Shall we dance, professionals?

Throughout the fall, many of Norway’s best sports dancers can be seen on the floor in TV 2’s “Shall We Dance”.

A number of dancers have made their mark on the show throughout, but with the exception of the “Shall We Dance” season, we don’t see many athletic dancers. However, this is changing now.

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With the relatively recently started company “The Professionals” – Ole Thomas Hansen (23 years old), Lilian Asebo (30 years old), Igor Filippenko (36 years old) and Nadia Khamitskaya Andersen (40 years old), they want to bring more dance to the people, and in At the same time, time creates a safe working life for professional dancers.

– We simply want to make it easy to make a living dancing on stage or build a profile and make a living from your own character. We plan to do just that, explains Ole Thomas Hansen, Managing Director of The Professionals, to Nettavisen.

– There are not many possibilities

As is the case today, it is difficult to make a living from dancing, according to the dancers. And they want to change that.

-For athletic dancers, like all of us, there aren’t a lot of opportunities. Many of them become coaches, and you can also participate in musicals and the like, but then you often have to get additional education, says Nadia Khamitskaya to Nettavisen.

The 40-year-old is a consultant at The Professionals.

-We dance and compete actively, and when we finish we can either become coaches or perform the “Shall We Dance” song. She adds that “Shall We Dance” lasts for a limited period of time, and it is impossible to make a living from a job that lasts for three to four months.

At the same time, Khamitskaya points out that it is difficult to combine “shall we dance” with a “regular” job, as many dancers claim. However, through ‘professionals’, they can get the opportunity to do what they are trained to do.

– We hope to create opportunities for dancers. Either help them make a living out of dancing one hundred percent, or do quests alongside Should We Dance or dance when it suits it.

– As of today, there are no such opportunities for us sports dancers. We can compete, be background dancers and teach. But we can also stand on stage and spread the joy of dancing among people, and we can do that here, says Khamitskaya.

He performs a dance show

Marketing director Lillian Acebo says she and Hansen started working on “The Professionals” eight months ago, and in December they were ready to pitch their first project.

Next, the dance show “Dancing Stars” will be shown at Christiania Teater, where 14 professional dancers – all well-known from “Skal vi danse” – will gather on stage and show what they are good at.

Aasebø has great faith that the show will be a success.

-I think the timing is perfect. It is a commitment like no other. Ballroom and Latin dancing is not something you can see anywhere — so I think it’s something audiences will love,” she says.

If the next performance is successful, she dreams of expanding the concept:

– It’s only going to take a week now, and then I think maybe the second and third volumes can be released. This is the long-term goal.

You will create security

Ole Thomas Hansen also has big dreams for the company and the way forward.

-We intend to create and produce more dance shows. First of all, in Oslo, before we tour further. Eventually, we will also recruit other types of dancers and showcase all types of dance, says Hansen enthusiastically.

He can promise a strong showing in December:

-We want to show what dance is for us, as a group and as individuals. We are used to dancing “with the stars” in “Shall We Dance,” but we feel and know with ourselves that we are stars too. We have given up childhood, youth and everything possible to become dancers, and with this performance we want to express the feelings that can be awakened in us through dance.

Besides the “professionals”, Hansen teaches dance, as well as performing various dance assignments. The dream is to do this for the rest of my life, but then the opportunities have to be there.

– I love my job, but considering it as my main source of income is unsafe these days. “With the company here, which is dancers for dancers, I really think we can make it safer for us,” Hansen concludes.