Latest / Making The Impact - A Dance Competition Podcast / Spotlight Feature - Stacey Tookey

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Spotlight Feature - Stacey Tookey · Making The Impact - A Dance Competition Podcast

0:07
SPEAKER_06: Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the table at a dance competition?
0:10
SPEAKER_06: Exactly what are the judges looking for anyway?
0:13
SPEAKER_06: This is Making the Impact, a dance competition podcast.
0:15
SPEAKER_06: Each week we'll cover a different topic related to the world of competitive dance, from the perspective of the judges behind the table.
0:24
SPEAKER_06: From a childhood spent in her mother's dance studio to Emmy nominations for her work on Saint Can Dance, Stacey 15 has had a varied and exciting career.
0:33
SPEAKER_06: We are so excited to welcome this multi-hyphenite talent to making the impact as our second spotlight feature of season four.
0:39
SPEAKER_06: We're sure you'll be inspired listening to her story.
0:44
SPEAKER_02: Hello, dance world, and welcome to this week's episode of Making the Impact A Dance Competition Podcast.
0:51
SPEAKER_04: I am your host, Courtney Ortiz, and I'm here with my co-host Leslie Mueller.
0:56
SPEAKER_06: Hey Courtney, how are you doing?
0:57
SPEAKER_04: I am good.
0:58
SPEAKER_04: How are you?
0:59
SPEAKER_06: I'm great.
1:00
SPEAKER_06: I'm excited for this spotlight feature.
1:02
SPEAKER_06: They have quickly become my favorite episodes.
1:06
SPEAKER_04: I know I think everyone loves the spotlight feature episodes.
1:10
SPEAKER_04: And I'm really excited that we brought back these regular spotlight features that we introduced in season two because we get to sit down and really get to know some industry leaders and hear about their dance journey and hear their story and hear how they are making an impact in this beautiful dance world.
1:28
SPEAKER_04: And we have a very, very special guest joining us today that I cannot wait to learn more about.
1:33
SPEAKER_04: And I hope all of our listeners are really excited.
1:36
SPEAKER_04: So yay for our spotlight features and more to come this season.
1:40
SPEAKER_04: We have some more studio spotlights as well.
1:43
SPEAKER_04: And uh more spotlight features for all of you listeners around the world.
1:47
SPEAKER_06: Yes.
1:47
SPEAKER_06: So and if you didn't, for some reason didn't tune into our spotlight features from previous seasons, you can always go back on your podcast app and check those out.
1:54
SPEAKER_06: We've got tons of great interviews with people that uh you have probably heard of, and if you haven't heard of, you're gonna be excited to hear about them.
2:01
SPEAKER_06: So go check out our previous episodes, and let's move on and jump into this episode any minute now.
2:07
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
2:08
SPEAKER_04: We're about to jump on into this episode, but before we do, we want to tell you a little bit more about some of our sponsors for today's episode.
2:16
SPEAKER_04: And our first sponsor is Level Up Dance Supplies.
2:20
SPEAKER_04: Level Up Dance Supplies is a family-owned and operated company that has been the leading retailer of top name brand dance gear since 2010.
2:27
SPEAKER_04: They probably offer the largest selection of dance gears such as glamour gear, rock and roll, grit, KK Miami, and so many more, as well as their very own line of dance bags, duffels, and more accessories to ensure that you get to every competition in an organized fashion.
2:41
SPEAKER_04: Today we'd like to spotlight one of their products, and that is the Adagio dance bag.
2:46
SPEAKER_04: The Adagio is a true carry-on-style dance bag with a twist.
2:50
SPEAKER_04: Their most compact dance bag yet, the Adagio offers all of the space and organization that you need when carrying up to five costumes plus all of your gear.
2:58
SPEAKER_04: It sets up in seconds, features multi-layers, three exterior zipped pockets, four interior pockets, and even two shoe pockets.
3:05
SPEAKER_04: The Adagio is the perfect bag for those who have less than five costumes or want something compact and can be used for airline travel.
3:11
SPEAKER_04: It is available in solid black with four choices of zipper colors.
3:15
SPEAKER_04: Gear up for the competition season at Level Up Dance Supplies.
3:18
SPEAKER_04: Remember to use our exclusive podcast promo code Impact10 in all caps at checkout for exclusive savings.
3:25
SPEAKER_04: Our coupon code is valid for Level Up Dance Applies products only.
3:28
SPEAKER_04: Visit their website now at levelupdanceupplies.com.
3:32
SPEAKER_06: And we don't want to forget to give some shout outs to some folks who have given us some amazing reviews over the past couple of months.
3:38
SPEAKER_06: I wanted to say a little thank you out to Stephen D.
3:42
SPEAKER_06: from Apple Podcasts.
3:43
SPEAKER_06: Uh they said specifically about episode 111 shock value.
3:47
SPEAKER_06: This is fantastic, truly impactful.
3:50
SPEAKER_06: This episode showcased real industry leaders and provided insightful commentary through a professional medium.
3:55
SPEAKER_06: Everyone involved should be proud.
3:56
SPEAKER_06: Bravo.
3:57
SPEAKER_02: Oh my god.
3:59
SPEAKER_06: We are proud.
4:00
SPEAKER_06: That feels that thank you so much.
4:01
SPEAKER_06: Uh Steve Stefan D, Stephen D.
4:04
SPEAKER_06: Another user from Facebook told us about that episode.
4:07
SPEAKER_06: Definitely worth your time.
4:09
SPEAKER_06: This was an amazing podcast.
4:10
SPEAKER_06: This should be a must-listen for all choreographers, coaches, parents, and anyone included in the art of dancing.
4:16
SPEAKER_06: Even as someone who is a more casual observer, this is educational and really impactful.
4:20
SPEAKER_06: This is TED Talk Quality.
4:22
SPEAKER_06: Well done.
4:22
SPEAKER_06: Informative and entertaining.
4:24
SPEAKER_06: Love it.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
4:25
SPEAKER_06: Should we do the TED Talk next?
4:27
SPEAKER_06: I guess so.
4:28
SPEAKER_06: Well, I mean, if it's TED Talk Quality already, we should just submit.
4:33
SPEAKER_04: I'm blown away by that.
4:34
SPEAKER_04: TED Talk Quality.
4:36
SPEAKER_06: So so kind.
4:37
SPEAKER_06: What a nice review.
4:38
SPEAKER_06: And finally, from Casey Day on Apple Podcasts.
4:41
SPEAKER_06: They say, My daughter and I love listening to this podcast.
4:44
SPEAKER_06: We both learned so much and excitedly await each new episode.
4:47
SPEAKER_06: Highly recommend to anyone in the competition dance community.
4:49
SPEAKER_06: Yay.
4:50
SPEAKER_06: Thanks, Casey Day.
4:51
SPEAKER_06: And thanks to all of our listeners.
4:53
SPEAKER_06: If you are happy with what you're hearing, if you love what you're hearing, a way to support us that costs you zero dollars is to write us a review and give us a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts.
5:03
SPEAKER_06: I mean, if you want to give us a four-star rating, because yeah, I don't know.
5:07
SPEAKER_06: For whatever reason, give us a rating.
5:08
SPEAKER_06: Let's be honest.
5:09
SPEAKER_06: We like we like honesty here.
5:10
SPEAKER_06: But that really does help us bump up into the algorithm and expose more people to our podcast.
5:16
SPEAKER_06: So thanks to everybody who's already submitted one.
5:18
SPEAKER_06: And are we ready to jump in, Courtney?
5:20
SPEAKER_04: All right, listeners, it's time to jump into this week's episode, and we have our second spotlight feature of season four.
5:28
SPEAKER_04: And I am so excited to get to know and learn more about this amazing artist in our industry who I'm sure you've heard her name thrown around.
5:37
SPEAKER_04: She was a choreographer on So You Think You Can Dance.
5:41
SPEAKER_04: She has danced with Celine Dion, y'all.
5:44
SPEAKER_04: We love Celine over here on Making the Impact.
5:46
SPEAKER_04: A shout-out to Maddie Kurtz.
5:48
SPEAKER_04: That is probably diehard.
5:50
SPEAKER_04: Maddie Kurtz loves Celine.
5:52
SPEAKER_04: And she is also the director of the Bridge Movement mentoring dancers for her their professional dreams and helping guide them to what's next in their career.
6:03
SPEAKER_04: I'm excited to learn more about that program.
6:05
SPEAKER_04: I am very excited to welcome Stacy Tukey to our podcast.
6:09
SPEAKER_04: Welcome, Stacy.
6:11
SPEAKER_04: Hi.
6:11
SPEAKER_04: Happy to be here.
6:13
SPEAKER_04: Yay! I know that we uh have been trying to schedule this for a minute and we finally were able to make it happen and sit down with you because you are just so busy and in demand and living living the mom life, but also living the educator life.
6:27
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
6:27
SPEAKER_01: Yes, doing a little bit of all of it.
6:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
6:30
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I know.
6:31
SPEAKER_04: It's it's hard to juggle.
6:33
SPEAKER_04: I can't imagine, especially you at your where you're at in your career, you were when we're gonna talk all about this, but like being a previous professional dancer, now choreographer educated, now also running a mentoring program, and then also being a mom and having a family.
6:48
SPEAKER_04: Like that it I can't imagine.
6:50
SPEAKER_04: I can't juggle my life, and I don't even have I have two cats.
6:53
SPEAKER_04: Like that's all I have, you know.
6:55
SPEAKER_03: So I can't imagine what it's like to be a mom on top of it.
6:58
SPEAKER_03: So I give you all the props.
7:00
SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you.
7:01
SPEAKER_01: The struggle for balance is real for sure.
7:03
SPEAKER_01: So anyone going through that, and I think it just changes at different stages.
7:07
SPEAKER_01: Like I've always been kind of a hustler, a go-getter.
7:10
SPEAKER_01: So like I've always have been a mover in in many, many ways.
7:14
SPEAKER_01: And now it's just seems to evolve.
7:16
SPEAKER_01: But I will say that the older I get, the more I'm trying to kind of slow down.
7:21
SPEAKER_01: And I have, you know, one daughter, so I don't want to miss her her life.
7:24
SPEAKER_01: So some things get put on pause and other things get highlighted, and you know, at the next stage, you know, other things will shift.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: So we're just going with it, doing our best over here, you know, trying to make it all happen.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
7:38
SPEAKER_04: Uh so like I mentioned to our listeners out there, you may know Stacy Tukey's name.
7:44
SPEAKER_04: She teaches on dance conventions.
7:46
SPEAKER_04: She was on So You Think You Can Dance as a Choreographer.
7:49
SPEAKER_04: And I can't wait to hear about your early years uh as a professional dancer before I feel like we really got to know you even more in the dance world once you became a choreographer.
8:00
SPEAKER_04: But you had a whole career as a professional dancer prior to that that I'm excited to hear all about and learn all about.
