- I'm about to flash this entire audience of people.
- We're not ready.
- So I'm screaming.
I'm like "Hey, help me, I'm dying.
"Hey, I'm going to lose my life."
(techno music)
My name is Marc "FullOut" Royale,
FullOut being the energy that I give while I'm dancing.
Also how I life my life.
I've been dancing for 10 years plus now
and I've been featured in commercials, music videos.
I've done TV shows.
I've been around the block.
- I'm Abi.
I'm 29 years old.
I'm am a professional dancer and choreographer.
And I've been out here in LA dancing, living, working
for five years now.
- My name is Christina Moffitino, also as Poofy.
I am a background dancer and vocalist
for music videos, stage shows,
and just recently for a world tour.
- I was performing at the NAACP 100th anniversary.
That'll be a lot of
prestigious African American monumental people
in one place to celebrate
a prestigious African American monumental event.
So we were the opening performance for this number.
I remember being backstage,
all the craziness happening.
And I remember looking out to the audience
and it was Oprah there,
Maya Angelou was there when she was alive.
Remember Al Sharpton, I remember seeing him.
Just a lot of major people
in the African American community.
And we were doing a step routine.
We wore something simple.
It was a black shirt, black pants, white tie.
Wardrobe, they gave me the pants,
and of course being a plus-sized dancer,
they never have my size.
Or they have something the fits but don't fit
but looks good when walking but don't work with dancing.
And I remember she gave me the black pants.
They fit my thighs real nice.
It was really good for going out to eat,
not going onstage to perform.
I remember I told her,
I said "Girl,
"These are going to rip."
"No, they're not gonna rip.
"You got this, you'll be fine."
"They're gonna rip."
"No, you'll be fine."
So I'm onstage, front and center.
It's time to go down.
The first eight count,
my pants ripped right down the middle.
I'm pretty sure you heard the split happen over the music.
And I'm pretty sure I seen people go like this
and looking to the side.
And this is back in 2010 when
we didn't have those good compression underwear
that we may have now.
We'll just say things were hanging out
left and right.
And all I remember is being onstage like,
"Oh my god, they're recording this.
"Oh my god, Oprah sees
"my mini me."
I'm pretty sure there was one single tear
coming down my eye as this was all happening.
And I had the option of staying onstage
or running off the stage.
And I've always been told the show must go on,
so the show went on for a good seven minutes
of me just hanging around
until we finished the performance,
lights went out.
I ran off the stage and I changed my clothes and I left.
And it was on my birthday.
So happy birthday to me.
- I had been in LA I want to say about two years,
and I got casted to dance in a music video.
It was gonna be out in the desert
and I was just so excited.
I've never been to the desert.
I thought this is great.
I get to dance,
I get to make money,
and I get to go and see a new place
that I've never seen before.
So it's supposed to be an overnight shoot.
So I believe that our call time was around
3:04 in the afternoon.
They were gonna have us go into hair and makeup
and then we were gonna shoot through the night.
So I get there, I'm super excited.
They give us these amazing monochrome black costumes.
Loads of accessories.
Really gothic makeup.
It was just a fun experience
and I was still so excited about the whole thing.
They say "Okay, you're gonna have
"a couple hours before your shoot.
"There's a snack table,
"we have food coming at dinner time."
So we're just relaxing.
I don't know anybody on the shoot
so I'm getting to know people
and just having a good time.
Couple of hours roll by.
They're like "Oh, we're pushing back.
"We're having some technical difficulties."
I'm like that's okay, it's nice and warm outside.
As the sun starts to set,
these gigantic bugs appear as if from nowhere.
It was like they were cockroaches but times them be three
and then they could also fly and hop.
I'm not typically scared of bugs,
but having these gigantic creatures hopping around
whilst we're trying to just relax and eat
was not the most fun start to the night.
The directors keep telling us
"Couple of hours we'll be ready.
"30 minutes."
They even telling us
"Get ready, we're gonna shoot soon."
So everyone's touching up makeup,
trying to stay awake, trying to stay energized.
They hour just start rolling by.
It hits 10 p.m.
It hits midnight.
It hits two a.m. and we are still doing absolutely nothing
in the pitch black in the middle of the desert.
They were coming in to check on us
and to tell us that we would be shooting nearly every hour.
So by the fifth or sixth time they came over to us
you just have rows of people
slumped over these tables with coffee,
just looking at them like,
we don't believe you anymore.
Then it hits six a.m. and the sun is starting to come up.
They tell us everything's ready to go.
