Today we’d like to introduce you to Bubba Carr.
Bubba, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’ll start when I moved to Los Angeles in 1984 to pursue a scholarship I had gotten at a dance convention in Atlanta. It was to two of the top commercial dance studios in Hollywood and a month each place which turned into almost 20 years. After those scholarships were over, I began to audition for dance gigs with my first big one being touring with MGM star Mitzi Gaynor who I loved in the musical movie “South Pacific” as a kid. I was not quite 22 and onstage with a legend and loving it. During that tour, I auditioned for the TV show “Fame”. The audition was held on a sound stage at MGM Studios with about 3000 dancers vying for eight spots. I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the eight series dancers which was one of my dreams before I moved to L.A.
After that I was asked to dance with an all-male group called Boys Club on the competition show “Starsearch” and we won 7 shows including the grand prize of $100k. The touchstone of my career came in 1988 when I auditioned for a music video for “I Found Someone” by Cher choreographed by Kenny Ortega. The next day I got a call from Kenny’s assistant that Cher wanted me to come to her house and practice with her. There I was driving to Bel Air to Cher’s house. I got there and her assistant had me wait in the kitchen until Cher walks in and we start dirty dancing in her kitchen. The rest is, as they say, history. I worked with Cher for four worlds tours, part of the Vegas show and numerous other TV appearances and music videos. I call Cher my touchstone because her show was one that I consistently went back to. I remember being at Jamba Juice on Melrose Ave in LA and hearing her voice booming from a car. I was thinking I don’t know this song…it was “Believe” and I thought, well I guess we’re going back out on tour and sure enough the call came shortly after and that tour last two years and the tour following that, the “Farewell” tour lasted three years. Touring has made up a large portion of my career. I’ve also toured with Jane’s Addiction three tours, Porno for Pyros and Dirty Dancing Live. When I wasn’t touring, I was auditioning and working on films, commercials, videos and any other gig I could get. That’s the life of a dancer and I loved it until I didn’t. I moved to Atlanta on the second year Cher’s “Farewell” tour to move closer to my family and have a change of scenery. I thought I’d get out of the business but three months after moving here Cher tour called us out again for another year.
After that tour, I stayed in Atlanta for about a year and didn’t like it much at all. I’d always get lost driving and knew very few people. I was traveling often to LA to assist my friend Doriana Sanchez on “So You Think You Can Dance” so I decided to move out west again and stayed there for another year and a half. I got offered a job as creative director for a dance studio here and decided to move back for job security where I stayed for three years until it wasn’t a good fit anymore and started freelancing again. Since then, I’ve gotten to choreograph several films including “Hunger Games: Catching Fire”, “Bolden”, “Goosebumps and Passengers” and a few TV shows including “Drop Dead Diva” and “The Originals”. I’ve gotten to work with Zac Brown and his new music project called Sir Rosevelt as well as with the Zac Brown Band. I’ve been resident choreographer for Serenbe Playhouse for the past eight years and have choreographed a few times for the Atlanta Lyric Theatre as well which I love.
So when I thought I’d get out of the business moving here, the industry pulled me back in I like to say but honestly, I don’t know much else besides this life. I did pick up photography several years back and fell in love so that is another creative outlet for me that’s not quite as taxing on my body. I had a hip replacement this year so now that I am relatively pain-free, I have more desire to move more. I’m also managing Xcel Studios which is the dance space in Xcel Talent Agency. We cater to Atlanta’s professional dance community so I’m surrounded by amazing dancers who are training to do just what I’ve done with my life for so long. It’s great to see their efforts and see them focused each night with the goal in mind to build a career in dance. I feel super fortunate to be able to share my experience with them. I’m known as Papa Bear to some of the. Lol. I’ll take it.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I’ll put it this way…it’s been a ride. You know life has struggles and we push through them and keep it moving. I moved to LA when I was 21 from Alabama so my eyes were opened to an entire different world. It presented a certain freedom to me and I took full advantage of it. While I was touring, I made lots for money and went out a lot. I’d love to buy my friends drinks and dinners and collect jackets for some reason… I mean it’s never really cold in LA. That lifestyle was great for a long time until it wasn’t. I found myself alone drinking a lot. Whether at a bar or at home. On tour the same thing. I’d drink my way to the next city on the bus then pack my backpack full of bottles of beer and clank up into the Ritz Carlton, Sid Vicious style, and drink myself to sleep. Wake up around 3pm, get on the bus at four and be at the venue for rig check at 5. Eat dinner, paint my face, get dressed and it was showtime. Some times I’d be hungover but I’d always be able to do the show. After the show, I’d go backstage and I’d crack open a beer before I even took my costume off. It became a cycle and with having been on the road as long as I was it definitely took its toll. I remembered in 1994, I had just done Woodstock 94 with Porno for Pyros and was back in LA. I had made plans to meet friends out for dinner and told them I wasn’t going to drink. I arrive at dinner and one of the first things I do is order a beer.
