Today we’d like to introduce you to Roger Lee
Hi Roger, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I am proud that I have been working as a professional artist (choreographer, dancer, and painter) for the last 23 years.
I started my professional dance career at the age of 12. That is when I booked my first paid gig as a professional dancer for a local television station’s morning news show. Since then, I have danced professionally for local and national television specials, a five-time Grammy Award-winning recording artist, a United States Vice President, and my own dance company (I am also the company’s Founder, Artistic Director, and Choreographer). My Roger Lee Dance Company is now celebrating its 12th anniversary season and upcoming 20th concert series.
I started my professional art career 12 years ago. I started painting human and pet portraits for clients that commissioned me. In 2021, I started painting the things that inspired me. I started exhibiting my own painting series in 2022. I am now celebrating my upcoming 5th solo painting exhibition.
My success as a professional visual and performing artist inspired me to become an artist career coach. I wanted to help other artists achieve their own version of career success. I started conducting private career coaching sessions for visual, literary, and performing artists. I also wrote the e-books Artist Income Boosting Strategies and Artist Career Success Strategies and created and hosted the web series Roger Lee’s Artist Career Success Interviews. I love working with artists!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I am grateful that I have been blessed on my artist career journey. In the midst of the blessings, I have also experienced tons of rejection, setbacks, and loss.
My most memorable rejection was being eliminated from one of my favorite reality television dance competitions. I was eliminated so early in the competition that I never had that opportunity to perform for the celebrity judges. I was eliminated from the competition and sent back home before I knew it.
My most memorable setback was during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Roger Lee Dance Company was a week away from performing our 16th concert series when the pandemic hit. We had to cancel our upcoming concerts, give full refunds to the people that purchased tickets, and isolate in our own homes. I had no idea that we our next live performance wouldn’t be until October 2022 (this was 31 months after our originally scheduled concert series).
My most memorable loss was during Roger Lee Dance Company’s first year of operation. One of our dancers unexpectedly passed away at the age of 20. This dancer was like a little brother to me. We even shared the same birthday. Roger Lee Dance Company dedicated our 2nd concert series to the late dancer and performed a special memorial piece in his honor. His family was sitting in the front row at both concerts. I will never forget this devastating loss.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a professional choreographer and dancer with 23 years of professional experience. I am most known for starting, directing, choreographing, and performing with my own Roger Lee Dance Company (est. 2012). I am really proud that my company is celebrating its 12th anniversary and upcoming 20th concert series in Philadelphia. This is the result of countless prayers, the love and support of God, family, friends, and colleagues, 23 years of hard work, and refusing to give up on my dreams. What distinguishes my choreography and dancing is a fusion of many different dance genres.
I am a professional painter that is celebrating my upcoming 5th solo painting exhibition in Philadelphia. I am proud that I self-produced all five of my solo painting exhibitions and created 11 different painting series within the last 3 years. What distinguishes my paintings is my unique style of blending colors and the incorporation of glitter into my works.
I am an artist career coach that helps visual, literary, and performing artists achieve their own version of career success. What distinguishes my artist career coaching is me being a working artist. My work as an artist informs my work as an artist career coach.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Resilience has been the most important characteristic of my success. I refuse to let life’s obstacles stop me from choreographing, dancing, and painting that visions that God has placed in me. The visions are bigger than the challenges I face. I am blessed to say that I have been able to turn my tests into my testimony throughout the years. Resilience has been the key to succeeding as a professional artist for the last 23 years.
Pricing:
- Artist Career Makeover Program (Registration Fee)
- Artist Career Building Steps E-Book (FREE)
- Artist Career Success Interviews (FREE web series)
- Original Paintings (Prices vary)
- Roger Lee Dance Company Merch (Prices vary)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.rogerleearts.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rogerleearts/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rogerleearts
- Twitter: https://x.com/RogerLeeArts?mx=2
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@rogerleearts
- Other: https://www.rogerleearts.com/artist-career-success-programs.html
Image Credits
Photos by Stephanie DeFeo (c).