So we think okay, great.
Finally we get to actually shoot.
The directors were definitely being a little pushy
with their "Come on, guys.
"Energy, we need to project more energy."
And there were definitely some eye rolls
from the people behind me and me.
We go to shoot the first scene.
Because we've gone into so much overtime,
with the rules of the amount of hours
that we're allowed to work,
we have to cut and we all have to go home.
The few takes that we did do,
we did deliver as best as we possibly could.
So they cut us, we get sent home,
and then we get called back the next day.
I had already signed a contract for a different job
so I'd already made another commitment,
so I never even got to shoot the rest of the video.
I did see the music video when it ended up coming out.
It looked fantastic.
But they used all of about 2.5 seconds
from that 18-hour night that we spent in the desert.
- I was dancing for this hip hop artist.
Towards the beginning of this tour,
we're about three or four shows in,
going into our fourth show,
we were traveling from here in LA
all the way to the Bay Area for the show.
We had to be at the choreographer's house by nine a.m.,
which means I had to be up by eight in order to get ready
and make sure that I know I was getting there on time.
All of the communication for the tour
was between the choreographer and the artist manager.
And we received no information
as to how we were getting picked up
or when we were getting picked up.
This is has been something that had been ongoing
for almost the whole tour
and almost the whole time
that we've been working with this hip hop artist.
Come to find out we're getting picked up around 12.
Which just irritates all of us because we all know
that we don't like getting up early for no reason.
12 o'clock turns into 1:30.
1:30 turns into two o'clock.
Only to get a phone call to be like
"Hey, we're gonna have you guys
"be flown to the Bay Area for your show."
And we were like "What?
"We're not ready."
Three of us had only suitcases that were meant for cars,
not for flying.
Which means that we have to change our luggage around
because of weight restrictions.
I borrowed a bag from the choreographer.
I had to pull out my costumes, my change of clothes,
my makeup, my foam roller,
only for us to get another call like an hour later
saying "Hey, you guys are gonna get picked up by car."
I was so irritated at this point.
I just moved all my stuff into the bag
and was just waiting for them to pick us up.
Typically your shows for big touring artists
are gonna start about seven, 7:30.
Which means sound check should be about five p.m.
So we already knew going into that
that we were gonna be late for that.
We get picked up by 3:30.
30 minutes into the ride we get a call.
and say "Hey, the show is canceled."
We were so disappointed, upset, irritated.
Just all of the above.
Just knowing that we wasted our entire day.
What was more disappointing then not being able to perform
was the lack of professionalism from the artist himself.
Because we found out later that he lost his voice.
He was shooting a music video
and he was up til wee hours of the night, into the morning
drinking, partying, and just not taking care of his voice.
And he completely lost his voice
which is why they had to cancel the show.
This is a very great point for dancers.
Always keep it in your contract
that no matter what the circumstances
that you will get paid for that show,
which luckily we did.
But there's nothing worst than getting ready,
wasting your whole day waiting to get picked up,
only to be disappointed by the fact
that you're not gonna perform.
- Recently I've been working on a cruise ship
as a dancer in a disco show.
I've been dancing on this cruise ship for
about a year now.
Very fun, very energetic.
It has acro, it has lots of colors,
it has people doing balancing and things of that sort.
So my role is called the greatest dancer.
Very fun, energetic, no one ever expects it
'cause they always think fat people can't dance.
So it's something that just is not expected.
So at the end of the show I have to wear this cape.
It was a big gold and black cape
that we shake around while we do
♪ Last dance ♪
Vocals.
I have to walk from
the front of the stage to the back of the stage.
And in the back of the stage you have to go up some stairs.
I am short.
I am the only short person that they have doing this role.
A lot of people who play this role
are about six feet, 6'2", 6'3".
I'm a good 5'5", 5'6" on a good day.
So I have to adjust the cape to match
so I don't die.
On this particular day I guess I didn't grab it correctly
because there was a lot of cape left.
I slipped over it and fell onto the stair.
And it's not just one of those trips
where you can just do a little quick
and get back up.
I tripped over the cape,
I try to catch myself going up the stairs,
and in the midst of me trying to catch myself,
my hand slips again on the cape and I roll down the stairs.
And this is in the middle of the performance.
So I had two options.
One, just cry,
and two, just figure it out.
I laid on the stage for the rest of the performance
in that same place where I fell
and just shimmied the whole time.
Everybody was loving it 'cause they're like,
we don't know if this is part of the performance
or this was part of whatever.
But everybody on stage who was in the show with me
knew absolutely what happened.
