I have been working with Director Brazil – Helton Siqueira – on my videos since I started my YouTube channel in 2013. Brazil and his longtime friend Will Willdabeast Adams invented today’s popular class video format in the dance scene around Los Angeles, California in February of 2013. Shout out to Will for introducing me to Brazil. Being a member of immaBEAST has been a great learning experience for me. Not only have I learned how to train hard, but how to be a citizen of the dance community, a better person, and a better professional. Brazil gave me the experience in front of the camera, knowledge about YouTube, editing, and other things that I would have not been able to get from just doing jobs.
At first, my video channel was a way for sharing what I was doing in dance to family and friends. As my channel grew, I started to experiment with how to monetize my channel. Now my channel is different thing for me. It’s a place to curate my development as a dancer.
One of the things that you do not see much in dance videos today is one take videos. For a million different reasons, one take videos are rare because it’s incredibly hard to get everything right in a dance shot. Sometimes the camera angle is better in a particular run, other times the lighting is better, and a lot of times the dancer is better at different portions of the dance on different takes. You can do a lot to cut videos and add effects today to make videos look great. But it’s a bit harder to try to get it in one take.
One of the benefits of shooting over 100 videos with someone is the relationship and trust that develops between the director and the artist. So many of my videos were made better by Kalyne Lionheart who is an amazing editor. Between Brazil getting footage and Kalyne doing the edits, they turned out amazing. If you want to work with a great team, Brazil-Lionheart Productions is the way to go. They have so much experience.
Brazil has always been an innovator. When we set out to shoot 4 videos in a day, we knew that we were in for a long day. It was over 100 degrees in a warehouse in downtown LA the day of our shoot. When we started shooting, everything just clicked. We shot the first video 4 times and we honestly thought that every shot was great. So we stopped. That was when Brazil came up with the concept of One Shot Sparks – a series of one shot dance videos with no cuts. It is so different from the class videos you see everyday, or your typical concept video. So, we went with it. All of these dances were one take videos.
There are four videos in this series. The first one dropped on September 16, 2018. I danced to a song and an artist that I really love, Jade Bird. The choreography is special to me. One of my favorite people to work with is Cat Cogliandro. I love her work and am blow away by what an amazing woman she is. This video was my contemporary solo for the 2017-2018 season. It is very different than competition pieces that you see. It celebrates the spirit of Jade as an artist, and I really found a lot of sincerity in the dance. Thank you, Cat! Something American will always be one of my favorite dances ever. I appreciate you giving that to me.
The other three videos are choreographed by me. I have been working on my choreography for the past couple of years. I am teaching 5 classes a week and setting pieces on junior and teen dancers. I booked my first choreography job with a major TV studio this year (Thank you Disney and Bizaardvark). I hope that I will get more of those.
As you may know, I have been taking acting classes from Zak Barnett for about a year now. Dance is still my greatest passion, but acting is by far my #2. Like dance, one of the most important things to learn is to feel comfortable on camera, and to present yourself to the camera. With dance, you become aware of how your body and expression looks on camera. With acting, you add in an awareness of using speech on camera. Its a whole new dimension for me to figure out, so I started vlogging.
Vlogging is a lot like blogging, but quite a bit harder in a lot of ways. With blogging, it is pretty easy to hit the delete key to go back and fix a word or a sentence. With vlogging you need to start all over and do another take. The good news is that it is more natural for me to talk than it is to write. Frankly, that is probably the reason why I post so much more on YouTube than on my blog. Regardless, to be a well rounded person it is probably a good thing to keep practicing the writing too. You just never know where life will take you.
The vlog series that I launched is called 5 Favs. In each episode, I talk about my favorite song of the week, a favorite movie of the week, a favorite YouTube channel of the week, a favorite Netflix or TV show of the week, and a favorite beauty product.
In my first vlog, I highlighted Shakka, Central Intelligence, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Glozell, and the Lorac UnzippedGold Pallete. The Glozell part is pretty special. If you follow me on Sparkles Lund Instagram, you know that I was booked to work with Glozell on her Mannequin Challenge video. As it turned out, my parents were included in the video as extras – you gotta check it out. Super funny.
Anyway, here is the first 5 Faves that I did. If you have ideas for how to make it better, let me know.
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to do this collaboration video with one of my friends, #lilBEAST team members, and favorite dancers, Ms. Taylor Hatala. Choreography for the video was none other than #immaBEAST team member Antoine Troupe. Of course, the video was produced and directed by my friend and life coach, @directorBrazil. The concept was focused around a Valentines Day release using the hit Meghan Trainor song, Dear Future Husband.
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 13, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Valentine’s Day is not a romantic Hallmark card for 11-year-old Taylor Hatala and 12-year-old Sparkles Lund. Too young to date and too soon to have found love, these two young professional dancers worked with renowned freestyle and hip-hop choreographer Antoine Troupe to produce a Valentine’s Day video to Meghan Trainor’s song, “Dear Future Husband,” being released February 14 on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER6O55iAPZk).
