We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ludivine Stsepaniuk . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ludivine below.

Ludivine, appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I grew up in a middle class French town called Nîmes and became an artistic swimmer at age 7. Thought my siblings went into studying sciences, I would always cherish some alone time to play some music and just “ move and let me body feel the music”. My swimming got me out of my small town and I moved to compete at the highest level which got me a ticket to the Paris National team training center. After competing for 10 years, I was still finding some alone time to “move and feel the music” so I decided to try out for a show.
I had no idea where the show would be, I just knew they were looking for artistic swimmers. On audition day, we had to show some technical skills in the water and after passing the first “cut” the next part was dancing…
On that day, I was a bit nervous because we auditioned in a big ballet school in Paris and there was no pool in the horizon, I felt like a fish out of water! When it was my turn to show the dance routine we learned, I was instructed to keep dancing and to let my body feel the music.
At that moment, everything clicked! I started to let my set go and to finally show how my body expressed itself! Oh, it wasn’t technical or worth being danced in that school but while I was “dancing”, the choreographer Giuliano Peparini joined me and followed my moves. That moment was so magical because I felt understood and my way of moving was worth being shown.
I did get the job and got to create the beautiful Las Vegas show Le Reve- The Dream from Franco Dragone. This is how I started my creative/artistic journey.

Ludivine, 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?

After performing in Las Vegas’ Le Reve for 12 years, I knew that I was ready to create my own art, wanted to go back to artistic swimming and teach young swimmers how to express themselves and wanted to work with different directors to gain more experiences. All these made my life pretty busy!

I’m the owner and creative director of Ovia entertainment which provides any aquatic and circus acts for parties, conventions, music videos and more. I love creating a piece for each events and love seeing my client’s reaction while watching their customer show! I also got to choreograph some artistic swimming piece for commercials and music videos. My favorite one was “Seduce” by Russ because I got to work with some amazing directors and production company called Blank square productions who gave me freedom to create and to showcase artistic swimming. That shooting day was the highlight of my creative director career and hopefully I will get more similar experiences.

My second passion is being the Head coach of the Nevada Desert Mermaids in Las Vegas and the Youth National team head coach. Our little team has sent over 6 athletes to World championships in less than 5 years and thriving to get bigger! We offer swim lessons, beginning artistic swimming to high level training. I love to see my young athletes grow and blossom into successful adults!

Lastly, I sometimes work as a body double or aquatic stunt actor. My best experience was to swim in the last Avatar, the way of water movie! Though I wasn’t on set full time, I was needed for some specific scenes and I enjoyed every seconds of it even if I had to hold my breath for over 4 minutes! Listening to the director James Cameron explaining the essence of the scene or being pushed to the limit by stunt coordinator Garrett Warren was also an unbelievable experience that I would remember all my life.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist or creative is to wake up everyday and do something I love. It is to cultivate my passion and use it in different field . My passion for water and free movements got me to experience sport at the highest level, one of the biggest stage in the world, to work on the set of one of the biggest movie of all times but also to give back and teach it to the next generation.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The lesson I learned about my story is to show what you are about, to not being afraid to fail because failure is growth.

Contact Info:

• Website: nevadadesertmermaids.com , oviaentertainment.com
• Instagram: @ludi.Stsepaniuk
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ludivine.perrinstsepaniuk?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Linkedin: @ http://linkedin.com/in/ludivine-perrin-stsepaniuk
• Youtube: @oviaentertainment

Image Credits
Artsy memory photography Tomek Rossa photography