When his mother enrolled him in a dance school at the age of eleven, Marko Stamenković resisted with all his might. But it didn't take long for hip hop to get him hooked. Today it is his free time and work at the same time. He dances for eight hours a day and has recently been stringing success after success, from the group All That to collaborating with Severina. But despite...
When his mother enrolled him in a dance school at the age of eleven, Marko Stamenković resisted with all his might. But it didn't take long for hip hop to get him hooked. Today it is his free time and work at the same time. He dances for eight hours a day and has recently been stringing success after success, from the group All That to collaborating with Severina. Yet he remains grounded.
How does an eleven-year-old boy decide to train to dance?
He doesn't decide on his own, my mother enrolled me in a dance school and forced me in a way. My sister used to dance, but I liked to play football before school like all the kids. At that time, hip hop was developing slowly and not many boys were dancing. That's why I didn't want to go to dance school, because then at school they always said, because you wear leggings...
Was it really that terrible?
No, I got used to it quickly. When I got there there were a lot of new girls and every time new music, new movements. I was immediately taken by hip hop.
You spent this summer in New York and Los Angeles, where you got excited about house. What genre is it?
House is a mixture of several dance styles, which includes steps from tap, jazz, hip hop, elements of salsa and capoeira are included. It's really good music, not as commercial as, for example, David Guetta. We recently had a house workshop at Urbane rittih with Kazina, this year we will also introduce house classes for the first time and dancers will learn to mix different styles.
You dance for eight hours every day, and you play the roles of dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Which do you feel the best in?
I feel the best as a dancer when I'm performing and my biggest dream is to stand on stage in front of a few thousand people. But it's also a wonderful feeling when I teach a child something new and the next time he comes to training I see that he's already practicing new steps in front of the hall.
What is Marko like as a teacher?
I try to teach children to dance with soul. So that they don't come to the hall again, they stand in front of the mirror and that's it. Today, children don't even look each other in the eye anymore, they are ashamed and have lost that contact of dancing with each other. So we learn in a way that they turn away from the mirror, to feel with their fellow dancers, to dance against each other. Otherwise, my training sessions are daily fun, good music and relaxation.
How have learning techniques changed since you first started dancing?
Everything has changed. In the past, the warm-up was part of physical education with exercise, but now the warm-up is purely dance. We used to all dance to MC Hammer, do slide steps for a year and practice the combination for a few months. Today, we do three or four combinations in one month.
In such a "garage" pace, you have recently succeeded in various dance fields. What achievements are you most proud of?
I am proud of my students and the first full-length hip hop show Let's make a show. But the biggest challenge for me was the collaboration on talents with the group All That. We didn't exist before and we got together just for this show, put something together quickly and went to show ourselves. We didn't expect anything, but in the end we were in the final. We only had four days to prepare, and then we danced from ten in the evening, when the halls were empty, until four or five in the morning. We were sleepless, happy and sad at the same time, but in the end we made it.
They say that Severina called you recently... ?
Yes, I am also proud of this experience. They called me to be in her music video. Again, there was very little time, in three days I gathered the guys and we put something together. When we came to Zagreb, they were impressed with us. I, on the other hand, over them and over the way they respect Slovenian artists.
For someone to become a top dancer, it probably takes more than just good motor skills?
First of all, he must be hardworking. The dancer must also be grounded, he must not allow his ego to grow. Here you are never the best dancer in the world, there is always someone somewhere who will do something better or differently. He must be open to see inspiration everywhere. Even at home, when I wipe the table, I can find some good movement. Only then can you be creative and give your dance your own stamp. In dance, you first learn something, then you adopt it, and then you put your stamp on it. Only at this point did you, as a dancer, contribute something to this society.
Do you still see yourself in dancing shoes in twenty years?
I would definitely like to stay in the hip hop culture, I would prefer to be a dancer all my life. I can't even imagine life without fashion, music, dance and all this environment. Even if one day I can't dance anymore, I'll open a graffiti spray shop, for example. I will stay in this world, hip hop is my world.