8:07
SPEAKER_04: So, Leslie, want to jump in?
8:09
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, let's kick it off.
8:11
SPEAKER_06: I'm always interested in everybody's early life as well, because you know, people come to dance from all kinds of avenues.
8:17
SPEAKER_06: So I want to hear about where you're from and where you started dancing and who put you in dance and were you, you know, interested from the get-go, or how did all of that evolve?
8:26
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm originally from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
8:29
SPEAKER_01: And my family all still lives in Canada.
8:32
SPEAKER_01: And my mom is the owner of a dance studio.
8:36
SPEAKER_01: This is her 54th year.
8:37
SPEAKER_01: So I fell into dance literally.
8:40
SPEAKER_01: It was in our basement of our house when I was born.
8:42
SPEAKER_01: Like she's always had a dance studio since she was in her late teens.
8:46
SPEAKER_01: And so I don't remember choosing dance.
8:49
SPEAKER_01: I just remember, I remember like sneaking downstairs.
8:53
SPEAKER_01: I remember like when I was really little and I could hear music all the time.
8:57
SPEAKER_01: Like I still to this day I have to go to sleep with something on because I'm so used to falling asleep with music.
9:02
SPEAKER_01: And our her first studio was downstairs, and we were, I would sleep upstairs and I would sneak down like the senior jazz class, and there was this curtain that went across the stairs, and I would peek like on the curtain, and I would just watch them go across the floor until my mom would catch me and then I go up back upstairs.
9:16
SPEAKER_01: And I remember as like that's probably my earliest memory.
9:19
SPEAKER_01: But um, yeah, so my mom has a very successful studio, and I I was the kid that loved it.
9:26
SPEAKER_01: Um, my brother not so much at the beginning, but I I just dance was probably at the beginning cheaper than babysitting.
9:33
SPEAKER_01: So she put me in it.
9:34
SPEAKER_01: And then I was at the studio every day, all day.
9:38
SPEAKER_01: Like I was just the kid that went from school to the studio to my mom was done at 11 p.m.
9:42
SPEAKER_01: and did my homework in the costume cot in the costume closet.
9:45
SPEAKER_01: And that was my whole childhood.
9:47
SPEAKER_01: And dance was pretty much my my whole world besides school.
9:52
SPEAKER_01: I studied a lot of different styles of dance because I think my mom, as a studio owner, always wanted to give opportunity to her students.
9:58
SPEAKER_01: So someone would come in and say, Oh, I teach Highland, Scottish Highland dance.
10:02
SPEAKER_01: And my mom would be like, Great, let's add it to the programming, and Stacy will take it.
10:06
SPEAKER_01: So I was like, Somebody will be in the class.
10:08
SPEAKER_01: Somebody will be there.
10:08
SPEAKER_01: Stacy will take it.
10:09
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I took, I was, yeah, I competitively a Highland dancer, like Northern Canadian champion.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like competitively.
10:16
SPEAKER_01: I was a baton twirler competitively.
10:19
SPEAKER_01: I, oh yeah, all the things out of the norm.
10:22
SPEAKER_01: Because my mom special skills.
10:24
SPEAKER_01: All the special skills.
10:24
SPEAKER_01: Let me see.
10:25
SPEAKER_01: The resume special skills is really there.
10:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, growing up, I, you know, I took tap and jazz and ballet and lyrical and hip hop and musical theater and all like the the ones, you know, that are really popular today, but I also took Scottish Highland dancing.
10:38
SPEAKER_01: I was in a German dance troupe at one point.
10:40
SPEAKER_01: I did baton twirling, I was on a bowling team, I was a figure skater.
10:45
SPEAKER_00: Like I was just did a lot of things.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: How did you have time?
10:50
SPEAKER_01: Well, now you see how I juggle all that I do.
10:52
SPEAKER_01: It's all that I've ever basically.
10:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I basically would go from like a 5 30 a.m.
10:57
SPEAKER_01: ice time to school.
10:58
SPEAKER_01: I would get home from school and well, I wouldn't even go home from school.
11:01
SPEAKER_01: I would go straight to dance.
11:02
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, all the weekends and holidays were all dance.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I I really did love it, but it was intense.
11:09
SPEAKER_01: Now looking back, it was I look back and go, oh, that wasn't normal.
11:13
SPEAKER_01: But for me, that was normal.
11:14
SPEAKER_01: Um, but truthfully, I will say that I credit my like drive and my dedication to that early childhood for sure.
11:21
SPEAKER_01: And there is times when I'm in my professional career, I'd be at an audition and they'd be like, Special special skills, and I would whip out some Scottish Highland dancing, and they would be like, What is that?
11:30
unknown: Yeah.
11:31
SPEAKER_01: Most Selene.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: They would be like, What are you doing?
11:35
SPEAKER_04: Has it ever gotten you the job, the Scottish Highland dance?
11:37
SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, it's definitely gotten me attention.
11:39
SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure in a good way.
11:41
SPEAKER_01: I want to say I what was it for?
11:43
SPEAKER_01: It might have been for Cher or something.
11:45
SPEAKER_01: It was after Celine.
11:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it was like special skills, and people started doing tap dancing as a special skill.
11:51
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, tap dancing.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: I was like, I'm gonna pull my baton twirling.
11:55
SPEAKER_00: And I pulled out a baton, and I think I think Cher almost fell off the chair.
11:58
SPEAKER_06: First of all, you had it with you.
12:00
SPEAKER_06: So listeners, you can't forget your stuff.
12:04
SPEAKER_00: You have to pull that dance bag has to be fully loaded.
12:06
SPEAKER_01: You need to have everything for that audition.
12:08
SPEAKER_01: But I can't say I I will say the versatility's helped me um for sure just kind of tackle anything.
12:14
SPEAKER_01: You know, I've had a lot of experience in my career where it's just been unexpected what they ask of you.
12:19
SPEAKER_01: And so for that, I think it prepared me for sure.
12:22
SPEAKER_04: That immediately made me think of I don't know if you remember this, Leslie.
12:25
SPEAKER_04: I feel like Eliza Omen said that on an episode.
12:28
SPEAKER_04: We actually our versatility episode with Brittany Hall and Eliza Omen, and she was talking about like there are so many things that are expected of you once you get onto the job that like you didn't tell anyone that you could even do, or didn't they audition you doing that, and they're just like, Oh, you do this, right?
12:46
SPEAKER_04: Can you just make this happen?
12:48
SPEAKER_04: And you're like, What?
12:49
SPEAKER_04: I did not sign up for this, like type of thing.
12:51
SPEAKER_04: So I'm sure like even if you didn't even display your baton twirling all to get the gig, they're probably like, Hold the phone.
12:58
SPEAKER_04: She can baton twirl, we're adding it in.
13:00
SPEAKER_04: Adding it in.
13:01
SPEAKER_01: It's like how niche.
13:03
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it's funny because actually when I auditioned for the Celine show, it was a it was like a year-long audition process.
13:08
SPEAKER_01: And it was it, they went all over the world.
13:11
SPEAKER_01: They went all over Europe, all over South America, North America.
13:14
SPEAKER_01: And so I auditioned in November and found out in like March that I got the job.
13:17
SPEAKER_01: But part of that audition, I mean, I'll a little disclosure on jumping ahead, but I when I moved to New York, um, fell in love with the city, had all this training under my belt, but didn't sing, and realized that like that really, really blocked me on so many jobs.
13:30
SPEAKER_01: And I would get through the ending of a Broadway show audition, get to the singing, get cut.
13:34
SPEAKER_01: And so when the Celine audition breakdown came out, it was like strong technical dancers of all backgrounds, no singing was mentioned.
13:40
SPEAKER_01: So I was like, Yes, this is my job.
13:42
SPEAKER_01: And turns out at the end of the eight-hour audition, the last thing I said was, Okay, now we're gonna sing.
13:49
SPEAKER_01: And funny story, I walked in, I'm a Canadian, of course, and no one had sheet music because we weren't supposed to sing.
13:55
SPEAKER_01: And I walk into the audition, and I'm just I'm already really terrified of obviously what's gonna happen.
14:02
SPEAKER_01: I don't have any sheet music, so I don't know what we're singing.
14:04
SPEAKER_01: And they say, Okay, we're just gonna sing the national anthem.
14:06
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you're Canadian! Don't know the words to the national anthem.
14:12
SPEAKER_01: So it was the most talk about horrific experience.
14:17
SPEAKER_01: I just I left almost in tears because I just was so embarrassed.
14:20
SPEAKER_01: And I walked out and the casting director said, Stacey, don't worry, we have our singer, her name's Celine, you know, and kind of like cheered, cheered me up.
14:27
SPEAKER_01: And then I walked out, and afterwards, when we got the job, we didn't sing in the show.
14:30
SPEAKER_01: And I was so curious why they did that.
14:32
SPEAKER_01: And the casting said that the director who was the director of Cirque, the creator of Cirque du Soleil, Franco Dragon, who just passed, sadly, he wanted dancers that were open to anything.
14:42
SPEAKER_01: So he wanted to make you feel uncomfortable, even though he knew that he wasn't gonna use it.
14:48
SPEAKER_01: So that was a really big lesson for me, just in the fact of now when I prepare dancers, it's like sometimes it's not even about the skill, it's about the openness to try something new.
14:56
SPEAKER_04: Oh my God.
14:57
SPEAKER_04: Great advice.
14:59
SPEAKER_06: All right, so any of our international listeners maybe learn the national anthem.
15:04
SPEAKER_06: Oh my God.
15:05
SPEAKER_06: I mean, listen, that is a that is not an easy song to sing.
15:08
SPEAKER_06: The national anthem is I mean, have you ever heard anybody butcher it at a football game or whatever?
15:11
SPEAKER_06: Like it's not an easy song.
15:13
SPEAKER_06: So that was like actually really mean.
15:15
SPEAKER_06: Not even happy birthday.
15:16
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I know.
15:17
SPEAKER_04: Give a happy birthday instead.
15:19
SPEAKER_06: Like wow.
15:22
SPEAKER_06: Ah, well, I can't wait to jump more into that part of your life, but I want to stay chronological because I feel like it just like makes more sense.
15:28
SPEAKER_06: So, okay, so you danced 24-7 forever at your mom's studio.
15:32
SPEAKER_06: You're a senior in high school.
15:34
SPEAKER_06: What is your thought process?
15:35
SPEAKER_06: Are you thinking, I want to go be a pro, I want to teach, I want to go to college?
15:38
SPEAKER_01: Well, when I was um, I remember clearly being about eight years old, which is almost the age of my daughter.
15:43
SPEAKER_01: And I walked up to my mom and I said, I'm gonna be a professional dancer.
15:46
SPEAKER_01: Like I was dead set on it.
15:48
SPEAKER_01: Like I didn't, I'm not sure I knew what that was, but I knew I wanted to dance for the rest of my life.
15:52
SPEAKER_01: And I remember that being very young.