My friend Ryan said “I thought you weren’t going to drink.” as any good alcoholic would do, I got defensive and stated that I was a drinker, that’s what I do. We had dinner then went to a bar down the street, they left I kept drinking. The next morning I woke up fully dressed with blood on my clothes not knowing exactly what had happened. My window in my apartment was broken and that triggered the memory of leaning over, trying to close it and falling into it cutting myself. That’s the first time I had the thought that my actions could affect someone else. The someone else being my parents. What would they do with the phone call from my friends saying “Bubba is dead…we’re not sure how it happened.” That would kill my parents. I went to therapy for a while after that and did stop drinking for about three years until I thought I could drink again normally. Within three months, I found myself having moved to Atlanta and crashing a car into the side of a house drunk. This night was one of the worst and most fortunate nights of my life as it was the moment I was scared enough to do something about the problem I knew I had for so long but was too sick to do anything about. I feel the universe put that house in front of me to say STOP!!! In January, I’ll be 16 years sober.
Tell us about your business/company. What do you do, what do you specialize in, what are you known for, etc. What are you most proud of as a company? What sets you apart from others?
Being able to be an example in the dance community of someone that moved from a small town, followed my passion, developed my talent and had a wonderful career is one of the things in my life here that I find enriching and humbling. Being able to share my experience, lend guidance, encouragement is something I really love. But the most thing I am proud of is the son I’ve become to my parents in their advancing age. I never knew I had the capacity to give of myself like I have in the past several years. I’ve known my parents have loved me for my entire life but hearing my dad as I left his hospital room one day “You’re a good son.” made my heart explode. My dad had a stroke a little over a year ago and I was thrust into being the man of my family trying to lead us through this extreme life event and I was able to do it. I was present, I was strong, I was gentle, I was loving. It revealed to me how strong our family is and how we could come together and be in the same boat rowing toward the same piece of land. I was able to guide my prideful dad through some humiliating moments by reminding him of gratitude and acceptance. I was able to embrace my mom’s fear with kindness, communication and understanding. I was able to hold my sister’s hand as we walked down the hallway while my dad was put into a machine to see if he had brain damage. I witnessed my nephew Reed be the most selfless man by leaving his life in Utah to stay with my dad at rehab and take care for my mom because my sister and I had to work and my oldest nephew Ryan offers to take care of the finances, something I don’t have skill at. As a family, we were able to get my parents up to Atlanta in an assisted living facility as my dad recovered further.
A few months later, my mom was taken to the hospital to find out that she had double pneumonia and within three days she was intubated and her lung collapsed sending our family into another health crisis that together we navigated. I was able to get my dad to the hospital every day to visit his wife of 58 years and see their love so strong. These images I am grateful for because it tells me I am a human being. About six months ago, I had my hip replaced and I have a photo my friend Merri took of my mom leaning over and hugging me as my dad is crying in the background. I see such love and care in the photo. Life is ugly sometimes but in its worst times, it has shown me such beauty. When my mom’s lung collapsed, it was pretty much one of the scariest moments and as I was sobbing in the hallway, a woman offered to hug me and held me with such compassion and love. I will never forget that moment. In just over a year since the stroke my dad got to walk my sister down the aisle he’s back to driving and my mom is healthy and they are living back at their home in Alabama which was a goal of my dad’s. They never gave up. We kept pushing through doing what was necessary, keeping a positive outlook on it and laughing a lot.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Wow…well. I could ponder on what I would’ve done differently and I know there is a lot but I feel to even give that the energy it would take to answer it would be disrespecting the effort I’ve given to get myself to where I am at this moment. Fact is… I am who I am because of the life events, decisions, mistakes, and victories. I wouldn’t know any way other to be me.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.bcarrworks.com
- Instagram: @bcarr11
Image Credit:
Andy Sapp, Merri Sheffield, Barry King, Bubba Carr
Suggest a story: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
