We recently connected with Ansel Firmalan and have shared our conversation below.

Ansel, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Our unique environment affords the opportunity to showcase the mental and physical discipline that it takes to be a dancer, while promoting the extraordinary confidence it takes to be a performer. With over 80 Regional competitions and 6 National Finals, our team is ready to inspire dancers and create lifelong memories.

Everything we do is for the kids. Our goal is to give them the opportunity for them to thrive within the industry.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Ansel Firmalan, I am a Videographer/Dancer born and raised in Columbus Ohio for 26 years until I moved out to Los Angeles a year ago to further my career in the dance industry. I have 2 brothers and 2 sisters as well an amazing mother and father.

Growing up, my family was heavily involved within the small filipino community. We would participate in many filipino folk dances such as Tinikling, Sayaw sa Bangko and many others. We help curate an organizations called T.O.P.A.S which stands for “The Ohio Philippines American Society” where we would hold local gather every first Saturday of the month celebrating filipino heritage and togetherness. By being part of this organizations it gives us an opportunity to be able to showcase our filipino folk dances on the local news promoting a local event called Asian Festival which is a festival that highlights regions of South East Asia.

As time went by my mother signed up my little sister for dance classes at Pinnell Dance Centre. To get me and my brother involved, my cousins boyfriend at the time, now fiancé, is a breaker or commonly known as “Breakdancer” and one of his friends taught at a different studio. My brother and I would go once a week while my sister would also be dancing at a different studio. Overtime my whole family slowly integrated ourselves into Pinnell Dance Centre where we would join the competition team and compete all over the United States eventually becoming a teacher at the studio.

Alongside dancing at Pinnell I also picked up photography and videography at the same time. I remember holding a DSLR for the first time in high school and instantly knew I needed to have one. So I got 5 jobs as a local DJ for parties and school dances, Dancer Teacher, referee at my local paintball field, seasonal position at 5below and I would help with my aunts event center just to barely afford it. Once I did obtain the camera I shot everything from portraits of my friends, recitals hosted by my dance studio to local paintball events hosted at our paintball field. Any opportunity for me to use my camera I would take it! But I wouldn’t be doing it for money I would always be doing it for the gratification of the “client”. Personally for me once I see that genuine smile or excitement on your face then I have done my part and it pays for itself.

As much as I love dancing and photography/videography it wasn’t really a career choice in my parents eyes. Growing up in an asian household there was high expectancy of going to college and getting a degree in the medical field. I was teaching at the studio the same time I went to college for nursing school as well as continuing help take care of my bedridden grandma who lived with us. As time went by I tried to slowly phase myself out of teaching and photo/video to fully focus on my nursing career and took a Residential Aid position at an assisted living facility. However I couldn’t fully phase myself out of dance or photo/video, every time i would try and leave new opportunity would come my way making it harder for me to focus on my nursing career. Sadly my grandma passed away over time then month later COVID shutdown everything. Since I worked in a medical facility I was still able to work however I wasn’t fully happy nor positively growing in the medical field. So towards the end of COVID I looked online and applied to Kids Artistic Revue or KAR as a videographer. I was able to travel all over the United States filming amazing dancers at dance competition as well as being able to pursue my love of photo/video through dance. I am able to assist other amazing dancers on there journey wether it’s just making creative content for there social media, help film an audition tape for there college dance team or even help create a dance movie.

My friend always says “it’s for the kids”.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is always the smile. Sometimes people are shy in front a camera, and sometimes people have low-self esteem but once you show them the amazing photo of them or an amazing video of them and they smile or react in a joyful way then that to me is everything.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

Managing a team is never easy and you will never have it perfect. You will always have to be adaptable in every way as well as making sure you’re using every tool that is given to you. But you also have to remember that you’re dealing with people. No one likes to working with someone who is always negative or just barks out commands. Maintaining a a team and maintain high morale all comes down to communication and collaboration. In my eyes a team works together to achieve a goal. As the leader of the team you have to explain why certain ideas don’t work as well as acknowledge the one that do work! Its always about communication.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ansel-firmalan.jimdosite.com/
• Instagram: @ansel.firmalan and/or @Ansel.media

Image Credits
@christopher_curtiss