15:53
SPEAKER_01: And so, kind of in chronological order, I mean, I competed, I I I did um all my ballet exams and I was really pushing towards a ballet career.
16:01
SPEAKER_01: Truthfully, I did everything, but I kind of thought that in my head, ballet was like the mecca.
16:06
SPEAKER_01: Like it was like if you can make it as a ballet dancer, like somehow, and I loved it.
16:10
SPEAKER_01: I really enjoyed it and I was I was good at it, and I was able to go to a lot of study under a lot of amazing ballet schools, and I still did everything else.
16:17
SPEAKER_01: And every time I would almost go to the ballet school to just dive in, you know, and you know, be at the kind of away from home and be living at the ballet school, I would get the they would tell me I'd have to give up all the other styles of dance, and I was like, I don't know ready for that.
16:30
SPEAKER_01: So then cut forward to when I was 17, about to graduate, I was in a ballet competition that was representing my country called the Adeline Jennay Awards, which I was the only one from Canada there through the Royal Academy of Dancing.
16:41
SPEAKER_01: And it was a it's a very prestigious competition.
16:44
SPEAKER_01: And I had suffered from shin splints, what I thought were shin splints, for many years.
16:48
SPEAKER_01: And when I got to London for the competition, we were at the Royal Academy and it was concrete floors, and I was doing a variation, jumping on point, and I felt my shin bones bending.
16:59
SPEAKER_01: No, and that's the only and I actually came off stage, I went into shock, and I I didn't finish the competition.
17:05
SPEAKER_01: I got rushed home and the medical doctors there, sports medicine doctors, looked at me and they said, You have stress fractures through half of your both of your tibia.
17:14
SPEAKER_01: So basically your legs are clinically broken, and you need to take a and I thought they were gonna say like a week off dance because I never I danced through every injury.
17:22
SPEAKER_01: That's like another thing we can get into.
17:24
SPEAKER_01: But I basically they sat me down and they said you need to take a year-off dance or your legs might snap and you will never walk again without a limp.
17:31
SPEAKER_01: Like you'll have to get a metal rod from your knee to your ankle.
17:34
SPEAKER_01: So I was about to graduate, I was in grade 12, and I just sat there and I remember thinking, like, this isn't happening to me.
17:41
SPEAKER_01: Like this was January of my graduating year.
17:44
SPEAKER_01: And in my mind, yeah, I mean, so it ended up taking my my life took a very different turn than where I thought it was gonna take.
17:51
SPEAKER_01: I um was in a wheelchair because they couldn't, I they were both broken.
17:55
SPEAKER_01: So essentially one more step and they could have snapped.
17:58
SPEAKER_01: So I basically was in a wheelchair for about six months and then was on crutches, and so I couldn't dance, and all I knew known was dancing, and I had danced through a lot of minor injuries my whole career, kind of had the no pain, no gain motto going on.
18:12
SPEAKER_01: And so this was really foreign to me.
18:14
SPEAKER_01: And I I went into a depression.
18:16
SPEAKER_01: I was really it it was a really low point in my life.
18:20
SPEAKER_01: I went to school, I went to study to college and just locally where I wasn't.
18:24
SPEAKER_01: I went to the University of Alberta and I studied criminology and psychology, like nothing, you know, to do with dance.
18:30
SPEAKER_01: And a year later, I went about six months, it was really, really rough.
18:33
SPEAKER_01: And then I finally was like, okay, I have to decide because either I'm gonna stay here or I need to get past this.
18:38
SPEAKER_01: And I started swimming, it was the only activity I could do that was non-weight bearing, and visualizing a lot of what it would be like if my legs did heal.
18:46
SPEAKER_01: And a year later, my legs completely healed, and I auditioned for a position underneath Ballet BC's um company in in Vancouver, and I I kind of took up an apprenticeship there, and that was like my first professional job.
19:01
SPEAKER_01: So, like it was delayed, but I and it was rough and it taught me a lot about my body.
19:07
SPEAKER_01: But um, that was kind of my trajectory.
19:09
SPEAKER_01: And then from Ballet BC, I was there and I realized that ballet wasn't all for me, that I liked it, but I didn't love it only seclusively.
19:18
SPEAKER_01: So I um yeah, so from there I I basically started branching out.
19:22
SPEAKER_01: I mean, but I I mean my my pathway is very all over the place.
19:25
SPEAKER_01: I was dancing at ballet sea, but I was also a cheerleader for the NBA for the Vancouver Grizzlies at the same time, like doing hip hop.
19:31
SPEAKER_01: Like I would go from the ballet to put my Doc Martens on and do hip hop, basically anything that would kind of pay my bills.
19:37
SPEAKER_01: And um, that's kind of how my trajectory started into dance.
19:41
SPEAKER_01: It was, yeah, it was a little rocky to say, to say the least.
19:44
SPEAKER_01: That's crazy.
19:45
SPEAKER_04: I can't believe you were in a wheelchair for six months.
19:48
SPEAKER_01: I basically was, I mean, I don't know if it was a complete six, I mean, I was it, I was, it was up for a long time.
19:54
SPEAKER_01: It was, I mean, I know I couldn't walk on them for six months.
19:56
SPEAKER_01: I can't remember exactly, but I was in a wheelchair for long enough that I to remember that it was really hard.
20:01
SPEAKER_01: Right.
20:02
SPEAKER_01: And then I was on crutches for almost the rest of the the time um until I start and then they did heal, and that's the m miraculous thing about your body is it does heal.
20:10
SPEAKER_01: But it was I thought I was invincible.
20:13
SPEAKER_01: Like I it was such a lesson to me.
20:15
SPEAKER_04: It does, I think, honestly.
20:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and now I'm it's it's such a huge component of all my programming and all my teaching is yes, there's a certain kind of resilience and it there's a certain kind of like dancers do have have to have a lot of pain tolerance, but you shouldn't be you have to listen to your body because what I did was developed a really special skill of ignoring my body, which I'm still trying to undo.
20:37
SPEAKER_01: And it's you know, and now I've had five surgeries related to dance.
20:40
SPEAKER_01: I just had my second hip replaced.
20:42
SPEAKER_01: And that's yeah, and so it's like you your body can only go so far.
20:47
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
20:47
SPEAKER_01: And I think back to now the the dancers that I mentor, and if I knew what I'm the information I'm giving them, if I knew when I was younger, I it would have been different for sure.
20:56
unknown: Right.
20:57
SPEAKER_06: Well and also just to like you know, everybody, every dancer, every athlete, every cheerleader, you know, you know, you know what you think shin splints is.
21:06
SPEAKER_06: That's a very common thing to be like, oh, it's just shin splints.
21:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
21:09
SPEAKER_06: And then to to continue thinking that and to hear that you have enough fractures in both of your tibias, you said.
21:16
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, to to actually you could could have just it could have been terrible.
21:20
SPEAKER_06: So like, yeah, don't ignore what you're feeling and because that's what that's what gets you to, you know, your fifth surgery or your I'm on my third coming up in a couple weeks, um, related to dance and related to ignoring symptoms and pushing through pain.
21:34
SPEAKER_06: Like, don't do it, don't do it, guys.
21:36
SPEAKER_06: We're we're older and wiser.
21:37
SPEAKER_06: Listen to listen to your aunties.
21:39
SPEAKER_04: Exactly, exactly.
21:40
SPEAKER_04: And there's really like I mean, we've all s I I think that like the hard part in our industry, uh especially when you're young, like we're kinda talking about when when we do really think we're invincible and our teachers kinda think we're invincible.
21:53
SPEAKER_04: Oh, you're young, you're fine, you can do it, type of stuff.
21:56
SPEAKER_04: Do that headspring.
21:57
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, do your headspring, you know, whatever.
22:00
SPEAKER_04: Unsafely.
22:01
SPEAKER_04: Y'all know my thoughts about the head springs.
22:03
SPEAKER_04: Oh jeez, sorry.
22:04
SPEAKER_04: But I just feel like that's it's it's just a it's tough to power through some of these injuries.
22:12
SPEAKER_04: There were so many times looking back that I was like, this hurts me, mom.
22:17
SPEAKER_04: But they didn't really want, no, I don't want to take you to the doctor.
22:20
SPEAKER_04: It's fine.
22:20
SPEAKER_04: You're just oh suck it up.
22:22
SPEAKER_04: It's gonna be fine.
22:23
SPEAKER_04: And until it really happens, until the injury happens, then it's that then it's finally like, this is serious.
22:30
SPEAKER_04: And I don't think that people really, especially like young dancers, you think, I can do this a million times, I'm gonna be fine.
22:35
SPEAKER_04: But when you feel that pop or you feel that what you know injury happen and you are in excruciating pain, like the longevity aspect of you know, just sitting here is you two both have had multiple surgeries from your dance training.
22:50
SPEAKER_04: Like the stuff I see happening at competition these days and like in training programs that is so unsafe.
22:55
SPEAKER_04: I'm like, I'm thinking of the longevity.
22:57
SPEAKER_04: I hope you don't get it in the moment, but yeah, this is it too.
23:00
SPEAKER_01: And we're seeing that now on convention.
23:02
SPEAKER_01: I'm seeing so much of it because everyone knows I've had four hip surgeries, you know, two repairs and two replacements.
23:08
SPEAKER_01: And I so I'll get a lot of parents or people will, you know, students coming up, but I'm getting younger and younger dancers, 13, 12, 14 with labral tears, which is a wear and tear injury because of what the repetitive movement in the extreme, extreme measures without the proper support.
23:25
SPEAKER_01: And so we're seeing this a lot, which is really, really scary to me because these dancers are not going to have careers.
23:31
SPEAKER_01: It turns out they're their competitive career, is their career, and that's it.
23:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
23:35
SPEAKER_01: And there's no because there's just a finite amount of what your body can take.
23:39
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not about being lazy, but about proper training and about actually having the strength and support.
23:44
SPEAKER_01: And and then it's like also it feeds into the mentality when you're a professional dancer that you're replaceable.
23:50
SPEAKER_01: So no one wants to admit they're injured because you think that you're the next person's gonna get your job.
23:55
SPEAKER_01: And I kind of really want to change the workplace.
23:58
SPEAKER_01: Like on my ever any time that I am responsible for a job, like, yes, we need to get the job done.
24:03
SPEAKER_01: And yes, I need healthy dancers going in.
24:05
SPEAKER_01: But if something happens, I want communication.
24:06
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to be on, I don't want their body to be destroyed on my watch.
24:11
SPEAKER_01: And I think that there needs to be a bit more, there needs to be a shift in what that is.
24:15
SPEAKER_01: And I and it's tricky because also our bodies are our instruments and they need to work well.
24:20
SPEAKER_01: So the bottom line is take care of it when you're young.
24:22
SPEAKER_01: Right.
24:22
SPEAKER_01: 100%.
24:23
SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
24:23
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, it has to start from that that point.
