We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Morgan Fay a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Morgan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
I began building dance skills as a child, but didn’t begin playing music until I was an adult. As a professional performer who does multiple skills on stage, the most important part of building skills for me was developing a growth mindset. Understanding the best methods for how I learn, breaking down difficult skills into smaller chunks, and developing a consistent practice schedule helps me continue to grow as an artist. Learning new things as an adult, particularly with music, I have to make a commitment to practicing every day, even as I work and deal with life. I’ve learned that only through consistent practice where I push myself to the edge of my abilities and get out of my comfort zone by going to music jams, camps, and working with as many teachers as I can, do I see significant growth and change.
Morgan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I fell in love with Raqs Sharqi (aka Bellydance) when I was a teenager. At the time, I had no intention of being a professional. I simply wanted to move my body and be part of a safe and supportive community, while learning about different cultures. As I developed my technique and musicality and met professional performers, I realized that performance was a career that I could learn to do and truly enjoy.
Now I perform as a solo artist, dancing in many venues up and down the west coast, as well as part of the Baksana Ensemble, playing violin and percussion, acting, storytelling, and dancing. Through Baksana Ensemble, I also am dipping my toes into the world of musical theatre, playing music and dancing for the musical “Rella”, written by Bevin Victoria and Aaron Wheeler-Kay.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Navigating social media can be an intense process and a lot of times, as artists, creatives, or business owners, it’s an aspect of our job that can be frustrating. The first thing that helped me understand how I wanted to approach social media was deciding how I wanted to present myself. For me, I wanted to show the process and mistakes that happen when learning, as well as the polished performances that come with years of work, as well as sharing stories. This allows me to feel authenticity in sharing, which can be a major hurdle to cross. Next, understanding the landscape of social media: how many times should you post, what hashtags to use, what time of day to post, what platforms do you want to use, how to interact with your followers…all these things are important to understand, but it may feel like social media content creation gets in the way of creating the art you want to make. Developing a healthy relationship with sharing your work in a way that is authentic to you is probably the most important thing to do.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is creating a magical experience for people. If I can transport the audience somewhere beyond their day to day, make them feel emotions, or inspire them to make their own art, that’s when I succeed as an artist.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.morganfaybellydancer.com/
- Instagram: @morganfaydances
- Facebook: @morganfaydances
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@morganfaybellydance2611?si=zadImBuHkG5NHPnT
- Other: TikTok: @morganfaydances
