Uros Markovic shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Hi Uros , thank you for taking the time to reflect back on your journey with us. I think our readers are in for a real treat. There is so much we can all learn from each other and so thank you again for opening up with us. Let’s get into it: What’s more important to you—intelligence, energy, or integrity?
As much as all 3 are very important to me, I would always choose integrity. In my career I always tried to be as professional and decent human being as I humanly could… Never tried stepping on people to furthermore my career or cut corners to build my own success. I definitely say its a slower road, but even tho slower its definitely more steady…and more importantly I really like sleeping peacefully at night 🙂 Having no integrity might bring you instant success but losing respect by your peers creates career with no longevity.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’ll try to give you a short version of 3 decades of my career but if I miss something you can always try to google me 🙂
I’ve been professional latin and ballroom dancer for 3 decades, and was very fortunate to have successful career expanding from being National Champion, backup dancing with biggest artists in sold out arenas, to being a featured dancer in production shows around the world. Dance brought me to 55 different countries and beside performing I was lucky to share my knowledge and educate different dance enthusiasts across 3 different continents in Europe, Asia and America.
Moving to NYC 15 years ago I discovered I can develop myself as an artist, so I leaped into modeling and acting, and it continued to today living in Los Angeles. I was very fortunate to shoot National commercials, campaigns and print with brands like Christian Dior, Chevrolet, Toyota, Gillette, Meta, Bosch, Marriott, USC Health, Edison…and many more.
My personal favorite acting project was playing a lead in a short film with country superstar Kelsea Ballerini titled ” Rolling Up the Welcome Mat’, and upcoming dance project, that I’m over the moon excited about, dancing as a featured couple on a tour with Andrea Bocelli.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
As a child I was very outgoing, light hearted and fun… but somehow growing up in a very traditional cultural environment I was forced to live very introverted, shy, quite, and modest… Even tho I just loved what I was doing, being a male dancer in a male dominant, traditionally valued patriarchy environment I always faced judgment. I needed time exploring other cultures, working on my own self growth and realizing that being proud of my own ability, achievements and success is not something to be kept under the rug hidden. Once I started being reassured of myself, proud of my journey and more open to share it with the world I realized I can motivate and inspire others by my own story of success.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
My life has always been a big rollercoaster, so with all the big success and big achievements there was a lot of disappointments, failings and heartbreaks. The bad days teach you how to appreciate the good ones much more and in a moments when nothing is going the way you envisioned there is usually a higher goal , or it’s a lesson to be learned…and at the end the most valuable outcome after suffering is to see yourself picking yourself up and realizing how incredibly resilient we as a human beings are.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? Is the public version of you the real you?
Being part of our industry for a very long time I learned quickly how to play the social media game for my own benefit and create a persona that people want to see online and that also brands would want to hire. Privately I’m very easy going, positive and light hearted but online I wanna say I’m more intense, out there and provocative. It’s just something that’s part of my job and what my industry requires me to be. I always say that if you “know me” from social media you know OF me. Unless you met me in person and had a chance to talk to me face to face you don’t know much.
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. Are you doing what you were born to do—or what you were told to do?
Something that was my goal growing up is that I always do things that fulfill my soul and make me truly happy. I’ve seen it so many times in my family, within my friends group, people who worked jobs that they absolutely hate. They would be so miserable and unhappy and I always stated that I will never allow to have that kind of life experience. Its ok to have a
re-route in life, even a side road for a second and maybe do things that at the moment are not your first choice, but if most of your life you spend on a side road, you are going to be left drained and I think its a waist of your own time and life. So far I kept this promise to my young self and I always chose to professionally develop in areas that fulfilled my soul. Life of an artist is not easy, it’s challenging in many ways but the outcome of doing what you love through creative process is always gonna bring you joy, happiness and fulfillment.
That’s the life I always wanted to create for myself…and that’s what I did.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uros_nbg/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@dancer1987la
- Other: https://newbookmodels.page.link/6o8d
Image Credits
Sal Fuentes, Normandy, Kateryna Shkytska, John Gress, Vinh Pham
