A4D’s Antonio Martinez booked an exciting opportunity to perform with Taylor Swift and Brandon Urie on the Billboard Music Awards! Here’s the story as told by Antonio.
‘Thanks for allowing me to share my experience with other dancers. The Taylor Swift performance at the Billboard Awards was a direct booking!
It was definitely my reputation and reel that helped solidify the job for me.
These video editing skills and the knowledge of how to showcase myself in reels were learned by being active on A4D!
It was Grover Dale who pushed me to continue finding the “best edit” which is why I also landed MSA as my agency back in 2011!
Billboard rehearsals were 10 days of aerial creation, rehearsals,
and camera blocking! We started with rehearsals in LA and were flown to rehearse in Vegas for the live show! Two of the rehearsals were without Taylor and the rest were with her! Tyce Diorio was our lead Choreographer with Melissa Garcia and Nolan Padilla as his Assistants and Tania Holt assisting in casting and leading the Umbrella Boys in Choreo ideas.
As a dancer/aerialist, this opportunity has demonstrated how much trust people have in me to deliver magic very quickly and efficiently! These kinds of direct bookings don’t happen overnight as it has taken patience and persistence to create this level of trust that my MSA agents and their clients now have in me.
MSA acts as more than my agents... they are my career coaches and friends... always guiding me, pushing me, and leading me in the best career choices! Jenn Proctor of MSA was the lead on this one for me. Jenn is always looking out for my safety and best interest, especially working with heights of this kind! The agent-client relationship is definitely teamwork and is based on trust and communication!
I met Taylor during rehearsals and got to take this photo with her on the day of the show! We had to keep everything secret so we were not allowed to take photos during the creative process. Taylor is so sweet and professional... always complimenting us and checking in with us! I really hope to work with her again really soon!
I was flying in a yellow umbrella wearing this blue suit!’
The Taylor Swift performance at the Billboard Music Awards already has nearly 20 million views… Congratulations to Antonio and thanks for setting a great example for other dancers who'd love to follow in your footsteps.
