We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Chelsea Simone. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Chelsea below.
Hi Chelsea, thanks for joining us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?
I do sometimes wonder what would be different if I had pursued a professional career immediately after high school instead of earning my BFA. I think I was much more confident and less inhibited right out of high school. When I went away to college, I was in classes with dancers that were more flexible than me, thinner than me, had better technique than me, etc. This made me self-conscious and I was sort of forced to sit with that. If I had gone straight into auditioning, I don’t think I would have had that self-consciousness because I would have been in rooms with a mixed bag of people with a wide range of skill and talent. I also wish, after I did graduate, that I went to more auditions and cast a wider net. Though I definitely wouldn’t have booked every job, I would have at least had more opportunities to book more jobs. “You miss a 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I’m a classically trained dancer raised in Menlo Park, CA. I studied ballet, jazz, and lyrical at Menlo Park Academy of Dance from the age of 4 until I graduated from high school. At 18, I moved to New York to earn my BFA in Dance from Fordham University and the Ailey School with the dream of joining Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT), a predominantly black dance company. Growing up, I had strong technique and performance skill and, despite not being very flexible, my solos often placed very high at dance competitions. But when I went away to college, that all changed. I was surrounded by other dancers that had technique, performance skill, AND flexibility. And on top of that, they had more of the typical thin dancer physique. While I wasn’t overweight, I’ve always been curvy and muscular, which is a common black physique and one that I expected the Ailey School to appreciate. However, throughout my 4 years there, the most consistent feedback I received every semester was “lose 5-7 lbs.” By the end of my time at the school, I had determined that AAADT was not for me and that I was much more interested in commercial dancing (music videos, backup dancing, etc) over concert dance (dance company). After graduating, I began my personal training career and booked my first professional dance job as a NY Knicks City Dancer (KCD), which I stayed with for two seasons. In 2016, I moved to LA for a year and a half to continue my professional dance career, working as a dancer for the LA Clippers, while simultaneously auditioning for other temporary dance jobs. I now work full time as an administrative assistant, while occasionally working in the arts through jobs I book through my agency.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
Something I think non-creatives will always struggle to understand is that skill alone will not always get the job. There is a lot of networking involved and it’s important to meet as many people as you can. The LA market seems to be very superficial in this way—whenever meeting someone new, they always seemed to care more about who I knew and what connects I might have than building a genuine relationship with me. However, there is some value to that. If you can build genuine relationships with people who can help your career progress, win-win. Aside from skill and connections, you could also book a job based mainly on how you look. Sometimes it’s good to have a memorable look (bright/unique hairstyle, piercings, tattoos, etc) and other times it’s good to have a more plain look. There are so many factors that contribute to booking a job and, believe it or not, skill can even be entirely overlooked at times.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
I’ve had to pivot quite a bit in my life and over the course of my career. The first pivot was in college. I had been studying at the Ailey School which the dream of joining Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. However, over the course of the 4 years, I realized that and concert dance altogether wasn’t for me. So I pivoted to commercial dance and took up personal training as a means of supporting myself financially while also allowing me a flexible schedule. Four years later, it was time for another pivot. I don’t know if you know this, but NY is an expensive place to live. I moved there with no savings and only worked part-time for the first four years while I was in school. After I gradated, I was living paycheck to paycheck, which is exhausting so I had to move back home. But only for about a year before I moved down to LA to continue my dance career. Now that I live back in the pay area, my career in the arts has had to take a back seat to my full-time job. I do continue to dance through occasional classes, jobs I book through my agency, and as a member of ArcTangent Dance Company.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chelseasimonedf/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelsea-s-mclaughlin/
Image Credits
Nathan Carlson Tien Berny