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Talent agency signs young local dancer

ESCANABA -- An 11-year-old Bark River girl who has traveled around the country to dance competitively was recently signed with a Los Angeles talent agency.

Zoey Zambon, daughter of Ashley and Andy Zambon, began dancing at the age of three. She has taken all types of classes available at Gladstone studio Dance it UP, but hip-hop and improvisation are her specialties.

Now in sixth grade at Bark River-Harris School, Zoey started competitive dance when she was five years old.

“I could see her love for dance and potential right away,” said Mona Dziewior, studio owner and company director at Dance it UP. When Zoey first enrolled in 2020, “she tried all the dance styles we offered at the time for the little ones, but quickly excelled in hip-hop. In 2021 she had already accomplished being a part of our competitive team and competing her first solo,” Dziewior said.

Zoey said there’s two main reasons she loves to dance.

“One, it just helps me, express myself and I just have this love for it, like, performing. I love just performing for other people,” Zoey shared. “Also, I want to inspire people to dance for God,” she added, noting that most of the dances she likes to do are to Christian rap. “So I want to encourage people to dance for God because He gave us this talent and He blessed us with this sport.”

When convention opportunities and competitions arise out of the area, Zoey is eager to travel and participate. In the past three years, the tenacious dancer has competed in Chicago and Minneapolis at the Monsters of Hip Hop dance convention, which tours major cities around the country.

She’s a talented freestyle dancer, her mother Ashley shared, and “in the last two or three years, Zoe’s won every improv contest she entered.”

At this year’s Monsters event in Minneapolis, Zoey was chosen to receive a scholarship that would send her to a national competition in Los Angeles, California. Part of that event included an audition in front of talent scouts, which is where Zoey made extra effort to shine.

It saved her parents some effort, too, because the 11-year-old had reportedly been pleading with her mother to look into entering her into auditions all season.

“She’s met friends through the process of going to all these different events, and some of her friends were signed to an agency,” Ashley said.

At the audition in Los Angeles, the dancers were presented with choreography they had to learn on the spot and then perform in front of a panel of professionals from Monsters and talent agencies.

During that performance, Zoey really went for it.

“When I got more confident, I slowly kind of went close, like up to them, like showing them like I really want this, and I’m willing to do this,” the dancer said.

The effort did not go unnoticed; Ashley said they received an email from an agent interested in signing Zoey as a client.

The Bark River girl is now represented by The Movement Talent Agency (MTA), whose dance division works with “standout dancers of all ages, working across television, film, commercials, tours, award shows, music videos, and digital media.”

Now that she has an agent, Zoey is a step closer to potentially getting a role in a commercial or music video. She’s hoping to get a gig as a backup dancer for Christian rap.

“One of Zoey's goals is to dance professionally, and with her hard work and determination she is taking steps in the right direction,” Dziewior noted.

In addition to training with all the instructors at Dance it UP, Zoey also takes online hip-hop dance classes, the girl shared.

Ashley said it’s Zoey’s enthusiasm on stage that gets her noticed and caught the attention of the scouts.

“When judges give her feedback, (it’s comments like) ‘she’s just such joy on stage. You can just see how much she loves it.’ It’s just so apparent. It’s like, she just radiates joy up there, and I think that’s something that really helps her to be noticed for things like this.”

Because it’s going to be a challenge to travel for events -- like the Christmas parade in California that Zoey’s been booked to dance in with Cubcakes Dance Crew -- some fundraising is underway.

A “Dance with Zoey” event has been scheduled for Nov. 8, a Sunday, at the Bark River-Harr is School. While collecting donations, Zoey will lead two dance lessons: one from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. for kids under 10, and a second session from 4 to 5 p.m. for older kids. Kids from anywhere, of all ages and abilities, are welcome to attend.

“When she does book jobs, it will pay, which is cool, but it probably won’t cover the cost of traveling,” Ashley said. “We don’t need to make any money, of course, but it at least needs to kind of even out.”

Since some students at Dance it UP aren’t able to travel even for regional competitions, the company has brought opportunities to them. Recently, Dziewior said, they brought guest artist Emilie Bezler -- a pro who has danced with well-known musicians and on television -- to Gladstone to provide full weekend of dance, workshops, and private lessons.

While Zoey is the first from Dance it UP to be booked with a telent agency, “we do have other dancers in our program jumping on opportunities, working hard and earning scholarships to high profile summer intensive and convention,” Dziewior said. “We also have students that have continued dance after graduation, and this past year, our graduating senior Kyra Carlson received a college dance scholarship to Clearly University in lower Michigan.”

This weekend, Zoey will travel to Dupree Dance Competition, and in November she is heading to Chicago for another Monsters convention. She’ll also perform in Dance it UP’s recital the first weekend in December.