Today we’d like to introduce you to Liz Borom.
Hi Liz, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I moved to Atlanta to take a job as an Executive General Manager for a major restaurant company. I was a professional dancer who had taken on restaurant jobs to make money and found myself becoming very successful at managing restaurants while balancing a dance career. I was working nonstop, trying to work and pursue my passion and made so many sacrifices along the way. While working a crazy schedule in the hospitality industry, I found myself with more and more opportunities in the dance community. I started traveling a ton to teach across the country with National Dance Conventions and worked locally with studios in the area. I decided it was time to let the restaurant career go and pursue just dancing again like I had done in my early career.
It meant moving my family to a cheaper/smaller place and actively promoting myself and my work again. I had danced professionally in NYC and across the country in my early 20s so being much older, it was a lot harder to jump feet first into just being a creative and making sure that I found gigs and jobs that were lucrative enough to support the life I had. I was able to say yes to more freelance choreography and teaching jobs across the country and now work full-time as a Freelance choreographer/master teacher and teach a full-time schedule with The Platinum Dance Collective Convention and the Platinum Dance Experience Convention. I am also now an Adjunct dance Professor at Western Carolina University where I can help students grow and discover their own dance journeys.
My partner, Steve’s job moved us to the Asheville area but I still travel to Atlanta multiple times a year to connect, teach, and choreograph for studios all over the area. My friend, Abba Parrott, and I have just started our own professional dance company, MOMENTS, in Atlanta. Our hope is to provide a positive, inspirational place for dancers who are no longer dancing in studios to take classes and perform. When I was younger and on my own trying to pursue my career in dance, I found the dance world very hard to navigate and often very brutal. It’s why I felt I needed to focus on a more stable job in the restaurant industry. My hope is to help more dancers navigate the dance world so that they can find a path and success in dance that works for them.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The dance industry is very competitive and so many artists don’t support other artists. It’s a hard industry to be in and there is never a guarantee of anything. It’s so important to create positive relationships with like-minded creatives who support who you are and what you do. I struggle with trying to stay relevant within an industry that is so highly competitive.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a professional Choreographer and dance educator. I am currently on faculty with a National Dance Convention where I travel across the country teaching dance. I am also an adjunct professor. Currently, I am the co-director/co-producer/co-choreographer for an upcoming professional contemporary dance show called MOMENTS in Newnan, GA.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
I wish I would have trusted myself more and also asked for more help. Auditions can be so brutal and so there is a lot of mental work needed to make sure you don’t let that get you down. I wish I would have just stayed focused and trusted the timing instead of trying to seek something stable like everyone said I needed to do.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lizbdance.com
- Instagram: @lizbdance @moments_theshow
- Facebook: Liz Borom
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqK0hiAmhBPKtjksYkm9oQQ
Image Credits:
@considerthelilies_photo