24:25
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
24:26
SPEAKER_04: I say that all the time, even like for me, I feel like I I received very very strong training at my studio growing up, but it's crazy for me as an adult professional to have acquired injuries and I wasn't even training at these crazy levels that some of the dancers are now.
24:41
SPEAKER_04: And like, again, I think that I was trained properly.
24:44
SPEAKER_04: I think I was trained properly, but then I still get the injuries, you know.
24:47
SPEAKER_04: So it's like no matter what.
24:48
SPEAKER_06: Or or you go to PT and the PT's like, oh, well, you're you're drawing the hamstring isn't firing because your quad is taken, and you're like, I had no idea.
24:57
SPEAKER_06: Like it there's our bodies are so like again, you can you can do everything you think is proper, and even if you're not going to the extremes, there's still weaknesses and you know, just your personal structure that like you know matters to the work that you're doing.
25:11
SPEAKER_01: Um and also the integrity of your body is gonna only rely on how much like it needs to also have rest.
25:19
SPEAKER_01: Like, we don't talk about the flip side of it because everything is like it's pushed further, harder, faster.
25:24
SPEAKER_01: Now, when I see like the seven-year-olds doing in competition, right, I'm like, I'm I'm my mind is blown.
25:30
SPEAKER_01: My seven-year-old, everyone's like, Whoa, this harper, and she's got all the talent in the world.
25:34
SPEAKER_01: What is she doing?
25:35
SPEAKER_01: She's doing one ballet class a week and one little hap hip hop and jazz like lyrical combo class.
25:41
SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
25:42
SPEAKER_01: And she keeps going, Mom, I want to be on the competitive team.
25:44
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, okay, we'll get there.
25:45
SPEAKER_01: But I I worry about the pacing, and I'm also a product of that pacing.
25:51
SPEAKER_05: Right.
25:51
SPEAKER_01: And so I I also say that it's not that you can't push hard.
25:54
SPEAKER_01: I said they can be on competitive teams when they're seven.
25:56
SPEAKER_01: I'm not against that.
25:57
SPEAKER_01: They love it, they're in it.
25:58
SPEAKER_01: But also, what does rest look like?
26:00
SPEAKER_01: Are they getting proper time during the week and during their year where they're actually resting their bodies?
26:06
SPEAKER_01: Because I think that's where a lot of it comes from as well, is just the the lack of balance of it.
26:11
SPEAKER_01: 100%.
26:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, totally agree.
26:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you hit a passion point on the injury.
26:14
SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
26:15
SPEAKER_01: It's like so it's really like I mean, it means a lot to me to try to to voice my experience in that and just what I'm seeing across like really North America.
26:25
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
26:26
SPEAKER_06: Well, it's important for our listeners to hear from not only like we have we've had an injury prevention episode, we've had, you know, people who were like we had an episode that I think is releasing any minute now about why a proper warm-up is necessary.
26:41
SPEAKER_04: Our episode last week.
26:43
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, last week.
26:44
SPEAKER_06: I don't know what day it is.
26:45
SPEAKER_06: I know.
26:47
SPEAKER_06: But it's important for people to hear from people they look up to, like you, who've had a successful career, who've had a varied career over your life, that like, no, you struggled with this too.
26:57
SPEAKER_06: This is not something that happens because of poor training all the time.
27:00
SPEAKER_06: It's not something that happens because you were lazy or this or that or the other.
27:04
SPEAKER_06: No, this happens to everyone, and everyone needs to be in that mindset of taking care and taking the time to rest in between all of the love that we have for dance, which is why we do it all the time.
27:14
SPEAKER_04: And with that point, the uh another person that came to mind while you were saying that, Leslie, was when we had Alex Wong on that on season one.
27:21
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
27:22
SPEAKER_04: And he ruptured both of Hilly excuse.
27:24
SPEAKER_01: Yes, while I was working with him.
27:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
27:26
SPEAKER_01: I mean, full wow, crazy.
27:28
SPEAKER_01: I I mean, not on the episode, but I was like, I was I was working on the show during that time with and I I worked with closely with Alex.
27:35
SPEAKER_01: And so I remember that injury being there in LA when that happened.
27:38
SPEAKER_01: Like, yeah.
27:39
SPEAKER_01: So and it's also another thing I just learned about what which I always thought my disconnection with my body was because I was pushing through injury and trying to like push harder and ignore.
27:48
SPEAKER_01: And it turns out that exhaustion.
27:50
SPEAKER_01: So if you are exhausted and you're pushing and it gets to a point where you're just going to another class and another class and another and never stopping, you actually disconnect from your body as well, which is also dangerous because then when those signs come of pain, those are warning signs.
28:02
SPEAKER_01: So your body's speaking to you, you don't hear them.
28:04
SPEAKER_01: So that was really interesting for me to learn.
28:06
SPEAKER_04: That is so crazy.
28:08
SPEAKER_04: So I'm curious to hear.
28:11
SPEAKER_04: After you recovered from this injury, before you went to you said it was ballet BC, am I saying?
28:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yes, it's a ballet company in um Vancouver.
28:21
SPEAKER_04: So was there a time period of post-injury before you went to the apprenticeship there where you had to kind of like rehab and retrain and get back in the studio?
28:31
SPEAKER_04: And like, how long did it take for you to like get back to like 100% where you were confident that I could do this, you know, at professionally?
28:40
SPEAKER_01: Well, I it was an entire year between me taking time off and the rehab.
28:46
SPEAKER_01: I would say probably about like six months of like nothing.
28:49
SPEAKER_01: And then like the last like five, maybe even to six months, was me like just slow, like such a slow process of like regaining the strength and stability and just waiting for bone to heal takes a long time.
29:02
SPEAKER_01: Like bone just takes a long time.
29:03
SPEAKER_01: So on that capacity, I had to wait for that to be healed before I could strengthen everything around it.
29:08
SPEAKER_01: And I I did get very lucky that it wasn't a long wait.
29:12
SPEAKER_01: It just, I think timing was just on my side of like when it actually took me an entire year.
29:16
SPEAKER_01: Then they started looking for September again.
29:18
SPEAKER_01: So I had auditioned and the timing, so there wasn't too much of a gap there.
29:23
SPEAKER_01: But that year, can I tell you, felt like 16 years because it was my whole life was waiting for that moment to take off and go have this career.
29:31
SPEAKER_01: And truthfully, college wasn't on my radar at the time.
29:34
SPEAKER_01: There wasn't, I I didn't really know of any dance programs I really was really interested in in Canada.
29:39
SPEAKER_01: And to go to the States, I their money was just not, it was not possible for us.
29:43
SPEAKER_01: So I just really was about diving in and I felt like I'd met some really incredible mentors along the way that were really kind of giving me opportunities.
29:50
SPEAKER_01: So that was that felt really lucky, but that year felt really long, really long.
29:56
SPEAKER_04: I'm sure.
29:57
SPEAKER_04: So you did the ballet company, and you said you were NBA dancing at the same time.
30:03
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I was doing that.
30:04
SPEAKER_01: I was also part of a tap company called Hubbard, uh Huffers Incorporated.
30:08
SPEAKER_01: I also was part of a little jazz company called Fusion Dance Company.
30:11
SPEAKER_01: So it was like any little experience I could get my hands on, I was in and doing.
30:16
SPEAKER_01: So I was also working at a dance store, I was teaching dance, I was working at a restaurant.
30:21
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was that time when you're just trying to make it happen and everything's paying very little and you're piecing it all together, but you're happy as can be because you're dancing and you're busy and I'm in a new city.
30:31
SPEAKER_01: I'd moved from Edmonton to Vancouver and I loved Vancouver.
30:34
SPEAKER_01: I had met some of my mentors that lived in Vancouver, so that felt really exciting to me.
30:39
SPEAKER_01: And then we took a vacation to New York.
30:41
SPEAKER_01: I had never been, I was 19 years old, maybe 18, and we went there and I fell in love.
30:47
SPEAKER_01: My heart felt like it was home.
30:49
SPEAKER_01: I just had that experience.
30:50
SPEAKER_01: I think New York is that place that you either feel like you have to be there or you're actually repelled by it.
30:56
SPEAKER_05: True.
30:57
SPEAKER_01: I I just was like, what is this?
31:00
SPEAKER_01: And I was at Brahman Ann Center taking five classes a day, eating my packed salad outside of BDC.
31:05
SPEAKER_01: I remember, like I can exactly PAX, right?
31:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:08
SPEAKER_01: Eating my salad outside of BDC.
31:10
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I am moving to New York.
31:12
SPEAKER_01: Like I have to be here.
31:14
SPEAKER_01: My heart feels the most happy.
31:16
SPEAKER_01: And it was one time I'm so proud of myself for listening to my gut because everything told me not to do it.
31:21
SPEAKER_01: I moved back home to Vancouver and I said, okay, I'm gonna give myself one year because I have no money.
31:26
SPEAKER_01: I have no money and I'm Canadian.
31:27
SPEAKER_01: So how am I getting to the States?
31:29
SPEAKER_01: Right.
31:29
SPEAKER_01: And I basically called my mom and she's like, Great, you're moving to New York.
31:32
SPEAKER_01: New York's a great city.
31:33
SPEAKER_01: She's a dancer, she gets it.
31:34
SPEAKER_01: I call my dad.
31:35
SPEAKER_01: My dad's like, he sent me pepper spray in the mail.
31:37
SPEAKER_01: I'm that's all he did.
31:38
SPEAKER_01: Sounds like a dad.
31:39
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
31:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:40
SPEAKER_01: He was my parents are like the most supportive.
31:43
SPEAKER_01: And that's one thing that I, you know, was really amazing for me was just that they were like, you know what?
31:47
SPEAKER_01: Go, you have to try.
31:48
SPEAKER_01: You can always come home.
31:49
SPEAKER_01: And I kind of took that advice and I worked my butt off and I took all the jobs I could.
31:54
SPEAKER_01: I gave myself a year deadline and I said, I'm moving to New York next year.
31:57
SPEAKER_01: And I saved like$5,000 Canadian, which ended up being like$2,700 American or something with the exchange.
32:05
SPEAKER_01: And I literally had one person that my mom knew, a teacher in New York.
32:10
SPEAKER_01: I had his phone number, that's it.
32:11
SPEAKER_01: And I moved like 42nd Street, like with two of my suitcases, knowing one person that he said you can stay on my couch for two weeks.
32:18
SPEAKER_01: And I was and I made it happen.
32:20
SPEAKER_01: I went to Broadway Dance Center.
32:22
SPEAKER_01: I said, listen, I can't pay for classes, but I can work the front desk.
32:25
SPEAKER_01: I worked the front desk.
32:26
SPEAKER_01: They found out that at one point I they needed a teacher to teach the kids program.
32:30
SPEAKER_01: I jumped in.
32:30
SPEAKER_01: Of course I could teach because I grew up at my mom's studio learning to teach.
