Q: How did you begin (performing art)?

I've been dancing since I was about three years old. I went to my local dance school and I trained in every style possible from jazz to ballet, pop, contemporary, everything. Then I auditioned for the Rambert School in London, and I moved to London in 2016 to start training there.

Q: What does being an apprentice for the company look like? What do you do daily?

Morning class is either ballet or contemporary every day. Then in the afternoons we’ll work on creation, like for the show in Paris. There were times it was just rehearsals for the rest of the day, but sometimes we have people come in and do workshops and projects from all over the world and in all different styles.  

Q: What has (performing art) taught you that you have applied to your everyday life and how you engage in the world?

I think body awareness is probably the thing I find that connects my dancing to everyday life. I think as a dancer you're constantly studying motion and shape and things like that. You can do a simple movement, and maybe that is an idea or an inspiration for something I can apply to my dancing.

Q: What have been some challenges in your pre-professional and professional career?

I think a big struggle is just being myself and, you know, having doubts or not trusting myself. I think everyone goes through that as an artist but I would definitely say that has been the biggest obstacle in my career so far, learning to trust myself.

Q: What other interests and passions do you have outside or inside of (performing art) that influence and inspire your artistry?

Another big passion of mine is cooking. I love food and I love creating artistic looking meals.  I think that sort of way works into composition, food, and colors, things like that.

Q: Has dance helped you overcome any hardships in your life?

Although dance can be very stressful in a lot of ways it's helped me accept myself and be comfortable in my body and my skin. I think researching movement makes you go into a really deep part of yourself and I think you can overcome a lot of mental or physical boundaries through that.

Q: How can (performing art) be a platform for social justice issues?

I think art has a way of making a subject really poignant, and especially what you can show without words.  I think there are certain messages and ideas that are a lot more accessible through art or dance.

Q: How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected you as a performing artist? (community, financially, initial reactions, company shift, online class, emotions, initial cancellation reaction)

I was actually in Paris, performing at the Théâtre du Châtelet. We had our performances cut short because of the restrictions that were introduced and I had to leave Paris early. That was quite hard because it was a really big show and it was really exciting and it felt like it didn't get to finish in a lot of ways. I feel like I'm still holding on to that a bit, like wishing that I'd been able to finish up the performances and everything right.

Q: What were your initial reactions and emotions to the shutdown?

Well, I had a studio apartment in Marseille and I was trying to decide whether it was better to just go back to Marseille and possibly be by myself for a long time or to come to London and be able to stay with my boyfriend. I chose to come to London in the end and I think that was definitely a good decision, seeing as how long things have rolled out for. I’m living in a house with five other dancers so I think it's nice to sort of have that support group to isolate with.

Q: What does a daily routine look like for you? What have you been working on during this time?

I think one of the more exciting things that's come out of all this is the amount of online classes that are available at the moment. There's so many different things that you can do and so I think I'm enjoying trying a lot of different things, different kinds of yoga, taking a lot of Gaga, trying different styles. I think my weekly routine is I just to try a lot of different styles of classes and work on little bits of film and just little creative projects.

Q: Can you talk a little bit about how people are reacting, how the government is reacting, how your company is reacting to the pandemic?

Well, I traveled directly from Paris to London. I didn't even go back to Marseille. Things were a little bit further behind in the UK than France so I sort of saw it all unfold in France a bit. Restrictions got really tight, I mean you had to fill out a form if you want to go outside as well, which I think seemed quite insane while I was sitting over here, but then shortly after their restrictions became the same here. In the supermarkets everything's all marked out and there’s plastic up in front of the cashiers. I think the other thing is that there's been some really nice weather here in London, which I think is rare so there has been quite a few people out and about trying to enjoy the sun as well, but I think mostly everyone's doing their bit.

Q: Do you know if there is any government funding specifically for artists that are unemployed right now?

I believe in the UK as an artist you could get some funding from the government but I think you have to have been paying taxes for three years prior. So one of my friends, who's a choreographer, he's been working for long enough now to have gotten that grant, but a lot of us that have just come out of school don't have the earnings behind us to qualify for the benefits.

Q: What social changes and responsibilities have you seen the performing arts community make during the pandemic?

Like I was saying, everyone's being really creative. I think there's some really cool stuff coming out. Companies are creating things and there are obviously people doing projects individually. With the classes and all this stuff that's being put on offer, I think everyone's really coming together in the sense that, as artists, there's not much work for us at the moment and having classes and things like that is sort of what is keeping us going and feeling normal. Trying to do class, even though it's in the living room it's coming together with people and moving. I think it's nice, really nice.

Q: As an apprentice has the company been in contact with you about kind of moving forward and how have they been supporting you guys during this time?

The company I'm working for at the moment, we’re all temporarily unemployed. So there isn't really anything we're allowed to do in terms of work for the company. There are classes that are sort of organized amongst the dancers that we do together so we still have times when we can all chat and dance a bit together, but we're sort of limited by what we can do because the government needs to see that we are temporarily suspended and not working.

Q: Think about what you would like the performing arts to look like after the pandemic. What kind of improvements would you like to see happen kind of as a result of this pandemic and just in general, in terms of class accessibility?

Just building on what you said about the Zoom chats and people doing all these classes right now, of course you want to be paid for your work, but again there are people that don't have access to those classes. There are amazing teachers out there that a lot of people might not have access to freely and with the Zoom chats, you can be from anywhere in the world taking part in class, it's incredible. I hope that teachers and choreographers learn a bit from this experience in terms of making their pieces and classes more accessible to the world because with a lot of these companies, if you can’t go watch them in a theater then you can't see them. So I think it's been really incredible how people are releasing full works or extracts of their dances.