We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Melissa Padilla a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Melissa, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

I think I can say I am living full time from my creative work because every job I have is related to dance. Since my first jobs, back in the dance student days, everyone of them were teaching dance lessons or dancing for social events. And from that it’s been always like that.
My first contract as a professional dancer was for a theater project as a dancer of course and I had a few lines in the play. It was so much fun, and I remember saying I hated acting and all the theater plays and my last days in school. Next scene, I’m in this awesome play with a lot of super talented people from Chile and Colombia, all together creating, sharing, traveling, and having a beautiful experience.
At that moment a window opens and I start seeing a lot more possibilities for my creative expression. That project comes to an end so i decide to spend the money i just earn to stay in Bogotá Colombia, ask for a space, a little salon in a building in the top of a mountain, called my best friend to invite her to work with me and my partner to create something, and that was the beginning of my company Teatro de León. Of course not everything worked out as we imagined but the exact steps I needed to start creating my own work happened.
Later I came back to Tijuana, kept working with my partner and at the same time started a residency with the dance company Lux Boreal, to survive, eat and pay the bills, started to work in different dance studies teaching jazz, ballet and contemporary dance.
Nowadays I’m a former dancer of Lux Boreal´s dance company, co-directing my theater company Teatro de León and I keep teaching in a couple of dance studies.
I think the hard side of this path it’s holding on to your dreams. A lot of situations may be rough or very difficult to go through, but the hard work pays off. relying on your community and being a little stubborn can make things possible.

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?

Well, I am a passionate Virgo dancer and co- director of a theater company who loves astrology, latin music, multidisciplinary artwork, experimenting and creating. I began my dance journey at 12 years old with jazz dance classes 2 hours per week, then added ballet and contemporary class. A few years later I took a 8 months contemporary dance program at the same time of my second year of university studying graphic design, and when I finished the dance program I made the decision to drop my career as a graphic designer and went to an audition to study at the Escuela Profesional de Danza de Mazatlán and become a professional contemporary dancer. 4 years later I graduated with honors and began my professional road.
Now I work in Lux Boreal Dance Company as a Choreographer, teacher and dancer. In my movement research I look up to find spherical motion, traveling through and with the space in a 3D form, a smooth floor work and trying to find ease as the body moves.
As a co-director of Teatro de León, a Colombian- Mexican theater company, I found a space to experiment different ideas, a lot more personal and vulnerable because it is the place where I can try things with a little more freedom, like my safe space to look inside my concerns and interests.
I´m really proud of my favorite project inside the theater company: “Paradojas Invisibles” a scenic encounter where people of the artistic community can share their work, no matter if its a work in progress, 15 min long or a new work they want no put out there and at the end of the show, talk about the process or the inspiration behind. Thanks to this initiative I’ve had the opportunity to meet and reconnect with so many beautiful and talented artists, talk to amazing people in the audience and reinforce the creative community.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Be open to try new things, Share our work, go to see a show or play even if you don’t know the artist behind it, consume local art, make donations to the companys or independent groups or artists to do research and develop new work, repost the posters and information about the next show of your favorite creatives. Or maybe if you can afford to buy a pair of extra tickets and give it as a gift to someone that has never been in an art show before so they can experience it for the first time and we can reach a new audience.

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

The most rewarding thing for me is to be able to process or express my feelings and emotions through my artistic work and connect with other people, most of the time i have the opportunity to share space and life with beautiful humans who are open and question themselves about a bunch of differents topics with the urge of communicate that to others. Rethink our bodys and our movement, explore new ways of traveling to a spot, a space, a part of my own body.
Dance for me has been a lifesafer, a mind opener. Thanks to my creative work I’ve been able to be a better person, to be more at peace with myself, to break patterns that weren’t good for me, to be more empathic, tender, sensitive, and kinder. It helps me to understand the world in other ways.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://teatroleon.webnode.com.co/
• Instagram: @_malossa
• Facebook: @melissapad & @teatrodeleon
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpLxJJJYe_qeMn0PT3DLdRg

Image Credits
Andrea Nieves, Thais Pho, Carla Alcantara.