32:33
SPEAKER_01: They were like, Why are you working the front desk when you can teach?
32:36
SPEAKER_01: I said, Okay, great.
32:37
SPEAKER_01: So I started teaching the kids program for exchange for all my classes and found a little, you know, uh number off the bulletin board, called with lived with two random people, like just got an apartment.
32:48
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I couldn't even get a cell phone because I don't have a social security number.
32:51
SPEAKER_01: So it was like the very bare minimum, but I was so happy.
32:57
SPEAKER_01: I was I created my own program.
32:58
SPEAKER_01: I studied under all the teachers that I thought were incredible, Mia Michaels, Michelle Asoff, Ray Leaper, you know, like all the ones, because this was like 2000, right?
33:07
SPEAKER_01: Right.
33:08
SPEAKER_01: And I basically was really that's kind of how I started getting my feet on the ground in a professional career was showing up in their classes, working really hard, getting noticed.
33:17
SPEAKER_01: Then they would say, Where are you from?
33:19
SPEAKER_01: Did you move here?
33:20
SPEAKER_01: And I would say yes.
33:21
SPEAKER_01: And long story short, um, Michelle Asof ended up sponsoring me to get my papers.
33:26
SPEAKER_01: And I ended up assisting all of these choreographers and teachers.
33:30
SPEAKER_01: And that's how I met Mia.
33:31
SPEAKER_01: Someone was like, You should you should dance for Mia Michaels.
33:33
SPEAKER_01: You would be great.
33:34
SPEAKER_01: She has a company.
33:35
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Who's Mia Michaels?
33:36
SPEAKER_01: Like, I had no idea.
33:37
SPEAKER_01: This is before So You Think.
33:38
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, right.
33:39
SPEAKER_01: And I show up in her audition, I got into her company, so I started working with Mia.
33:43
SPEAKER_01: And that was, I pounded the pavement, and I would be the dancer that was like ready to show up in a rehearsal space for free.
33:50
SPEAKER_01: And then when those choreographers needed dancers, they started calling me and I started booking jobs.
33:55
SPEAKER_01: All along that I was still teaching dance to support myself.
33:59
SPEAKER_01: I was really grateful that I had that.
34:01
SPEAKER_01: I loved it, and I was able to do that in between the little gigs that I was getting.
34:05
SPEAKER_01: But it really wasn't until, and I did some like operas and different projects, like definitely big dance projects, but it wasn't until I booked the Celine show that was really, you know, was such a big breakthrough moment because it was such a huge show of the time.
34:19
SPEAKER_01: And it really was a five-year chunk of time in my life.
34:22
SPEAKER_01: And it was supposed to be a two-year contract, and it ended up getting extended for five years.
34:26
SPEAKER_01: And that whole process of meeting 50 dancers from around the world of all different backgrounds and uh dance experience and ages and body types and ethnicities.
34:37
SPEAKER_01: And we all spent uh six months in Europe in Belgium creating the show, which was the most amazing experience of my life.
34:45
SPEAKER_01: It was like going to circus school, and that experience was kind of a real highlight of my career because it was um it was intense and it was long and it was impactful.
34:54
SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
34:55
SPEAKER_01: And she's amazing.
34:56
unknown: Yeah.
34:57
SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, yeah.
34:59
SPEAKER_04: I love hearing, I love hearing this.
35:01
SPEAKER_04: It's it's like everyone's New York dream.
35:03
SPEAKER_04: It's like it, I feel like every not everyone, but a lot of dancers have that exact same story.
35:09
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
35:10
SPEAKER_06: Well, and it's the time too.
35:12
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
35:12
SPEAKER_06: You know, it's like it was it, you couldn't get a cell phone and you kind of needed one, but you could probably use a landline because it's 2000.
35:18
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, it could have been a little bit harder.
35:20
SPEAKER_06: But right.
35:21
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
35:23
SPEAKER_06: And, you know, and now they have like such robust programs with work study and everything.
35:27
SPEAKER_06: But I can't imagine back then that like that was a hundred percent everywhere.
35:31
SPEAKER_06: So you probably did have to just ask, like, and good for you for asking and not being afraid to ask, you know, to to figure out how you could get this done.
35:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think back to it now, and I think I actually probably was a braver back then when I than I am now.
35:45
SPEAKER_01: But I think it was fueled by this passion and this unstoppable desire to.
35:49
SPEAKER_01: And also on top of this, I want to just pre- preface this with I was not a super confident young lady either.
35:56
SPEAKER_01: I w I still struggled with, I won everything.
35:59
SPEAKER_01: I got into ballet schools, I did the whole thing in the competitive cycle, the competitive circuit.
36:04
SPEAKER_01: But I also was a studio owner's daughter who thought that she got things because of her mom.
36:09
SPEAKER_01: And I was told that story enough that I believed it.
36:12
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't really have a huge self-confidence.
36:15
SPEAKER_01: I knew that I was, I knew I could dance, but I didn't know my place.
36:18
SPEAKER_01: Like that's from a little girl from Canada in New York City.
36:21
SPEAKER_01: I was like, what is this?
36:24
SPEAKER_01: Like, this is so much beyond what um I felt capable for.
36:28
SPEAKER_01: But the undying desire and the fact that my heart was like, you need to do this.
36:34
SPEAKER_01: I I just am so grateful that I listened to my gut in that moment because I I just want to make sure that I present myself correctly.
36:40
SPEAKER_01: That it was a there was me definitely days where I was like, okay, I'm gonna get a 50 cent coffee and a bagel from that food card on the street.
36:47
SPEAKER_01: And that's gonna have to last me the day because that's all I've got.
36:50
SPEAKER_01: And also there's days when I walked out of class just being like, oh my gosh, I know nothing.
36:54
SPEAKER_01: And there's days when I would go to auditions and they would be like, no, you don't have your papers.
36:58
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, you can't audition.
36:59
SPEAKER_01: You know, like there was a lot of that struggle, but it was also one of my favorite times of my whole entire life.
37:04
SPEAKER_01: I met my tribe of humans in New York that I still am in, I am still in great friendship with.
37:10
SPEAKER_01: And that struggle taught me so much.
37:12
SPEAKER_01: And then when just the little thing happened, like a teacher would say, Oh my gosh, will you come in?
37:17
SPEAKER_01: I think you're fabulous.
37:17
SPEAKER_01: Will you come in and workshop something with me?
37:19
SPEAKER_01: I was like, I can do this.
37:21
SPEAKER_01: And I just kept listening to the I can do this, those little moments and strung them together.
37:26
SPEAKER_01: And um, it got me through.
37:28
SPEAKER_01: It got me through the times that were really, really hard.
37:31
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it was definitely like this, but um, I'm really grateful that I I kind of listened to that gut instinct that was just you have to be here right now.
37:40
SPEAKER_04: I love hearing this story because it's just it's the New York dream.
37:44
SPEAKER_04: It's the it's the the dream that every dancer, I mean, not just for New York or LA dream now.
37:49
SPEAKER_04: I feel like a lot of dancers are flocking to LA.
37:51
SPEAKER_04: And I think it's interesting that you picked New York.
37:54
SPEAKER_04: I mean, New York is obviously the best city in the world.
37:57
SPEAKER_04: We all live here, but I just I think it's really inspiring.
38:01
SPEAKER_04: Like you said, it is hard.
38:02
SPEAKER_04: It's not always easy.
38:04
SPEAKER_04: Like you earned what you got.
38:07
SPEAKER_04: You networked, you worked your booty off, you were in class religiously.
38:11
SPEAKER_06: You lived with two random people, and are you still in contact with them?
38:13
SPEAKER_04: People that want to know.
38:15
SPEAKER_06: Never those are.
38:16
SPEAKER_06: So they were not your tribe.
38:17
SPEAKER_01: Okay, never where I live.
38:19
SPEAKER_01: I moved like probably four times while I've lived in New York, but that was my first.
38:22
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
38:23
SPEAKER_01: I definitely moved away from that.
38:25
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
38:25
SPEAKER_04: But I think it's also important for like listeners to hear, parents.
38:30
SPEAKER_04: Uh we have a lot of parents that listen to our podcast, dancers who listen.
38:34
SPEAKER_04: If you have a goal, set your goal and make it happen.
38:38
SPEAKER_04: Like you made it happen.
38:39
SPEAKER_04: You said, I need to save money.
38:41
SPEAKER_04: I need to figure out how I'm gonna get there, but I don't care.
38:43
SPEAKER_04: I'm going.
38:44
SPEAKER_04: And if it doesn't work out, guess what?
38:46
SPEAKER_04: Home's always there.
38:47
SPEAKER_04: Like, I tell that to dancers all the time.
38:49
SPEAKER_04: That like, try it.
38:51
SPEAKER_04: What's the harm?
38:52
SPEAKER_04: You're just give it a try.
38:54
SPEAKER_04: And a lot of people don't make it.
38:55
SPEAKER_04: A lot of people are like, hate this life, hate this hustle.
38:58
SPEAKER_04: This is literally not for me.
38:59
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I I would rather just, you know, go home and teach and have a big apartment with a yard and not see rats on the street.
39:08
SPEAKER_04: Like, I get it.
39:09
SPEAKER_04: You know, there's the charm of New York City, but there's also the dreams, and the dreams exist here and you can make them happen.
39:15
SPEAKER_04: And I the other thing I want to quickly say is Michelle Asof.
39:18
SPEAKER_04: I think it's so crazy because um we just had another episode uh with international comp an international competition owner from Australia.
39:28
SPEAKER_04: And he brought up Michelle Aesoff on the episode, which was so interesting because of her um world dance movement.
39:34
SPEAKER_04: World dance movement, yeah.
39:35
SPEAKER_04: He was talking about it.
39:36
SPEAKER_04: Which I used to work at, yeah.
39:37
SPEAKER_04: Okay, yeah.
39:38
SPEAKER_04: He was talking about that because uh she has a partnership with him and he would send a lot of his dancers over there.
39:44
SPEAKER_04: But I was like, then you're bringing up Michelle Aesoff.
39:46
SPEAKER_04: I'm like, okay, Leslie, I think we need to have Michelle Aesoff on YouTube.
39:51
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you, she's she's one of my mentors.
39:54
SPEAKER_01: I mean, she was in that time, she was teaching at BDC every single day, and everyone took her class.
39:59
SPEAKER_01: And she um yeah, she definitely helped shape me.
40:02
SPEAKER_01: She was the one that gave me my first like said, You can do this, I'll sponsor you, you we'll get your papers.
40:07
SPEAKER_01: And like it is because of her that I was able to stay in the country and start working before I got the Celine show.
40:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
40:13
SPEAKER_01: How was she able to do that?
40:14
SPEAKER_01: Like, how so I now sponsor dancers as well.
40:17
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
40:18
SPEAKER_01: How does that work?
