Life & Work with Colin Harabedian of Long Beach

Today we’d like to introduce you to Colin Harabedian.

Hi Colin, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I originally grew up playing music and doing sports. I grew up playing trumpet from elementary through high school and played baseball, basketball, and soccer seasonally, while doing a few other sports off and on. For the last few years before I started dancing I had switched to swim team which I did year round and did not like. In 7th grade I started taking dance classes to replace swimming with a new year round activity. I started with hip hop and breakdancing classes, and eventually chose to branch out into all the other dance styles offered by the studio. I think my background in music really helped drive my interest in dance, and gave me a bit of an edge when learning so much for the first time. I started doing competitive dance my last couple years of high school, while at that time also driving to LA to audition for dance jobs. It was during my senior year of high school and first year of college that my interest in photography and videography grew. I always loved dance concept videos and that was a big inspiration for me starting out so I really wanted to learn how all of it worked. Through the pandemic I spent a lot of time learning from youtube and reading books about photography and film, and in 2022 eventually started reading my own videos while in college at Cal State Long Beach. I got to choreograph, direct, shoot, and edit my own projects, while really helped my find my love for the filming process, and eventually start my own company, Moving Media, to help other people with any media they want to create. Since graduating in 2023, my dance and film work has helped me get jobs working with different studios and companies, screen my films in festivals all over the world, and meet so many new people that I never would have had the chance to meet if not having married these two interests together and work side by side with them. Now I get to do both things I love and work between them

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I think there were a few obstacles. The pandemic really put a pause on things. it wasn’t until 2022 that I ever realized how much of an interest I used to have in film and reignited my motivation to create. I had been so much more concerned with school and working and dancing that I forgot about it. It took a lot more effort to make up for lost time and try teaching myself while at home and didn’t have a community to create with until things opened up and school resumed in person. Mostly I would say the journey has just been so non linear and unpredictable. Dancing and film/photography was never something I thought I would be doing as late as my junior year of high school. I always took opportunities as they came and went with the flow of whatever happened. I originally wanted to go into music education of be an astronomer. While I always grew up in the performing arts, I don’t think it was necessarily the most obvious choice for myself. Being a very introverted person also made it take quite a while to find my voice and open up. Only having one other guy friend that danced with me once a week also made the switch to making new friendships while I was dancing 5 days a week. Ironically enough I think it was dance that helped me find an outlet and express myself through all of that. I think if not for the arts as something in my life I would be a very different person.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
The media work I do is primarily within the arts. I film shows, do headshots and portraits, shoot interviews, create content for people, dance films and music videos. The more artistic work comes through creating concept videos and shorts for people. Mixed in with all of that is also directing and creative direction. I find most of my creative fulfillment in dance films and music videos and that’s where you can see my style as a creative. I think my interest in film and dance always came from asking the question: why do movies look like moves and dance videos look like dance videos? Definitely not an easy or simple to answer question, but it led me down this path, and influenced my style to very much be narratively motivated and follow a lot of cinematic techniques and practices that make movies look the way they do. That way when I work with different people I can adapt to a different style of filmmaking, while still creating really intentional and narrative focused work at its core. I think my work is style over substance first, so that way there’s a foundation for the world building that’s being created.

In my choreographic work, I pull from my experience growing up as a dancer in both street and studio dance. I had a very diverse background and experience, and I think that shows in my work and artistic perspective. I primarily pull from hip hop and contemporary dance styles, and try to keep my work more as a spectrum of movement that fits in wherever the context is most applicable and whatever most serves the story I want to tell. What I have always loved about dance is that it’s a nonverbal performing art, and you can communicate so much without ever talking. Gesture and pedestrian movement is definitely a big part of my work, and how thematically the work I create is based on a lot the human experience. What I love about my work is that it doesn’t beg the audience to watch it but I think sets up a world where you want to lean forward and discover more about what you are seeing. I have always loved art that doesn’t demand an audience but opens itself up to whoever wants to watch, and I think that always creates more unique and pure work across genres.

Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
There’s a few names that come to mind. A lot of the teachers from the studio I grew up at were big supporters and a big help. Michelle Clark, Alli and Lisa Esposito, Allen Cooper, and David Silvas all played a big role in my development as a dancer and artist and in providing me with the space and different opportunities to explore creatively. They all also made it a safe space to start dancing, especially as a boy in middle school feeling a lot of anxiety about being in a new space and feeling judgment. My breakdancing teacher, Tommy Chu also was a significant person in my development of my self as an artist, and really taught me how to analyze dance in a critical way but without ego. A lot of my philosophy of arts stems from lessons I learned training with him. Some significant people in my life as an adult are professors from college: Keith Johnson, Lorin Johnson, Stephen Losleben, who really helped solidify my artistic integrity and supported my interests.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.movingmediallc.com and https://colinharabedian0.wixsite.com/website
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_movingmedia/ and https://www.instagram.com/colinharabdn/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@colinharabdn

Image Credits
Mae Kail
Von Jackson
Colin Harabedian