Michelle Joyce: Busy and loving it

When you talk to Michelle Joyce, it’s clear that she absolutely loves what she has chosen to do in life. She’s full of vitality and energy and is extremely productive and prolific. She has a huge amount of warmth for people, which helps her bring people together to work with her, and she has the most winning smile ever. I caught up with the busy dancer video producer to ask her about some of her upcoming DVDs.

Michelle, you have a whole lot of new DVDs coming up from Cheeky Girls. . Your fans are excited! Which of these projects excites you the most, right now?
I am just coming off the high of the last By Dancers For Dancers Show (it was March 1), so I am really excited about the upcoming performance DVDs.  I was backstage all night, so I didn’t get to see hardly anyone dancing.  I could only see their shadows against the back of the stage.

Now that I am editing it, I am having a great time.  It is the best performance footage we have captured yet.

I’m also really excited about Combination Nation…

Oh yes, I’m so curious about  Combination Nation… you have some 15 dancers featured. What is going to be like? A combination by each?
The day before the By Dancers For Dancers show we all went down to the studio and filmed this Combination Nation.  I wasn’t even sure what to expect because I only told the dancers to please come with 1-2 intermediate level combinations that are around 32 – 64 counts each.  I intentionally left it a bit loose so that the dancers could be as creative as they wanted.

We got a wide range of stuff, from bellydance-jazz fusion, to a Saiidi cane duet, to modern Egyptian, to traditional Raks Sharki.  It was so cool!  As the camerawoman, it was like taking mini workshops with all my favorite dancers.

You didn’t think it would be difficult to work with so many dancers for an instructional DVD?
I had worried about that a little before doing it.  Making an instructional DVD can be a very stressful and emotional experience.  Putting yourself out there is never easy and often times people can freeze up when they have to speak directly to a camera.

I try to make the set as friendly as possible and I try to be really mellow and supportive.  We didn’t allow any men on the set at all, which makes a difference.  I am the whole production crew.

Also, I try to only work with dancers who I either know, or who have a reputation as being easy going and professional.  So there was no drama at all.  The only thing that might have been frustrating for the dancers was all of the waiting around before their turn.  Some dancers didn’t want others watching them as they presented, so people were sort of locked in the dressing area for extended periods of time.  I felt a little bit like my father at my childhood slumber parties because I kept having to go to the dressing room to asking them to keep it down.  I don’t know what they were doing back there, but it sounded pretty fun!

Why not make Combination Nation a set, or even put the lot on one DVD?
Combination Nation is going to be a series.  It works perfectly to shoot it on the By Dancers For Dancers weekend… so there should be many more to come.  We have 4 hours of footage from the shoot we just did, plus we want to put some performances on there as extras, so it is simply too much for one disc.

Each disc will be about 2 hours of content and will be sold for $19.99.  A much, much better deal than similar DVDs on the market, which are both shorter and more expensive.

Sounds like a very good idea to me. Leveraging the For Dancers by Dancers set up and getting more out of it. What about Ballet for Belly Dancers. Who conceptualized that?
I did.  It started when I was an audition finalist for the Bellydance Superstars and Jillina told us all that we should be taking ballet every single day.  I hate ballet and I have started and stopped taking it at many times in my life.  I can always see how the strength and balance training helps my belly dancing, but I just wasn’t ever able to stick with it.  I always wished there was a Ballet for Belly Dancers class near me.

Once I saw that there was a general interest in the topic I started searching for the right instructor.  Brianna did a great job.

How has your own dancing changed since you went full time video producer?
Ugh, that is a touchy question.  I imagined myself practicing a lot more once I stopped working outside of the house.  I spend a lot of time in front of my computer editing and updating my websites, and not as much time dancing.  There is just so much to do!  I know of many professional dancers who feel the same way and talk with them about it all the time.  Promoting yourself takes a lot of time away from your dance.