40:20
SPEAKER_01: It's basically uh it's a process of saying that like you can take them on as an assistant, or saying that they're they ho have special skills that I can't find in another dancer here, therefore I need them to come join me.
40:31
SPEAKER_01: And there's a lot of paperwork and a lot of letters of recommendation, a lot of money, and all these other things that go into it.
40:36
SPEAKER_01: And there is a chance that you can submit your claim and you will just get denied.
40:39
SPEAKER_01: Immigration is a really interesting thing.
40:42
SPEAKER_01: So, um, yeah, so to get your papers is is tricky but not impossible.
40:45
SPEAKER_01: And I that's what I want to say to the Canadian dancers a lot of the time.
40:48
SPEAKER_01: I have sponsored Canadians.
40:50
SPEAKER_01: It is not impossible, like it is absolutely possible, but it does take work and it does take connections, and it does take people that are willing to say, you are the top of your game, and we want you, we want to work with you.
41:01
SPEAKER_01: So that's kind of how it works.
41:03
SPEAKER_04: Is that different than that is different than getting your green card?
41:06
SPEAKER_01: Like being able to Yeah, so basically you so as a Canadian, first of all, um I got my O one visa, which means you can work for anyone under your sponsor.
41:15
SPEAKER_01: So basically, your sponsor is like legally, if you did something wrong, they would get in trouble.
41:19
SPEAKER_01: But you don't only work for your sponsor, you can h get hired by anyone.
41:22
SPEAKER_01: An O2 visa means you have to work for someone that's under an O one visa, so you can only work for one company.
41:27
SPEAKER_01: So for example, when the Celine show happens, Celine's um a Canadian as well.
41:32
SPEAKER_01: So she had an O one visa, and all of the foreign dancers, which was two-thirds of the cast, were foreign um from America, they got their O2 visas, which mean they could only work for Celine, no one else.
41:43
SPEAKER_01: And then from there you apply for your green card from having a visa status.
41:48
SPEAKER_01: It's easier to get it once you've had a status for a long time.
41:51
SPEAKER_01: I'm I my husband's American, so that's how I got my green card.
41:54
SPEAKER_05: Got it.
41:54
SPEAKER_01: It's a little bit easier through marriage.
41:56
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
41:57
SPEAKER_01: But but I did have my 01 for for many years before that.
42:00
SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
42:01
SPEAKER_04: I was always wondering, I mean, I know it's tough.
42:03
SPEAKER_04: I've had a lot of friends, international friends, who've been, you know, trying to make it happen and have the artist visa and then have to go home for a little while because they can't be here or work and they have to do every gig under the sun to really be able to prove themselves to be able to even apply for the green card and just you know, all the all the rings they have to jump through to like, I'm like, wow, that's a lot.
42:22
SPEAKER_04: I I feel very privileged that I didn't have to really do that as an American citizen.
42:27
SPEAKER_01: But on the flip side, I yeah, on the flip side, I actually will see an incredible work ethic and just appreciation that a lot of foreign dancers will have.
42:37
SPEAKER_01: And I think it is chalked up to that, having to really just have that extra obstacle that you have to deal with.
42:43
SPEAKER_01: Right.
42:43
SPEAKER_04: The industry is already hard enough, and then you have to add that layer on top of it, you know.
42:47
SPEAKER_04: Right, exactly, exactly.
42:48
SPEAKER_04: You get your dream job and they're like, sorry, we can't.
42:52
SPEAKER_01: You're not exactly all right.
42:55
SPEAKER_04: Celine, we briefly talked about it.
42:57
SPEAKER_04: Five years of your life in Las Vegas.
42:59
SPEAKER_04: Did you love Vegas?
43:01
SPEAKER_04: I did not love Vegas.
43:02
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
43:02
SPEAKER_01: But I will say this at the time, it was a really amazing time.
43:06
SPEAKER_01: I did love my experience in Vegas at the time.
43:10
SPEAKER_01: When the show finished, I was ready to leave.
43:12
SPEAKER_01: But it was also when everyone was really just moving to Vegas, Vegas was really on a high.
43:18
SPEAKER_01: This was the first show of its kind where you had a celebrity performer and 50 artists in a cirque de soleil-like show on the capacity with the largest LED screen in the world.
43:29
SPEAKER_01: They built the theater for us.
43:31
SPEAKER_01: It was really a remarkable kind of feat.
43:33
SPEAKER_01: It was the, you know, it was a 4,000-seat theater in Vegas.
43:37
SPEAKER_01: The rehearsal process, like I mentioned briefly before, was like a year long, six months in Europe and six months in Vegas, and was the one of the most incredible experiences of my life.
43:48
SPEAKER_01: Just the way that Franco, our director, Franco Dragon, who was the original creator of Circuit Soleil, and he created uh his last show was O before the company changed hands, and he created his own company called Dragon to do her show.
44:00
SPEAKER_01: He was just this mastermind of a human being that knew nothing about dance, but an incredible creator through like a childlike eye.
44:07
SPEAKER_01: And we were we went to school every day for eight hours and got to be in creation processes and take ballet and do like aerial work and do percussion and singing lessons.
44:17
SPEAKER_01: And like it was just this huge experience that was really never, you just don't get that time to create a show.
44:24
SPEAKER_01: Like now you know that you're like, no, you don't get a year to create a show.
44:27
SPEAKER_01: Only when you have a budget like Celine Dion.
44:29
SPEAKER_01: Right.
44:30
SPEAKER_01: So that was remarkable.
44:31
SPEAKER_01: And of course, during the show, um, it was just a really very, very um unique show at the time because you had 50 dancers that were basically contemporary, really strong, contemporary classical trained dancers in a very commercial show, getting paid, getting benefits, getting, we had 20 weeks paid vacation.
44:50
SPEAKER_01: We were on a contract where we got paid every week because a lot of us were foreign and we couldn't work for anyone else, that she needed vocal rest.
44:59
SPEAKER_01: So she would do, you know, she would go off the show, but we would still be paid.
45:02
SPEAKER_01: That contract doesn't exist.
45:04
SPEAKER_01: Right.
45:04
SPEAKER_01: So it was it was remarkable in a lot of ways.
45:07
SPEAKER_01: Um, and then her, and then Mia Michaels was the choreographer, which was another full circle moment.
45:11
SPEAKER_01: We've had many full circles, me and Mia, but the experience was only topped by the fact that she is the most remarkable human being.
45:20
SPEAKER_01: And love or hate her music, she is uh an artist of her capacity, just treating her dancers like they are her family, and that she needs every single one of them to do her job.
45:33
SPEAKER_01: And she made us feel special in every sort of way, whether it was from like, you know, big she would cater a five-star dinner every Saturday for us by Wolfgang Puck, who we would get before the show.
45:43
SPEAKER_01: Or it was stuff like that that was a very like, you know, you know, that money can buy things, yes.
45:48
SPEAKER_01: But then it was other things that like, well, I I ruptured my ankle in the show, and she came over in the middle of a costume change, was late for her entrance to make sure that I was okay and like kissed my foot.
45:58
SPEAKER_01: Like she just was on so many levels, is a remarkable person, but was an incredible boss too.
46:04
SPEAKER_01: So that show was definitely a chapter, and it because of that experience, the the 50 of us dancers are still on a WhatsApp thread.
46:11
SPEAKER_01: We still talk to each other, and the show's been closed for since 2007, eight.
46:16
SPEAKER_01: I don't even know when it closed.
46:17
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, an incredible experience all around.
46:20
SPEAKER_01: Life-changing.
46:21
SPEAKER_06: That is amazing.
46:22
SPEAKER_06: And so because you could only work for Celine, you did the show every night and then you just sort of lived your life.
46:28
SPEAKER_06: Did you teach it all kind of on the side under the table?
46:30
SPEAKER_01: Or well, I was actually lucky because I I had my 01 at that point that I was able to work for other people.
46:36
SPEAKER_01: So I it was a great job.
46:37
SPEAKER_01: So I was teaching at a studio in Vegas the whole time while I was dancing there.
46:42
SPEAKER_01: I also would do jobs because it was so close to LA.
46:44
SPEAKER_01: So I had an agent and I would do go do the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards or whatever award show or whatever was happening that I could get a job um for.
46:52
SPEAKER_01: So I was really lucky to be able to um, yeah, during that five-year span, um, still do other work outside outside the show.
47:00
SPEAKER_01: All right.
47:00
SPEAKER_06: So Celine Dion was, would you consider that maybe like the pinnacle, or was that just a great time, or is there anything anything else you'd love to cover and tell us about from your career?
47:10
SPEAKER_01: I think that was definitely the pinnacle of, you know, just because it was a very big show at the time, I was doing dancing that I really loved with people that were incredible, being treated really like royalty in Las Vegas.
47:22
SPEAKER_01: I mean, everywhere we went, we were treated with such respect because we were from that show.
47:26
SPEAKER_01: So, and we were getting all the care in the world.
47:29
SPEAKER_01: We had, I mean, we had physio, physical, physical therapy, we had massage, we had chiropractic, we had yoga every day.
47:35
SPEAKER_01: We had dance classes from like people all over the world that they would fly in to just train us.
47:40
SPEAKER_01: Um, we had a hyperbaric chamber at one point where we were like breathing solid oxygen.
47:45
SPEAKER_01: Like it was, it was the pinnacle of like every dream.
47:48
SPEAKER_01: So definitely that was for sure an outstanding highlight in my career.
47:52
SPEAKER_01: Um, the other ones really are just when I got to dance with my friends, like got to do performances in like smaller companies and things like that.
48:00
SPEAKER_01: But as far as like a long running show, that was really um the height of my career.
48:05
SPEAKER_01: And truthfully, the raked stage, going back to injury, we had a steel raked stage because in Vegas there's no union.
48:12
SPEAKER_01: So you basically they had a a very high rake that was very challenging on our bodies.
48:17
SPEAKER_01: And so when I finished the show, I had already had an ankle surgery.
48:20
SPEAKER_01: I was about to get my first hip surgery, and that kind of was like the start of the decline of I didn't really want to be using my body in that capacity anymore.
48:28
SPEAKER_01: So that's kind of more when the teaching and choreography picked up.
48:31
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
48:31
SPEAKER_06: I mean, I remember watching videos of it and just like, you know, you you the only rake stage that I think a lot of people have heard of is like in cats, like that stage is rake.
48:39
SPEAKER_06: I guess wicked is raked a little bit nothing like the Celine Dion stage.
48:43
SPEAKER_01: Like that's no, this was an illegal grade.
48:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was a hill.
48:47
SPEAKER_01: And I would say, like, out of the 50 dancers, there was I don't know if anyone got away on Scathed of Injury because of that stage.
48:54
SPEAKER_01: How could you?
48:55
SPEAKER_06: Um wow.
48:57
SPEAKER_06: Okay, so so after that, um, the teaching and choreography and stuff really started.
