We recently connected with Christina Alba and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Christina, thanks for joining us today. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?

Yeah, I’m happy! Like everything in life, you experience the highs and the lows but I really enjoy what I do and I couldn’t picture myself doing anything else. It’s fun, it’s exciting, it’s different every time and it keeps you on your toes. It’s important to me that my work fulfill me and I’ve always found it in dance and producing. Of course security is the goal and I think I’ve worked every part time job there is in this city when I first moved out here trying to make something of myself in the entertainment industry – but if you stay focused, consistent, and don’t give up – I promise you’ll find your place in all of this and more.

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.

I’m Christina Alba, born and raised in the bay area and a first gen filipina. I moved to LA on a whim back in 2011 to go to a college arts school, AMDA. In that time I trained and studied dance, got my degree and then I was on my own, to figure out how to turn my passions into profit and to be a working professional dancer. From 2013 up until the pandemic, dance was my whole life and my main source of income. I was so blessed to be able to tour with various artists, hit stages across the globe, worked often on set both in front of the camera and behind, and really planted my feet in the ground in LA and in the industry. I was really affected when the pandemic hit. I know I’m not alone when I say this but it really hit entertainers in a different way. Dance will always be apart of me and will always be my first love but it really put things in a different perspective for me and had my interests and focus shifting elsewhere.
In my career as a dancer I assisted a few choreographers to gain more experience and knowledge in my craft and I found that I had other skills as well behind the scenes in production. So in all of that idle time I began to shift. I took a look at my network and my community out here and I began to reach out to offer my services on-set in production as a Producer and production manager/coordinator. I didn’t really know what I was doing but I put myself out there and landed my first job right away as a PM working on-set along some of my closest friends from college. It’s been 3 years since then and I work full time as a Producer working on live show production, documentaries, events, and commercial, music video + film production. If there is something you want to create, I can bring it to life. Right now you can find me working at Sturdy.Co and working freelance on the side.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

2020, The pandemic. I began the year a professional dancer, shows and work lined up for the year and come March everything had changed. I couldn’t work at all so I had to think fast and I pivoted into working in production. At first it was a slow build – I had gotten a part time job in this time of my transition but once I got going, work started flowing and by 2022, 2 years later I was working full time as a producer.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I think the most rewarding part about being a creative is that our job is fun! It can be stressful yes, but at the end of the day we are making some cool fun stuff and doing it full-time, paying the bills and making a living out of this. I love completing a project and seeing how other people receive it and I also love the creation process – it’s such a freeing and personal experience that I can’t even explain.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @christinaaalba