“When you are our age, boys are just friends,” says Edmonton-born Taylor Hatala. Hatala is commuting to Los Angeles and working part-time as her burgeoning career develops. As testament to Hatala’s talent, her YouTube videos to Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgfF_c6uPaU) and Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pfloxVMJGw), have been seen more than 30 million times, garnering appearances on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and RyanSeacrest.com, among others. Troupe, Hatala and Sparkles Lund became friends dancing on the immaBEAST hip-hop crew, under director Will ‘WilldaBeast’ Adams.
According to Troupe, the concept for the video was born during the filming of the immaBEAST routine for the Choreographers Carnival Anniversary show this past January.
“Although dance is my life,” says Troupe, “I am driven by the impact that dance has on developing healthy, active, and confident kids.” Troupe selected the piece that he claims was ready made for Sparkles and Taylor.
“Meghan Trainor’s work is perfectly kid-style,” says Sparkles Lund, who recently released a video last week to Trainor’s hit “Lips Are Movin” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hA5VLVq7dc). “What girl doesn’t want a future husband that brings flowers, open doors, and wants to be her one and only?” Lund asks.
Sparkles Lund began her professional career in dance at age 10. Her recent work includes a three-city tour for Macy’s Glamorama and an appearance on the finale of ABC-TV’s Dancing With The Stars, performing to “Hard Knock Life” from the new Annie movie.
YouTube is fast becoming the path to rapid stardom for many of today’s young performers, circumventing the previous paths that were largely limited through New York and Los Angeles.
Lund, who lives in Arroyo Grande, locate on California’s Central Coast near San Luis Obispo, and Hatala, who lives in Edmonton, Canada, are adopting the strategy started by Willdabeast by creating their own YouTube channels to self-publish their work. Willdabeast is teaching young dancers that YouTube is a place where you can make a mark and punch up your career. His YouTube page has more than 735,000 subscribers and more than 100 million views. Hatala’s YouTube channel is at http://bit.ly/taylorhatala and Sparkles Lund YouTube channel is at https://www.youtube.com/user/sparkleslund.
I just want to start out by saying, Happy Holidays! No matter what religion you are,, this time of year is full of celebration and happiness. That’s why I love it. Similarly, another thing I love is dance, for the same reasons. This is precisely why this year, my family has decided to send out a holiday dance video, instead of a plain old Christmas card.
The song we found expresses wishes for Peace and Happiness which we would like to express to all of our friends and family. It is a really pretty song and it inspired me. We heard the song on Thanksgiving Day and I’ve been thinking about it ever since!
My holiday dance video was filmed by my dad and directed by Helton “Brazil” Siqueira. He has been directing, filming, and editing all of my recent YouTube videos. He is also currently the video director for P!NK, Trey Songz, Tyga, Austin Mahone, and the immaBEAST Hip Hop Dance Company which was how we met. The choreography was created by the one and only Liz Imperio. She has choreographed for Jennifer Lopez, Eva Longoria, and has done countless award shows. I know Liz from the popular dance convention, Hollywood Vibe. This year, I am on the Hollywood Vibe company, so I will get to spend lots of time with her. She choreographed this number while she was at my studio doing a workshop that Liz created earlier this year. This workshop is called Breaking Barriers. It involves a few different things. One, how to become successful as a dancer. Two, how to achieve the right mindset to have as a professional dancer. Three, an hour and a half master class where we get to learn choreography from her. If this sounds interesting, check out the website, breakingbarriers.com. Lastly, I bet you want to see the video right? Well, click the link below to check it out! I wish you, and all your friends and family a Happy Holidays!
Another video from me – @sparkleslund and my pal Mocha. In this episode we do a kinda clothing hall/fashion segment for girls. Yep, believe it or not, 11 year old dancers are really into clothes – especially dance clothes with sparkles on them. We were supposed to talk about “how to do the most amazing hair bun,” in the world – but we totally spaced out on that. Bun too tight? Maybe!……..
The colab channel is new idea – so if you think you like it and want more – be sure to thumb up the video on YouTube, subscribe, share, leave a comment – and that sort of thing. Hearing no feedback…..we will get the message and try something different.
In this video I introduce one of my best friends, Mocha. We have known each other since preschool (like 3 years old) and our families are friends too.
It’s a girls’ world in this video – clothes (Outfits of the Day), nails (how to glitter your French Gels), and of course – a bit about dance. Mocha and I have also danced together forever. We are about to go to Nationals for dance – lots of rehearsals and lots of nervous excitement! Both of us are up for Dancer of the Year! Wish us luck.
Be sure to watch to end to get convention tips that you may not already know.
There is a cameo from Austin – dog extraordinaire. Follow him on Instagram at TheAustinBubbles_ – he only has 28 followers – so help a doggie out!