49:02
SPEAKER_06: Can you give us a little rundown of how um you ended up on South You Can Dance?
49:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I have a really good story.
49:07
SPEAKER_01: Through the time, you know, teaching and choreographing, I I always enjoy teaching kids from the time my mom's studio all the way through when I lived in Vegas, when I lived in New York, when I lived in Vegas, I was always um teaching and choreographing on, you know, pre-professional students.
49:21
SPEAKER_01: And alongside that, too, assisting a lot of choreographers on projects where I would just be picking up skills, not even really knowing it.
49:28
SPEAKER_01: And at this point, I still like hadn't really had my eyes on like I want to be a choreographer.
49:32
SPEAKER_01: I always wanted to be a dancer, and choreography was something I just did um alongside it.
49:36
SPEAKER_01: And the Celine show had finished.
49:38
SPEAKER_01: I was still working at a studio in Vegas, loving the students and you know, doing the odd dance job here and there.
49:44
SPEAKER_01: And so you think you could dance.
49:46
SPEAKER_01: And the US show was, I don't know, probably in its like third or fourth season.
49:50
SPEAKER_01: Actually, probably, yeah, well, fourth season.
49:52
SPEAKER_01: And my mom called me and she said, Stacey, you'll never guess.
49:55
SPEAKER_01: The producers from So You Think You Can Dance Canada just called me.
49:58
SPEAKER_01: They they're starting a show in Canada.
50:00
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Mom, that's amazing.
50:01
SPEAKER_01: What an opportunity for Canadian dancers, and they're gonna possibly use her studio, which would be great publicity and all these things.
50:07
SPEAKER_01: So I got off the phone and I told my husband now, but my partner at the time, and I said, You know, so you think's coming to Canada.
50:13
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, That's amazing.
50:14
SPEAKER_01: You should choreograph on it.
50:15
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Let me just do that real quick.
50:18
SPEAKER_01: That's a dumb, that's a dumb idea.
50:20
SPEAKER_01: You don't know what you're talking about.
50:21
SPEAKER_01: He's an actor.
50:21
SPEAKER_01: So I was like, Okay, stay in your lane.
50:24
SPEAKER_01: You don't know what's going on, but he's like also been my biggest supporter my entire career.
50:28
SPEAKER_01: He's always been the one that's like, of course you can do it.
50:30
SPEAKER_01: You know, he's an actor trained in improv and it's like, yes, and everything is possible, right?
50:35
SPEAKER_01: So he he basically was like, no, we should we should find out who's casting it.
50:39
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I don't know who's casting it.
50:41
SPEAKER_01: Dumb idea.
50:41
SPEAKER_01: Another week passes.
50:42
SPEAKER_01: He's like, no, we really we should submit.
50:44
SPEAKER_01: I mean, what it doesn't hurt.
50:45
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, no, I'm not doing it.
50:47
SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't have anything.
50:48
SPEAKER_01: Long story short, he submitted on my behalf.
50:50
SPEAKER_01: I got home one day and he says, Don't be mad at me.
50:52
SPEAKER_01: And it was, he had printed out an email response from the producers that said, Stacey, dear Stacey, thank you so much for your inquiry about so you think you can answer Canada.
51:01
SPEAKER_01: We'd love to see your choreographic reel.
51:03
SPEAKER_01: Um, why don't you send it over right away?
51:05
SPEAKER_01: We're casting immediately, and we're really interested in you.
51:08
SPEAKER_01: And I looked at him and I was like, Okay, that's amazing, but like I don't have a professional reel.
51:13
SPEAKER_01: Like, I have not been doing anything professional really as far as choreography.
51:17
SPEAKER_01: And turns out that I um did have some pre-professional, obviously, dancers that could that I could submit, as well as my professional friends that I choreographed on.
51:25
SPEAKER_01: We threw it together, we submitted the reel, and I got a phone call the next week that said they wanted to hire me for six episodes for the Canadian version.
51:32
SPEAKER_01: And then from there, the American producers saw me and brought me over to the American show.
51:37
SPEAKER_01: So my first professional choreographic job was on national television, essentially.
51:42
SPEAKER_01: No stress there, not at all.
51:43
SPEAKER_01: No stress there at all.
51:45
SPEAKER_01: So, and obviously the largest stage, and um, and obviously was such a I am still so grateful to the show for all that it does for choreographers.
51:55
SPEAKER_01: Um, it really makes choreographers household names and faces, and that was very strange for me, especially from someone that didn't really even, I hadn't been really trying to do this.
52:05
SPEAKER_01: It was just something that fell into my lap and I I ran with it.
52:08
SPEAKER_01: I was so scared.
52:09
SPEAKER_01: I remember the first episode just being like, I don't know what I'm doing.
52:12
SPEAKER_01: And of course I know what I'm doing.
52:14
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I've made up many, many dances, but it was definitely uh a fast track to a choreographic like skill set that I now possess because of that show and just how quick you have to learn, just quick you have to how quick you have to move on that show and how anything is possible and anything, it's live television and anything can happen.
52:34
SPEAKER_06: So I choreographing for a camera too is is a whole nother beast.
52:38
SPEAKER_06: I mean, yes.
52:39
SPEAKER_06: We had Mirinda Davis on uh for I think one of our first spotlight episodes, and she was talking about with with her experience choreographing for television, like it's quick and it is completely different, and you have to think about a 360 everything, you know, version of what you're doing, not just flat front.
52:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then I, you know, everything adds up in your career to something else.
52:58
SPEAKER_01: So it's like those moments of like not knowing what you're doing.
53:00
SPEAKER_01: So, like those moments on So You Think where you're looking and going, Oh, I never really thought that the camera's here and they're seeing this lift from this angle or whatnot.
53:07
SPEAKER_01: Um, later on, as I got directing jobs, I actually knew exactly what to do.
53:13
SPEAKER_01: And by the end of my experience on So You Think, I did 10 seasons on that show.
53:17
SPEAKER_01: I was shooting, not even by the end, probably by the middle, shooting the piece how I wanted it shot and then showing it to the director.
53:23
SPEAKER_01: So you are already getting you're already getting the skills.
53:26
SPEAKER_01: Like this is really my vision because as a choreographer, you know, you need the shots tell like in TV, that tells the story.
53:33
SPEAKER_01: And if you're shooting it the wrong way, it's not your story.
53:35
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, again, a crash course in in in film as well as in in camera work.
53:41
unknown: Wow.
53:42
SPEAKER_06: Oh man.
53:43
SPEAKER_06: Okay, so that happened.
53:45
SPEAKER_06: That's like that's amazing.
53:46
SPEAKER_06: Ten seasons.
53:48
SPEAKER_06: When did you start your training program, The Bridge Movement, and what does that look like currently?
53:53
SPEAKER_06: Um, and what are your hopes for it in the future?
53:56
SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, so this is the thing of a segue from like So You Think to what I'm doing now.
54:01
SPEAKER_01: I mean, So You Think was such a is such a beautiful, is such a beautiful experience for choreographers, like I said, because it's just now I had this exposure and so much more possibility with that exposure.
54:11
SPEAKER_01: And I I still accredit the show because there's so many brilliant choreographers that it takes a longer time to kind of get a break.
54:17
SPEAKER_01: And I was really lucky in that way.
54:19
SPEAKER_01: So from there, I started choreographing a lot of different things and really, really loving that experience.
54:26
SPEAKER_01: But all alongside of that, there's felt like there was like a deeper calling for me.
54:30
SPEAKER_01: And I've always loved teaching and mentoring students.
54:32
SPEAKER_01: So at first I started something called the Protege Movement, which is dance experiences, mentorships that are based in dance as well as wellness.
54:41
SPEAKER_01: And those are for ages 13 and up.
54:43
SPEAKER_01: And I started doing the first thing I did was a week-long camp experience, which is called Camp Protege, and it's in a forest outside of Canada where we show up, the cell phones don't work, there's no mirrors.
54:53
SPEAKER_01: I convert barns into dance spaces, you're in the middle of nature, and it's the most deconnect, uh, disconnect from everything, connect to everything that's inside.
55:02
SPEAKER_01: And we did all sorts of dance, but also meditation and qigong and wellness and nutrition and um neuromuscular training and all these things.
55:10
SPEAKER_01: And so this became this little seed of a baby that I was like, oh, I love this so much.
55:16
SPEAKER_01: And dancers came out transformed, and we've had so many incredible dancers come through our program who have gone on to do amazing things and come back and said this really was a pivotal moment for me and just really trusting myself and kind of not looking outside for validation and looking inside and all these things.
55:33
SPEAKER_01: So the Protege was born in 2016, and over the pandemic, um, what happened?
55:38
SPEAKER_01: Well, obviously, the world shut down, convention shut down, all my jobs.
55:41
SPEAKER_01: I was working on a new musical, we were about to open, shut down, and I was in my attic, like everyone, doing Zoom dance classes and trying to figure it out.
55:48
SPEAKER_01: And I had so many students that were at this pivotal point of crossing from their competitive or, you know, or high school to professional dance and getting stuck in between and not knowing what they could do.
56:00
SPEAKER_01: And I basically, out of that knee, as I was mentoring them one-on-one, I was like, I'm gonna create a program.
56:05
SPEAKER_01: So the bridge movement was born, bridging the gap between pre-professional and professional.
56:10
SPEAKER_01: And this has been something I've been thinking about for years because I think that there's many ways to become a professional dancer.
56:16
SPEAKER_01: I think that college is not for everyone.
56:19
SPEAKER_01: I think it's for certain people and not others.
56:21
SPEAKER_01: I think that now it's hard to just move to a city and get the training and the connections on your own.
56:28
SPEAKER_01: So I wanted something that was kind of kind of meet in the middle.
56:30
SPEAKER_01: It was gonna be an educational program that was based in preparation for your career, also wellness, because I think now we need wellness.
56:38
SPEAKER_01: We need to control we need to have some tools for our mental health as well as our physical health.
56:44
SPEAKER_01: And then exploration, really putting you in the creative chair because dancers are creators and they I know dancers that I want in my space are ones that are able to contribute.
56:53
SPEAKER_01: So I want to make them to be able to choreograph themselves and to be able to create short films and all these things, and then um connection, connecting them to all the industry professionals that are gonna hire them.
57:04
SPEAKER_01: Like I started my career by people saying, Yes, I need you.
57:07
SPEAKER_01: So I know that this networking is is key.
57:10
SPEAKER_01: So I I put these four pillars together and created the bridge movement, and it's a two-year conservatory program based in South Orange, New Jersey, which is 30 minutes west of New York.
57:20
SPEAKER_01: It's a direct train from the city, so dancers can live in the city or live in the South Orange Maplewood area.
57:26
SPEAKER_01: And this conservatory program is a really small program.
57:29
SPEAKER_01: I only accept up to 20 dancers so that I can really mentor them one-on-one and really help shape them towards where they want to go.
57:37
SPEAKER_01: And I think what's really unique about the bridge movement is, and this is our second year in person.
