Interview with HBC’s Amazing Savannah Lee
Today we had the opportunity to talk with Savannah Lee, an amazing new member of the HBC community! She shared her thoughts about the ballet world, her experiences as a professional dancer, freelancer, and teacher, and her HBC experience since joining in September. We really appreciated Savannah’s insights and thoughts and hope you enjoy her responses to these 15 questions as much as we did!
❤️Audrey and Amy
1. What is your name?
Savannah: My name is Savannah Lee.
2. Where do you currently work?
Savannah: I currently work with North East Rhythmic Gymnastics.
3. How many years have you been with your employer?
Savannah: I started teaching for them in the summer of last year.
4. What do you do at your job and what do you like most about it?
Savannah: I teach ballet to rhythmic gymnasts. What I like about it the most is that I’m still teaching ballet, but it’s not within the ballet world. I’m taking my knowledge and what I’ve learned and applying it to rhythmic which has been really interesting. There are so many differences and similarities between them, so it pushes me and my students to grow.
5. How has the remote platform affected your work experience?
Savannah: It’s actually been amazing. I love it. Through zoom I can see everyone’s boxes so close together which really helps me catch something placement wise or musicality wise that I might’ve overlooked in a studio while I’m walking around. Additionally, the online format has also been helpful when I’m giving someone a correction. A lot of students are really good about coming up to their screen and watching the person and the correction and learning from that. So personally, I definitely like the remote platform. In many ways there has been a lot of improvement from it.
6. How many years have you danced ballet and what inspired you to start ballet?
Savannah: I’ve been dancing since I was four years old. As far as what inspired me, I checked out a video from the library in the 90s when I was a kid called “I Want To Be A Ballerina,” which went over the ballet positions, showed the rehearsal and audition process, and behind the scenes of The Nutcracker. I kept checking it out every single time when we went to the library. There would sometimes be a week that we would go back to the library and someone else had requested that video, so I’d be so sad until we came back the next week and checked it out again. I wanted to be a ballet dancer ever since I watched that video and got to see what it was like being a part of the ballet world.
7. In addition to ballet, we understand you’ve trained and performed aerial hoop too -- what is that like and how is it different from or similar to ballet?
Savannah: Aerial is a whole new challenge because you have to work on building strength with your upper body, but there’s a lot of strength required in your legs as well. This is different from ballet in a sense that upper body strength in women is really encouraged, and I think that’s a really healthy mindset. Additionally, I love aerial because when I have problems or injuries with my feet, I can still express myself through aerial and not have to worry about my feet at all. It’s also been fun incorporating the two of them together, both getting to dance and then being taken up into the air. I’ve really enjoyed learning new things within that, and taking what I know from dance and putting it into aerial.
8. Now, going back to ballet specifically, I think you’ve taken some time to dance professionally and to freelance -- can you tell us about those experiences and how they were different?
Savannah: Personally I started freelancing when I started dancing professionally for the first time, but there is a difference between freelancing and being part of a company. While freelancing in New York City, you have to build your own schedule completely. What I really liked about freelancing was how many new people I met and the great amount of networking experiences. Freelancing was really helpful for me personally for becoming a dancer and making a career for myself. You have to be really forthright, advocate for yourself, and put yourself out there.
Additionally, in my experience, the dance community in New York was super supportive. For example, if I knew someone and the choreographer I was working with at that time was looking for a dancer for a project, I’d reach out to a friend and tell them about the opportunity and vice versa. There were many times where I would tell someone about an opportunity and introduce them to whoever I was working with, or that this happened to me. For my first experience dancing professionally in New York City, my dance partner was dancing professionally with a company and introduced me to the director who had me perform Sugar Plum Fairy for them which was really cool. Freelancing is great because you get to make connections, become more well rounded, and build your own schedule with whichever teachers you want to take from.
It really surprised me how much being a professional dancer [who was] freelancing made me more bold as well. Usually in interviews I hate talking, but in New York I would just go up to people and tell them “I want to work for you,” and I always got a great response. I don’t know if that was just the New York community, maybe it’s different in other places, but it made me feel very supported. I learned to just ask for what I wanted when I lived out there.
Companies on the other hand are very different, and I found that each company had differences as well. A lot of them aren’t full contracts for the year, instead they’re project-based or half of the year depending on the company. It’s very interesting working with new people and a lot of times they would take you to perform in the surrounding areas or states (I’ve gone as far as North Carolina), which I really enjoyed.
