We were lucky to catch up with Melinda Markulis recently and have shared our conversation below.

Melinda, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I had no intention on starting this business. In fact if you were to ask me if I would ever be a business owner I would have responded with intimidation. Ive always been an ambitious person with a natural skill and want to lead, but something in my subconscious would always give me some kind of restriction when it came to those kind of goals. Goals that included owning my own money and having control of it. How my dance company became a business was totally unexpected. I had spent almost of my entire 20s in Los Angeles California working in entertainment as a dancer, model, host and production assistant. At the end of 2021 I decided to move to where my family is located, Buffalo New York. I grew up in that small city and this is where I developed my love for entertainment. Not because the city is full of inspiring artists, but because it had a more suppressed, controlled, shame culture, conservative aspect to it. As a creative it felt extremely difficult for me to grow into who I was meant to be as a person. Leaving and finding a plethora of opportunity to expand my creative journey helped me heal my inner traumas and alined me for my divine destiny. That was until I moved back to the place that originally gave me those shameful feelings for being different or wild. I decided to create the world I wanted in the city I chose to be in. I wanted to find every kind of artist and create some kind of artist showcase. Allow the people of buffalo to enjoy the art we have flowing in our streets, while also giving an opportunity for artists to showcase their craft. I grew up with a conservative family, which meant me showing my body off or dancing too sexual would bring shame to me. So what did I do? Just that of course. The art that I brought to that showcase was a female based dance company. Our style is hip hop but in heels. We wear ski masks that look straight out of a kink film, grungy black fishnet, leather clothes. Visually we looked like everything everyone didn’t want me to look like. When I first advertised it everyone in the city was confused, shocked and intrigued. After my first show on Christmas night it popped off! I wasn’t the only woman in buffalo with the need to express themselves in a very safe, controlled and powerful way. I think when people saw our original advertisements for our show they assume its a stripe tease or burlesque show…but so the opposite. I treat these woman as if they too are industry working athletes. My expectations for them was not average. Our show is real talents! So when the audience actually gets to see our performance they are blown away with surprise. And it’s truly just the beginning for Underground Blo. It isn’t just a performance company…its a movement for expression and woman empowerment.

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.

For anyone that doesn’t know me, which should be a lot since my name is not headlining broadway or the big screen yet… Im Melinda Markulis. Im a Model, Dancer and Woman Health Lifestyle Educator. I’ve dedicated my entire life to the arts and personal health. I was born in Honolulu Hawaii on Hickam Air Force Base. Yes I was a military BRAT. I lost my mother to her personal mental health issues at the age of 4 and then stopped traveling and settled with my fathers side in Buffalo New York. This is where I spent the rest of my childhood, teen life and by 20 years old I moved to Los Angeles California, where I spent the rest of my 20s. I started my training for the entertainment industry when I was 16 years old at a studio called Future Dance Center. I auditioned for their traveling competition company and trained with Gino and Denise Vaccaro until I moved to Los Angeles. When I was 18 I signed to my first modeling agency Geoffrey Chapman in Ontario Canada. At the age of 19 I signed with MMG in New York City at a talent convention called IMTA. While I was there I also won an acting scholarship which took me to Los Angeles for a month long class. This was when I decided my career and training will continue on the west coast. I then signed to MSA dancing agency in Los Angeles.
My resume ranges from Production Assistant on hallmark films, Sag after films, national commercials like target and State Farm. Ive danced in commercials for Tiffany and Co and Old Navy. Worked in live shows in Las Vegas and Los Angeles dancing and modeling. Ive trained the younger generation for auditions and jobs like nickelodeon shows, American idol, Kidz Bop and more. I was an assistant tour manager for Scott Patterson. I was Brie Larsons double for vanity fair and Kelly Rohrbach in Baywatch. Ive been a host for NBCs Whacked Out Sports season 7 and 8. Ive even worked with extreme wheels and can-am doing production assistant work in the desert. My career is a variety of experiences and its only the beginning!

Ive taken my long life resume and brought it back to Buffalo New York. A city where there is no entertainment industry unless it’s the NFL or NHL. Buffalo New York is about 3 beats behind in the world still. I think my performance company has an advantage point because there is no market to compete with. While also bringing a new edge for entrainment in the city, I’m also bringing a new range of inspiration to the amazing people of Buffalo New York. Im providing a space for the creatives to showcase their craft and training opportunity for adults that want to train like an industry dancer would. I hope that the city will rise with my momentum and I hope one day my current advantage point won’t be my advantage point. I would love to see an entertainment industry in Buffalo that brings money, opportunity and diversity to the city.
Im so extremely proud of the fear facing woman I’ve found in the city of Buffalo. Never would I have thought I would be changing lives and mindsets with this company but I am. There is a lot of conservative mindsets in a small town, which can make it very difficult to want to be “different” or act on taboo topics publicly. But with the space I’ve created woman are allowed the freedom to express with power. With both of my brands ( Underground Blo and Lindy Glow) I have a mission to change a persons perception on life. Take their negative and turn it into a positive. This stems from my own personal issues with depression. Ive found light in my life and I want to continue to create more light with every person I come into contact with, Seeing it be achieve is the most rewarding success I could ask for.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Finances was the one and only challenge I needed to figure out. This is a good topic to bring up for anyone in the entertainment industry, because as an artists you aren’t educated on how money works. Truly its still an issue for the young generation of dancers, models and actors. We are all independent contractors. There is no consistency when it comes to our income. And unfortunately a lot of artists get taken advantage of because it is a passion based industry. Some if not most artists will work for free until they understand that this industry is a business, you are the product and you must “price” yourself, aka know your worth. With owning a performance company the upfront cost was all out of my pocket and I make income with sales of tickets. So when it comes to the finance side of my performance company, let’s just say it doesn’t break the bank compared to most businesses that are starting up.
What I was more interested in doing was educating the talent of buffalo on how to develop a “worth” teaching them they are a product and you must train your craft so your value is higher. Most art in Buffalo is free and with that habit on repeat it doesn’t create a world where there could actually be a career in entertainment.
I had some personal work while I was producing the shows. I needed to first understand buffalo night life and lifestyle. Where were people going? What day and time? What were they paying for a ticket? All of this was some serious trial and error.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I had a show that was almost going to make me quite the business. The venue I was working with had the worst management and social media team. They were so unorganized and could not communicate the information for my event with one another. So when it came to week of show everything flipped. I won’t go into details of what happened but let’s just say this event was the inspiration for my now new contract I have with venues. It effected my ticket sales badly and I was in the whole about $3,000. Instead of letting this get to me I switched my mindset and told myself I invested in a $3,000 video shoot, which will in the long run help the promotion for future shows. I also allowed myself to learn many lessons in the business department, because again I’ve been the artist never the boss. So all of this Boss business stuff is new and I needed to gently remind myself that.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @underground_blo

Image Credits
Photographers Halle Sooner, Taylor Renee Photography 716