Made for God

By Steven Mercado, 5 min read

In the fourth episode of The Bread Podcast, hosts Andy Chung and Ariel Silva interview V3 dance director Tristan Padron. Tristan shared key moments of his dance journey and how God led him and guided him through trying seasons. Here’s what he had to say:

STARTING IN THE CLUBS

I actually came from a freestyle, clubbing background first.​ ​I was really into Les Twins at the time, and I did the whole dance backwards, believe it or not, my hair, I tried to make it bigger than it is right now because I was like, ‘Oh, they have fros and stuff and it probably looks better if I have bigger hair.’ ... that was during a time I had fallen away from Christ and once I recommitted my life to Christ, I joined a church.

I actually had a friend, his name is Brandon Pu and I remember having a talk with him when I was living at my grandfather’s house, and said ‘Why are you still clubbing?’ and I replied, ‘Because it’s fun.’ Then we talked about my experience and it wasn’t really helping. There’s a lot of temptations with girls and partying and there’s a lot of trouble that could come from being in a club. It reached a point where it was not about dancing anymore.

MAKING IT ABOUT CHRIST

I went clubbing every week, sometimes twice a week, for two years, so from the point I turned 18, till I was 20. Once I was like, ‘Okay, what do I got to do to make this about Christ?’ That’s when my friend, Nathan Kotico, told me about V3. I auditioned, and the rest is history.

WHERE IS YOUR IDENTITY? A HUMBLING MOMENT

In terms of being humbled, there was one night when I was freestyling and I watched the video of me freestyling in my room. I went onto Instagram for the purpose of inspiration and getting ideas for movement, but I watched it and I was like, ‘Aw frick, I suck!’ but it wasn’t funny like it is right now. I was so depressed. I started crying, I started questioning life. I had to talk to Eddie and calm down because I was so sad.

I think that moment helped me realize that I was putting too much of my identity in dance. I realized, okay, if it makes me feel this bad ... I mean, of course, if I put more effort and time, I’m going to get better, that goes with everything. But I was putting too much of an importance in my mind and in my heart, in my soul, in my very being, that I had to be good at dance and on-par with these people that I look up to. I realized that I needed to reevaluate and recenter myself on Christ, and I’m still learning what that means today.

IN ALL YOU DO...

A verse that keeps Tristan grounded and focused on worshiping God through dance is 1 Corinthians 10:31: “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.” (ESV)

I remember that being an initiation to the thought of like, ‘Oh yeah, I really need to make this for God.’

PURSUING A CAREER IN DANCE: MAXIMIZING GOD’S GIFT

In the summer of 2018, Tristan attended the Arena Dance Camp. Here, he decided to pursue dance as a career after a class by Keone Madrid and Anthony Lee:

Keone said, ‘Yeah, I didn’t know either and I didn’t have the resources that people have today.’ ... It was really hard for him to make that decision, but he was like, ‘If you're going to make that decision, I really encourage you to go all in, go all out, go hard, because you’ll never know unless you do.’ That was kind of the first time I was like, okay, it does make sense. You reap what you sow. If I’m going to be the person that goes half in, I’ll just get that half back. If I’m too scared to go in and I’m like, ‘Oh, no, I don’t want to go into this, I’ll kind of do it at home, I won’t post it, I won’t share it with people, I won’t share a story, or I just won’t try because it’s not a possibility.’ Let’s say I already accepted that into my head. Then the gift was wasted. Then the gift that I believe God gave me was wasted.

I’m still scared. But I think I’m less scared knowing that my identity is in Christ and even if I don’t make it or God leads me to something else, that I can still say, well, I know God put me in this place, and I did everything I could with it. That is something that I can be happy with, that I was obedient and that I used the gift. I didn’t let the talent go to waste.

AM I MEANT TO PURSUE MY PASSION?

That’s something that I would say you really have to find out on your own. Do a lot of reading, I’m kind of doing that right now, actually… When it comes to a career, you really never know until you try, for sure. You really never know until you go hard, go at it. But really, be careful about it, and if you want to do this as a career and represent Christ, also bring that to God, because I have definitely had to do that and ask the hard questions, and face the hard facts of, like, I’m going to struggle with money, I’m going to struggle with disappointment, and maybe a lack of views, and I’m going to get depressed or hurt.

There is definitely a cost to it, and a lot of people, they might be supportive of you. If they’re supportive, that is awesome. But there might be a lot of people, like family, that will go against you because they do love you and care about you, but my family, they were like, if you get injured, it’s over. If you break something, you will never dance again, so you might as well go to college and get a desk job now. Work at an office now, because why waste your time? Money, and even marriage, that was probably the biggest thing. I know Keone was like, okay, I have to go hard if I’m going to be the one to feed my kids with dance, essentially, right? I had to ask myself if I’m ready to do that. That is something that I’m prepared for, but figuring out.

FINAL THOUGHTS

​Like I said in the beginning, the most important lesson that I’ve learned while dancing is that I was made for God first and dance is something that was given, and that is something that he has allowed me to do now ... Really seek God first and know your identity in Christ first and have that be the foundation than the thing that you’re doing. If you put a lot of yourself and your hopes in the thing that you’re doing, then you will be disappointed, at least at some point. That’s not eternal -- only God is eternal.

It was a joy to hear Tristan share his heart for dance. His trust in God as he pursues his passion is inspiring and we hope you were blessed by his words as well.

To listen to the full episode, check out “The Bread Podcast” on Spotify.