With moves like hers, who else would we call upon to help us choreograph our new Bonds Originals sweats campaign? We caught up with Vanessa Marian, the dancing queen behind our latest campaign, starring Flume, Duckie, Samara Weaving and more, and the owner of street dance organisation, Groove Therapy.
Have you always wanted to be a dancer?
I’ve always been a dancer. I’ve always trained and I’ve always performed and my first paid gig was at age nine. It was just never a real career in my head. I went down the path of academia and studied Law and Commerce before looking into the life of social entrepreneurship and design. When it all got a little too much I threw myself into dance again to de-stress and make extra money on the side. There was this one point where I was on the phone to mum and I said ‘I’m so fed up, I think I’m going to give this dance career a go’ and her reply was ‘YES FINALLY!'
When did you realise you could make dancing your profession?
I think a lot of dancers possess the talent to make it a profession, but full-time dance schools don’t teach you how to monetise it. My weird convoluted career path taught me a set of skills that help back up this idea of ‘being a dancer’ and turn it into a career with integrity and longevity. For me, it felt right when I realised that I could contribute to the world in a meaningful way through dance. It took dance out of the egotistical realm of spotlight-chasing and into this world of social entrepreneurship. It just felt right.
What inspired you to start your own dance organisation, Groove Therapy?
Groove Therapy is just a branded extension of how I would run a dance organisation if I had my own rules. No end-of-year concerts with stage mummies and sequinned costumes destined for landfill. No class favourites. No egos. No spotlight-chasing. Just the idea of bringing the physical and psychological benefits of dance to all walks of life.
What makes Groove Therapy so unique?
We have three arms: weekly classes (101), creative/branded collabs (Agency) and outreach programs (Community). Weekly classes are for the person who has always wanted to dance but finds dance class way too intimidating. Agency is for all the coolest gigs that allow us to push for diversity in media whilst giving us a creative outlet (Bonds is easily one of our favourite gigs to date!) and Community runs off the profits of the other two GT arms to bring the physical and psychological benefits of dance to marginalised communities. Booking jobs or selling tickets to our weekly classes funds all our trial programs for marginalised youth, seniors with dementia and regional Indigenous communities.
With the Bonds Originals sweats video, what was your aim?
We looked carefully at the brief and references to draw on the energy that we knew Bonds were after in this campaign. We realised that this shoot wasn’t about teaching choreography, but rather creating a fun, vibrant energy with the talent and capitalising on their charisma.
What influenced the choreography in the Bonds Originals sweats video?
You can be the best musician or hottest celebrity but being asked to move whilst the camera is rolling is intimidating for almost anyone. Ninety percent of what we do is about the psychology of being on set - scoping the talent’s nerves, getting to know them in the make-up room, making everyone feel relaxed and then giving them concepts to work with. Rather than teaching someone a dance move, we gave them a task (e.g. draw circles with different parts of your body). The idea is to watch the talent move, pick up on the most visually powerful movement pathways and get them to repeat the action and tease out the idea. It was so much fun!
What drew you to working with Bonds?
So many brands send over briefs that initially start off incredibly exciting and then as it trickles down through the tiers of management things get vetoed and the end product is this beige forgettable clip. This campaign just blew me away and stayed that way. It has everything that I love - a diverse cast of incredible talent, insane art direction and so much freedom to just do what I do on set. No questioning or freaking out over my weird ideas. It was honestly so refreshing!
What does your everyday uniform consist of?
If I’m dancing then trackies, comfy undies, a solid sports bra, an oversized tee and some faaa-resh kicks!
Do you have any favourite Bonds items in your wardrobe?
I have the tiniest wardrobe because I make sure to really think about what I own rather than buying lots of crap that will end up in a landfill. Everything I own needs to be practical, good quality and make a statement. Obviously, this means my Bonds Originals matching set ticks all the boxes above. Those colours! I’m honestly so obsessed.
What does 2018 have in store for you?
Oh man, where to start? Our aim is for Groove Therapy weekly and Agency to keep growing so that our Community projects just explode this year. We’re going hard on that front and trialling out a huge series of outreach dance projects to better society through movement and music. In other realms, I’m a principle dancer for a stunning show, Daughters Opera, that will have it’s second round of development rehearsals in India this year. Then there's Japan for some exciting collabs, Jamaica at the end of the year to train and nerd out in over 50 styles of street dance, New York mid-year (hopefully permanently) and fingers and toes crossed a whole bunch of gigs as cool as this Bonds one!
JUST THE BEGINNING...
Over the coming days and weeks we'll be revealing loads more from this incredible campaign, so watch this space! In the meantime, browse and shop the range of bold to basic statement sweats, all made from homegrown Aussie cotton, available in-store and online for guys and gals.
6 years ago
