Embarking on a New Adventure

Modeling for a Dancesport Hair and Makeup Tutorial

By Mary Beth Beckman

In the coming months, you’ll be hearing a lot about (and from!) Jana Rose, the creative genius behind Jana Rose Arts. Jana is embarking on a much-needed project: to create a set of informational videos on how to create tailored dancesport hair and makeup. I am fortunate enough to be part of this process, and I want to share this experience with the partner-dancing community at large.

On December 3rd, Jana posted to Facebook requesting volunteer models, saying she was specifically interested in ballroom dancers. Although I’m wont to dub myself a dancer (imposter syndrome), I fit the bill, so I sent her a message right away stating my interest. We set up a time to meet the following week, and on Tuesday, December 9th, I met with Jana and one of her fabulous assistants to discuss the project.

Jana was as charming as ever as we went over the finer points of the project. She’s the kind of person who feels like an old friend, even if you’ve only just met. It was easy to poke fun at ourselves and each other over the course of the half hour we chatted, keeping the tone light and familiar despite what could have been a very anxiety-inducing topic for everyone involved. I was a bit nervous coming in that I might not be the right fit for the project; I have no modeling experience, I’m not a well-known dancer, and I’m a sort of generic-looking white girl. None of that seemed to faze Jana, and in fact, by the end I realized that all of those superficial details weren’t ultimately relevant to her goal.

The end users of this project will be people like me. Most will not be models. Most will not have widespread dancing fame. Most will probably be pretty generic-looking. What makes Jana an artist is her ability to take someone like me and make them a stunning, one-of-a-kind masterpiece.

I’m ridiculously excited to see how all of this unfolds.