - my friends, family and clients - know how thankful I am for each of you and that I'm praying that you all will have a blessed and fulfilled Christmas (I'll save the prospering stuff for next weeks email LOL).

As we begin our Christmas festivities here in ATL, I'm hoping that wherever you are, you are having a wonderful time with friends and family, that your holiday is filled with joy and laughter and that you are refreshed and ready for a bright new year!

Merry Christmas,

Levi

ps... Christmas Tradition - watching Return of the Jedi - Princess Leah just choked Jabba the Hut!