All last year I filmed festivals in the Bay Area instead of dancing in them. That bummed me out. I think that I won’t film hardly any festivals this year and that I will try and put more focus on my dancing.  I am enrolled in a few dance classes at my local community college (jazz, ballet, and Broadway), which has helped me to start getting back on track.

The biggest thing that has changed for me is that I a now doing a lot of workshops.  More people know me from my DVDs now.  I love traveling and doing workshops…  it gives me motivation to work on my dance and is a wonderful opportunity to meet people.

You do much of the video-making work yourself, don’t you?
I actually do almost everything myself.  Obviously if I am in front of the camera then someone else is doing the filming, but for the most part I do all the filming, editing, box cover design, and website maintenance.  I sounds like it would be a giant pain to do all that, but I love doing it all.  It feels so good to be independent.  I am always in the process of taking online graphic design classes and stuff. I love not having to rely on anyone else to meet my deadline or being forced to give up artistic control.

Does your husband help you with it all?
A lot of people assume that because my husband is a TV producer that he does all the editing.  I do use him as an occasional sounding board, but  I really do all of it myself.

Well, how do you turn it around so fast, then?
How do I do it so fast?  I don’t really know.  I have a laptop and I got a lot of work done on airplanes this year.  I recently took a 17 hour flight (each way) to Australia, and got both of Nanna’s DVDs edited in the air!  Editing is always what takes the longest.  The shoot is usually just one or two days, but the editing can drag on for months.

And I hate the feeling of having projects half completed.  I can sit in front of my computer all night long to get something edited.  It is very easy to edit something that you have shot yourself.  I always do some mental editing while filming a DVD, then it is just a matter of sitting down and doing it.  If I wait for more than a day or two to start the editing, I won’t remember what I was planning to do and it takes way longer.

Do you work as a physical personal trainer? With all the shows, videos and promotional work you’re busy with?
No, I let my personal trainer license elapse.

Do you still do horseback gymnastics?
No, I haven’t been on a horse in 10 years.  It is such a rare sport that there aren’t many places where you can do it on a drop in basis, rather than being on a competitive team. I would love to do it again just to see if I still can!  Funny, I also learned that Summer Sahar (in the By Dancers For Dancers Series) was also into horseback gymnastics in high school.

What made you want to take up counseling?
I have always been very interested in women’s issues.  Even in high school I volunteered at a rape crisis center.  It is very rewarding work.  I have worked in domestic violence shelters, homeless shelters, in the foster care system, and at suicide crisis centers.  Then I started to burn out a bit.  It is very taxing work and it doesn’t pay much.  I started teaching Psychology at a local college, which was fun.  But when I got laid off from that job it seemed like the perfect time to go full speed ahead with Cheeky Girls.

When is Cheeky Girls coming up with the Taqsim video? And with whom?
Unknown – but I would like to do it as some point

Do you dance a lot of Turkish style? Considering you’ve lived there. and would you consider a Turkish style instructional video?
A few people have mentioned that they would like a Turkish instructional.  If I find the right instructor I would totally do it.  But that instructor isn’t me.  Even though I lived there for a bit, I don’t consider myself Turkish style.

Which of your videos are the most popular right now?
It is funny, but Perfect Hips has sold the most copies. That one was only thrown together with the extra footage from a long day of shooting (we did 4 DVDs in one day!).  It was just meant to me for the general public and I never expected it would do so well.

Pop, Lock and Shimmy is a close second and Drills x3 is third.  I am always tempted to re-shoot and re-release all of them.  As I do more DVDs, I learn more and get better.  I try to never look at DVDs I have already released for fear of seeing things that I would do differently now!

Though the Secrets of the Stage series isn’t a top seller, that is the one I am most proud of.

What are your plans for the rest of 2009?
I have 9 DVDs in the works (Combination Nation x2, Ballet for Belly Dancers, Nanna x2, By Dancers For Dancers x2, Vibrant Veil Work, and Combinography), so that should keep me busy.  I’m also going on a workshop tour of Australia in the summer, which should be really fun.