Companies are also different from freelancing because there is more consistency. If you’re freelancing, you have to talk to a teacher or be working on a project in order to get free class, but with a company they are automatically going to give you free company classes all the time. There’s a guarantee that you won’t have to pay out of pocket for classes at Steps on Broadway or other places, and there is all the rep they set up for you as well. There is more consistency because you’ll be getting the same classes from the same people a lot, and some of my best experiences have been with a company with the same people at the same time as a team. Additionally, they bring in outside choreographers or guest teachers, which I think is really important to keep things fresh.
There is a lot of predictability with companies, so if you like things to be predictable, then a company is probably more for you. If you like to go with the flow and see where it goes, freelance could be really great for you. There were a lot of things I learned from both experiences. They both really help you to learn and expand your mind.
9. Also, we understand that you spent some time teaching dance too -- how did that differ from being a dancer/performer?
Savannah: When you’re performing you are giving to the audience, but it’s also something you do for yourself a lot. Teaching is where you are giving to your students. I personally really enjoy teaching because you’re giving so much knowledge to new artists to come and there’s something very fulfilling about getting to know each individual student.
10. What do you think are some of the primary challenges that today’s dancers, or perhaps the dance industry as a whole, face?
Savannah: There are a lot of things. A huge challenge we face is body image issues. Nothing is wrong with us personally, but it’s what’s wrong with what’s being said about and what’s expected of us in regards to our bodies in the dance industry. I’ve walked away from things immediately as soon as someone body shames me. I don’t put up with that. I don’t care who is saying it, I just don’t put up with it. I think the more we speak out about those body shaming experiences and how wrong and abusive they are, the more we can move towards change.
I think another thing to work on is more inclusiveness with the LGBTQIA+ community by being more aware and open minded about how we treat them in the workplace or how inclusive we are with casting and representation. That’s huge.
One last thing is making dancers feel valued for their time. There will always be opportunities where you can learn something for giving your time away, but just being respected and compensated for your time can do wonders for how people develop as an artist just knowing that they’re valued. Overall, just understanding that each individual dancer is a human being and not just another number in the crowd is really important for the dance industry to work on. The more inclusive we are with dancers in the dance community, the more the art will grow.
11. Have you continued dancing during the pandemic?
Savannah: Yes. :)
12. What is your favorite ballet?
Savannah: It’s so hard to just say one, so I will say a couple different options. I love Romeo and Juliet because the music is so hypnotic and gorgeous. I love pretty much anything from the Royal Ballet such as the Royal Ballet’s Manon, and Frankenstein and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I also love Michael Pink’s Dracula.
13. What is your favorite role you’ve danced?
Savannah: This is another tough one. There are two that stick out in my mind. The first one would be the pink lamb (Marzipan) in Atlanta Ballet’s Nutcracker. There was a shepherdess, two pink lambs and a little baby black lamb. We had full body costumes and black pointe shoes. I enjoyed all the jumping and had a blast becoming the character.
The other would be the grand pas de deux in the Nutcracker as the Sugar Plum Fairy. There’s something about the music that makes me want to cry and think anything in that moment is possible. I’ve danced many different versions and each time I have, it feels like I’m on a new planet where I am immersed in this surreal energy that I wish I could take back with me.
14. Who do you regard as a role model in the ballet world?
Savannah: I like Claudia Dean a lot. She trained and danced with the Royal Ballet, and now she has this amazing online platform where she gives exercises and advice to dancers to help them improve as well as her own dancewear line. I just like how well rounded she is, but she also sometimes discusses issues going on in the ballet world, which is really neat of her to do. I never discovered her until the pandemic hit, and it’s been a learning experience looking into some of her videos.
Another role model I look up to in the dance world is Michael Cusumano aka Madame Olga! When I had Micheal’s class years ago in NYC he was so personal and inspiring. I remember dancing an adagio and he came up to me and said, “Let me see your heart!” I never forgot his class. Before the pandemic hit I wasn’t dancing much at all and was feeling sad. When we all had to start staying at home, Madame Olga started offering Instagram live classes every week. I swear those classes are what got me back into dancing, and I am so grateful! Madame Olga uses SO much humor and positivity in the class while also getting everyone to focus on technique and work hard. Olga has us say positive affirmations every week and really cares about the world around them.
15. How would you describe your HBC experience so far?
Savannah: So far, I feel like it’s very well rounded and diverse, and I really think it’s cool how so many people teach class. Everyone is trained differently and when it comes to the choreographers setting pieces on us, they’re also so different from each other. I’m really drawn to that aspect of HBC.