We recently connected with Uros Markovic and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Uros, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
I’ve been professional dancer for almost 3 decades and something I try to teach my dance students today is to commit to the craft and that there is no speed in building quality and longevity …I see so many dancers today run from class to class just to learn a new 5,6,7,8 combo and record it for tiktok…people don’t have patience and dedication to build strong foundation and learn their basics, everyone is focused on tricks and facade…so core of their movement is weak and they get burned out easily … I worked with a lot of dance teachers from around the world but I connected to “english style” of teaching the most because they praise the strong developments of fundamentals of dance.
I’m therms of modeling and acting I can say pretty much the same… studying is so important. You have to be a good student, keep your eyes and ears open and always come from a question of how can i improve and get better… today in era of internet there is so many possibilities to educate yourself, develop and learn. it’s all about how much effort you put into your craft and how much you want to get better.
Uros, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I’ve been professional latin/ballroom dancer for almost 3 decades and dance brought so much success, life lessons and experiences in my life. I was fortunate to start my career as competitive dancer. Becoming National Champion in two different age categories gave me opportunity to represent my country in 4 different World Championships. After retiring from competitive dance I ventured into performing and was lucky to perform with European’s famous singers in their concerts and tours in sold out arenas. This gave me a boost of confidence to continue my performing venture into international scene, so I started performing as a featured dancer in production shows and dance brought me to Asia, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and finally back to Europe. Through out my dance career I kept teaching dance to other lovers of dance and it brought so much satisfaction to share my knowledge around the world to different dance enthusiasts.
In therms of modeling and acting I started it in NYC where I quickly realized the tough part of the industry. I worked for Cristian Dior and moving to LA 2 years ago shot commercials for brands like Gillette, Chevrolet, Meta, Bud Light, Toyota ,US army, Expedia… and I recently got main role in Kelsea Ballerini’s project “Rolling up the Welcome Mat” short movie, that represented 6 different chapters(music videos) on her journey of healing through very public relationship and divorce.
This is just a small part of the success I had through my career that came with a lot of hard work and a lot of failure too. Some NOs definitely hit harder than others but it was always about learning to pick myself up every time I failed and continue with a strong, positive, refreshed attitude.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Being an artist beside creating beautiful art is about changing the norms…Madonna said once “Artists are there to disturb peace” . Society dictates the norms and we as artists are there to challenge them. Me coming from Balkans and small very patriarchal country it was very unusual that boy dances. Being a male dancer, growing up I was facing a lot of bullying that I never understood…I never comprehended why someone would be bothered by my love for something. I can say that a lot of opinions from my surroundings changed once they started seeing success coming my way. So I’m grateful that even in a slightest, smallest way I can influence a change as an artist for future kids that are coming behind me and be happy that they won’t go thorough the same challenging road.
Have you ever had to pivot?
I had a few moments in my career when I felt stagnant, and it was mostly because of the location or situation I placed myself in. As artists we always seek for new “play grounds”, new inspiration, new ideas, new experiences…and most of the time I felt stagnant was when I place restrictions in my head that the current situation is the only one possible…it would mostly come from fear of unknown and change…once I broke that mindset I realized everything and anything is possible and I was quicker on changes and more courageous to make them…. And this is when I experienced the biggest pivotal moments in my career.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/uros_nbg
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@dancer1987la
Image Credits
Roberto Viccaro, John Gress, Josh Kim, Cedric Terrell, Cyril Mahe