Andrew Borgen is one of the dance performers of The White Face. The group has just started street performing about three months ago, thus they have yet to set up social media platforms. Andrew currently studies at the Broadway Dance Center of New York City. He plans on becoming a dancer for The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Jazz at Lincoln Center, or any other prestigious performance center. His favorite form of compensation is when he gets a job to perform at a party right after a great street performance. He prefers performing an acknowledged platform as opposed to on the streets because it’s easier to get viewers and there’s generally more space which allows him to keep a distance from his viewers to prevent injuries. His favorite places to perform are Union Square, Herald Square, Time Square, and Washington Square Park. He generally performs on the weekends and his performance mainly attracts children, teenagers, and small families. Most importantly he was influenced by New York City Street performers to become a street performer and to ultimately become a dancer as his professional career.
Do you by have some sort of social media for your performance?
Andrew: Well, to tell you the truth, we just started our dance performances about three months ago. So, we were thinking to first get our feet wet and later we’ll work on social media, business cards, etc.
What are some of your hobbies other than dancing?
Andrew: Dancing is by far my favorite hobby, some of my other hobbies are skiing and skateboarding.
Do you think that skiing and skateboarding have helped you become a dancer?
Andrew: As a kid I always loved skateboarding and skiing because I learned how to do such cool moves on them. Later, after seeing some of my friends breakdance, I was quite jealous of them and I felt that dancing is even cooler than doing moves on a skateboard or skis as it doesn’t require any equipment. It only requires your body.
In today’s day and age is dancing a viable career option or hobby?
Andrew: To be honest, I plan on becoming a dancer as my career job. The ideal situation would be that after learning dance at the Broadway Dance Center of New York City, I would then find a job in dance to perform at The Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art), or at Jazz at Lincoln Center. However, it’s quite hard to get a job at any of these locations as they’re looking for extremely experienced dance performers. If I fail in getting one of those types of jobs, I’ll just become a dance teacher.
What would you consider is the greatest form of compensation any street dancer, or dancer in general, can receive?
Andrew: The greatest form of compensation a street dancer can receive is probably when a person comes to you after your performance and ask for your number so that you can perform in their event. For instance, about a month ago, a man named Simon came up to me after I finished a street performance and asked if I can perform for his son’s birthday party. I was so happy and excited and immediately I answered “yes.” A week after that, I performed at the birthday party and all the kids were so happy and cheering for me.
Have any of the viewers or yourself got injured?
Andrew: No. Thank God. I think that’s mainly because we keep great distances from our viewers and that our moves aren’t fast. We also don’t perform on trains since it’s often quite full, which will increase the odds of someone getting hurt.
What makes street dancing more difficult than dancing in an acknowledge platform?
Andrew: Well, like we were saying before, on a acknowledge platform, you generally have a lot of space which makes the dancing way easier and safer. In the street, generally, you have very little space to do a dance performance. Another problem about street dancing is that you must find a location where there’s generally a crowd of people and find a perfect space to do your dance performance. When you’re on an acknowledge platform you already have the crowd and the people.
Would you say that there are any benefits to street performances that you cannot find anywhere else in the environment?
Andrew: To be honest, there aren’t any benefits to street performing as opposed to an acknowledge platform. Like I explained earlier, it’s just so much harder to find.
Where do you usually do your street performances?
Andrew: I generally perform in big subway stations such as Union Square, Herald Square, and Time Square. I also occasionally perform in Washington Square Park.
Out of all the places you listed, what would you say is your favorite place to perform?
Andrew: I’m going to have to say the Time Square subway station. I like it because it’s pretty big and there’s often a big audience.
Who would you say is most of your audience?
Andrew: I would say small families as generally families like to go out on the weekends.
Who appreciates your work the most?
Andrew: The children and teenagers definitely appreciate my work the most. I would say from the ages of 5 to 18.
And you perform mainly on the weekends correct?
Andrew: Yeah, more or less. I often also perform Friday afternoon, and whenever I have a free day.
Do you have any interesting funny stories about this dance?
Andrew: A couple of weeks ago there was a crying baby on a carriage in the subway station. His parents brought him my attention and after a couple of seconds of my performance he stopped crying and started laughing. That was a pretty cool experience.
My final and most important question is: what role do you think New York has had on your performances?
Andrew: Before I started my dance career, I started liking dance after being inspired by so many other street performers. Then after I thought to myself, it would be pretty cool to be a street performer. Only after was I interested in a career of dance. In other states, there aren’t many street performers as there are in New York so I don’t think I would have even thought about a career in dance if I wasn’t brought up here in New York City. Also, there are just so many people in New York City so you’re quite pressured to make a great performance. This ultimately has made me practice more and more.