57:42
SPEAKER_01: We had one year online, and then now this is our second year in person.
57:45
SPEAKER_01: Um, what's unique about the program is the fact that I am really, with all the experience of all the mentors that I brought in, which are some of the most incredible humans I know, um, educators I know, and creators I know, we've all kind of put our heads together.
58:00
SPEAKER_01: We're like, what is needed for a professional career?
58:02
SPEAKER_01: Like, let's get rid of all the stuff that's not needed.
58:05
SPEAKER_01: Let's not waste people's time and money.
58:07
SPEAKER_01: Let's really focus on what's needed.
58:09
SPEAKER_01: And we kind of got down to this core beliefs, and it's a very versatile program.
58:12
SPEAKER_01: They do everything from ballet, contemporary, improv, contact improv to tap and jazz and hip-hop and musical theater and voice lessons and acting lessons.
58:21
SPEAKER_01: This is all weekly.
58:22
SPEAKER_01: On top of that, they have the wellness component.
58:24
SPEAKER_01: They do yoga, meditation, neuromuscular training, um, neuroplasticity, gosh, mental skills training.
58:30
SPEAKER_01: I have a psychologist that comes in that used to be the prof the principal dancer at the Royal Ballet in London, who used to be my duet partner.
58:37
SPEAKER_01: She's since she works with all the companies in Europe, talks about the mental skills of what the psychological skills of a dancer.
58:44
SPEAKER_01: And essentially the program's designed.
58:46
SPEAKER_01: You walk in, you are, I have dancers that are really interested in musical theater.
58:51
SPEAKER_01: I have dancers that are really interested in concert dance, I have dancers that are interested in commercial dance.
58:54
SPEAKER_01: And it's really about discovering you as a human and giving you the tools to show up in any space because in my career, versatility's been the key.
59:03
SPEAKER_01: And I want these dancers to be really um, I want them to be empowered.
59:08
SPEAKER_01: And I want that to be more than just their craft.
59:10
SPEAKER_01: I want that to be about their being as well.
59:12
SPEAKER_01: So um, I would say it's unique in that way, that it's kind of meeting the dancer where they're at.
59:18
SPEAKER_01: We have dancers that come in right out of high school.
59:20
SPEAKER_01: We have dancers that come in after college, we have dancers that come in mid-career that are like looking for something, they're like, something's missing.
59:28
SPEAKER_01: And we kind of meet them where they're at, and the mentors that, you know, they kind of flock to really grasp onto them.
59:35
SPEAKER_01: And I'm really super proud of the dancers that came out of the program last year.
59:39
SPEAKER_01: Like I said, it's geared for two years, but we also have dancers, depending on where you are in your life, you can just do one year.
59:44
SPEAKER_01: So it's very versatile and very supportive and very unique.
59:48
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I don't know of another program that's doing what we're doing.
59:51
SPEAKER_01: And it feels it feels really important.
59:53
SPEAKER_01: And I'm really proud of it.
59:55
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I mean, that the intimate nature of a mentorship like that, but that's also not like so hyper focused on one thing.
1:00:03
SPEAKER_06: I think that's really important.
1:00:04
SPEAKER_06: Especially coming out of the pandemic, like you said, like this generation of of new dancers, uh, they had to go through that, you know, at at a time when all of us just got that year of transition, you know, when they didn't have that.
1:00:19
SPEAKER_06: So I think having just a little bit of extra attention and help and people who really care about you, uh, that's just amazing for those for those young adults.
1:00:29
SPEAKER_06: I can't say kids, because if there's somebody that's mid-career, that's that's a young adult.
1:00:33
SPEAKER_06: But that's really great.
1:00:34
SPEAKER_06: And where is it housed?
1:00:35
SPEAKER_06: It's is it at a dance studio?
1:00:37
SPEAKER_01: It's yes, it's at a dance studio.
1:00:38
SPEAKER_01: It's at a class act performing arts in South Orange.
1:00:41
SPEAKER_01: And the studio is about 30 minutes, it's a right by the South Orange train station.
1:00:45
SPEAKER_01: So it's a really easy commute.
1:00:46
SPEAKER_01: And that's where, yeah, that's where our home is.
1:00:48
SPEAKER_01: And we're actually for the first year this year doing an intensive in February, February 4th and 5th, that is for prospective students that are like just curious about it.
1:00:57
SPEAKER_01: Because it isn't, it isn't your normal college experience.
1:01:00
SPEAKER_01: It's not your normal training program.
1:01:01
SPEAKER_01: So it's a two-day immersive experience where you come in and experience what it would be like to be at the bridge.
1:01:06
SPEAKER_01: We also are going to talk to the parents about what we're doing because it's also we're talking to these dancers about what is it like to financially support yourself as an artist?
1:01:14
SPEAKER_01: What is it like to, you know, all a lot of encompassing things.
1:01:18
SPEAKER_01: So um in the intensive, we'll kind of show them around the area, experience the experience, and as well talk to them and those and the parents.
1:01:25
SPEAKER_06: And are you um doing any uh like doing any helping with these people finding apartments or finding places to live if they're coming from out of state?
1:01:33
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yeah.
1:01:34
SPEAKER_01: So we are definitely have our hands in the in that process as well.
1:01:37
SPEAKER_01: All of our dancers are put together, so they all room together and they're all living relatively close to the studio.
1:01:43
SPEAKER_01: So yes, we have someone helping with that as well to kind of facilitate that.
1:01:47
SPEAKER_01: And we do like we've already opened our registrations for next year, October.
1:01:51
SPEAKER_01: I think they opened October 10th, our submissions.
1:01:53
SPEAKER_01: It's an audition process, and um, I review all the submissions myself and the decisions will be made shortly after the intensive in February.
1:02:02
SPEAKER_01: So people that are interested, um, I would say like submit into the program and then come to the intensive to really experience it.
1:02:09
SPEAKER_01: And then from there, you know, the class of 20 dancers will be announced um in early March.
1:02:15
SPEAKER_06: Great.
1:02:15
SPEAKER_06: Well, so we'll link that in the show notes so everybody has um access to all that information.
1:02:21
SPEAKER_04: To all of the listeners out there, I hope that you've enjoyed uh hearing from Stacey's hookie what a fabulous person you are.
1:02:28
SPEAKER_04: And so you're doing so much for our dance industry.
1:02:30
SPEAKER_04: And I'm just so grateful that you were willing to sit down and share your love of dance with us on the podcast.
1:02:35
SPEAKER_04: And thank you for inspiring so many.
1:02:37
SPEAKER_04: Thank you for all that you do with your mentoring options for dancers.
1:02:41
SPEAKER_04: I really hope that some of our listeners might take advantage of that and look into it and maybe have that be an option for you heading into your professional dance career, whoever wants to pursue it.
1:02:51
SPEAKER_04: I think it can be a very valuable tool to take advantage of.
1:02:53
SPEAKER_04: So thank you so much, Stacy, for creating that and for joining us today.
1:02:57
SPEAKER_01: It's been a pleasure having you.
1:02:59
SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's been so much fun.
1:03:00
SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much, and thank you for what you guys are doing and giving so much information to dancers and parents and studio owners.
1:03:06
SPEAKER_01: It's it's I think it's brilliant.
1:03:08
SPEAKER_04: Thanks.
1:03:09
SPEAKER_04: We love it.
1:03:09
SPEAKER_04: We we definitely like love doing this podcast, and so many people are very grateful for this free resource that we offer.
1:03:16
SPEAKER_04: So shout out to all of our listeners out there.
1:03:19
SPEAKER_04: And uh to lead us out on this wonderful episode, if you would like to just share one final thought, one bit of guidance or advice, you can talk to the dancers, the parents, the teachers, whoever you'd like to speak to in the dance world out there.
1:03:33
SPEAKER_04: The final thoughts from Stacy Tukey.
1:03:36
SPEAKER_01: I think if I could speak to the dancers out there at any stage in their training or about to be professional careers, it's just staying authentic to who you are.
1:03:48
SPEAKER_01: I feel like there's so much pressure to of comparison and to be someone else.
1:03:53
SPEAKER_01: And I think we can easily get an idea of what we think people should be, what we think we should be to other people.
1:03:59
SPEAKER_01: And when I'm drawn to dancers, I'm drawn to those dancers that really know who they are and are sticking to it because what we need are dancers that are true to themselves, not trying to be someone else.
1:04:11
SPEAKER_04: We would like to send a huge thank you to Stacey Tuffy for sitting down with us on the podcast and sharing her story.
1:04:18
SPEAKER_04: Be sure to follow Stacy on social media at SJ2F.
1:04:22
SPEAKER_02: Also, Stacey has some wonderful programs out there that I'd love for you all to check out.
1:04:27
SPEAKER_04: The Protege Movement is the home of innovative dance and romance experiences with a center around inspiring healthy bodies, informed minds, and authentic hearts.
1:04:35
SPEAKER_04: Our next event takes place in Edmonton, Canada, on November 11th through 13th, and New York City, January 6th through 8th, 2023.
1:04:43
SPEAKER_04: Camp Protege is a week-long retreat in the breathtaking landscape of Alberta, Canada.
1:04:48
SPEAKER_04: Learn more about Camp Protege at the ProtegeMovement.com.
1:04:52
SPEAKER_04: And finally, the Bridge Movement, an innovative conservatory dance program for Dancers 17 Plus to bridge the gap towards a thriving professional dance career.
1:05:00
SPEAKER_04: Learn more about the Bridge Movement at the Bridgemovement.com.
1:05:05
SPEAKER_06: Don't forget to follow Making the Impact on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcast, Google Podcasts, and pretty much everywhere you listen to podcasts.
1:05:14
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1:05:20
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1:05:28
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1:05:35
SPEAKER_04: Be sure to check out IDA affiliated competition Gem's Dance Competition.
1:05:40
SPEAKER_04: Gems Dance Competition is a fresh dance event created by studios for studios with the intent of changing the norm.
1:05:47
SPEAKER_04: Their competitions are designed to be a positive experience for you, your staff, your students, and your entire family.
1:05:53
SPEAKER_04: At Gems You are always guaranteed an encouraging educational, professional, and fun environment at each location.
1:06:00
SPEAKER_04: With tool panels of IDA Judges at every event and locations throughout the Midwest, we highly recommend adding Gem's Dance Competition to your 2023 competition editor.
1:06:10
SPEAKER_04: To learn more about Gems and to register for an upcoming event, head to their website at dancegen.com and come to show your Sparkle at Gems Dance Competition.
1:06:20
SPEAKER_06: Season four is just getting started, and we're bringing you some amazing topics coming up, including stage and costume malfunctions, private lessons, and college dance team prep.
1:06:29
SPEAKER_06: Stay tuned.
1:06:30
SPEAKER_04: We'll see you next week.
1:06:32
SPEAKER_04: Until then, keep dancing.