Everybody broke character,
it was over.
Everyone is laughing, cracking up.
We doing bows, they're cracking up.
I don't know if they was laughing of concern
or laughing to see me rolling down the stage
with this pink sequin two-piece cape situation going on.
And when lights went out I still sat there.
It was embarrassing.
- I was doing a really big performance
and there was a large amount of people on stage.
We were doing a "Moulin Rouge" themed dance.
We all have these beautiful handmade corsets made for us.
They're just stunning.
They have all the lace.
No bras were able to be wore with this corset
and they attached from the back.
It wasn't tied and it wasn't sown together.
It was just two metal clasps that link together at the back.
We also have these really big flowy skirts
and we have the character shoes on underneath.
So the costumes were just absolutely fantastic.
And because the corsets were quite tight,
whenever we did a rehearsal
everything was absolutely fine
and the corsets held together.
So we're onstage and the performance starts.
And everything is going great.
And there's a part where we go into two circles.
So there's an inner circle of girls
and then there's an outer circle of girls.
And I am on the inner circle of girls.
I just suddenly feel air.
I just feel air and I'm thinking oh my god.
And I look down in the small amount of time that I had
and my corset has popped open from the back.
Now luckily because I had a little halter situation going on
it wasn't fully off
but it was definitely flapping from the back.
I just want to die at this point.
But luckily I'm still on the inner circle.
But what happens is the two circles are about to peel open
to reveal each other to go into two lines.
So I think this is it.
I'm about to flash this entire audience of people.
As we're about to move out and my head is processing
what am I supposed to do,
I feel two hands grab my back.
And I realized that the girl behind me
has grabbed my corset and is holding it
and is still doing the dance behind me.
So we basically do about eight counts.
We were changing formation so much
that the specific formation we were in
I was gonna be on the side anyway.
I'm able to exit without making the dance
look completely off sync.
All the stagehands,
all the technical people on the side
were just looking at me.
So they were just gawking
as I'm frantically trying to re-hook this costume
so I can get back onstage and not ruin the entire dance.
I managed to get it hooked on
and actually managed to do the rest of the performance
without anybody even noticing that happened,
except for all the girls behind me
who looked like they're about to die in a fit of laughter.
I gave the girl
the biggest hug I've ever given anybody after a performance.
- I was shooting a music video in Barbados.
And this time I was brought on
as a choreographer for the music video.
Fun fact, we were actually shooting this video
on the block that Rihanna grew up on in Barbados.
So we're on this block, it's pitch black.
All you can really see in the lights from the houses
and the lights that we had
to shoot the video of the dancers.
So anything outside of that you can't see.
So when I'm choreographing anything,
I'm very excited.
I'm like "Yes, (bleep), go off, do your thing."
I'm just really loud, I'm excited.
I'm behind the videographer
and I'm giving direction as their dancing,
getting them excited and everything.
In Barbados they have these streets
and they also have sewage in these streets.
Now in New York you know how they have these crates
that cover the sewage
so that way you can walk over the crates.
Barbados has seemed to forgot about these crates.
So they have street, sidewalk, hole.
And in this hole it's sewage.
There's nothing covering it.
And I guess if you're not from there
then you don't know that it's there.
So I'm backing up, I'm backing up, I'm backing up,
and I swear it looked like it was like a cartoon
where you just,
you're in midair for a second
and then you just fall down.
I'm pretty sure that's exactly what happened.
When I fell I had my phone in my hand just like this
and I was able to grab the side the wall,
my hand must've turned into Spider-man's hand
'cause it was on the wall,
and I'm literally holding myself up.
And I feel one of my feet in the sewer water
and I felt the most disgusting things.
And the music is so loud
that no one hears me screaming that I'm in this sewer.
So I'm screaming.
I'm like "Hey, help me, I'm dying.
"Hey, I'm going to lose my life."
And I got to be honest.
It felt like I was holding myself up for a good hour
or maybe a day.
But it was really probably just like three minutes.
But three minutes when you're about to lose your life
feels like an eternity.
Soon as the music goes off I'm like "Hello, help me!"
So everybody hear me screaming and they ran over
and put the lights on me.
Pulled me out.
I almost lost my life and my poor phone,
which I actually still have from the situation.
Cracked really bad.
And I ended up having to throw away my sneakers.
And then I had to do a serious foot scrub situation
because my foot felt things and saw things
that it never deserved to see.
It was very scary, very embarrassing situation,
but I guess that comes with the job.
(whimsical music)