Today we’d like to introduce you to Rose Barbantan.
Hi Rose, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
It was at the age of seven that my journey to New-York began. At that age, I was already reliving Broadway and the American dream just by looking at my wallpaper from my room. I started with ballet, jazz, and contemporary dance at the Avignon Conservatory. While I was still innocent and a novice in the field, I heard about a dance audition to integrate the higher curriculum and even being able to make dance my profession. It is quite natural that I continued my way in France until YAGP in the semi-final in Paris met the school of Annarella Sanchez in Portugal, and since that day my path has taken a whole new direction that of the foreigner. The desire to dance elsewhere than my country of origin has always been very present. From Portugal, I left for the Summer Intensive at Ailey School at only 16. During this intensive, I fell in love with New-York; I dreamed of it so much that my dream became reality. I was finally living in the middle of all these buildings and all this effervescent in the middle of dance.
Being so young in the city of everything possible allowed me to meet many people, to grow up, and learn to become a professional dancer.
Today I have lived in this city for 5 years, and I wish to stay there for a long time. I don’t know where else in the world I can find so many opportunities that every day make me evolve. I am lucky enough to be able to work with different artists every day, it gives me a huge openness, being versatile to adapt to each request of the choreographers, being able to change dance styles in the same day I can find this as in New York. Having the opportunity to stay in the USA is an incredible opportunity that I don’t want to miss and that I want to exploit indefinitely.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
A young dancer’s path is never easy. It’s a bit of a roller coaster; when you get out of school, you’re a novice, you’re full of ambition, and you think you’re ready to enter the professional world. But you have to be mature before that. To pass auditions, to be cut in the first round of the audition, one day, then the next to pass another audition and succeed it, it’s very difficult morally.
During auditions, we never know which profile they are looking for, pleasing the choreographer is a very random thing. We need to build strength on negative answers and be happy when it’s a yes.
When it is a YES then we have to ask ourselves the questions, the schedule, the salary, to be fulfilled in what we will perform on stage.
Being a freelance dancer is also an organizational challenge; you become your own secretary, your own accountant, your own manager, and then you dance!!
I have had this challenge since I was 14 years old to change countries and therefore to change languages. I adapted to Portuguese to understand my teachers and friends; then I had to adapt to English when I arrived in New-York.
All these challenges make me grow every day, make me learn the job every day.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I started with Ballet dance, and I would say that it is the basics to have as a dancer. Ballet dance brings rigor, physical placement, and above all grace. Then I gradually fell in love with contemporary dance; I found freedom in movement and an adaptation to the body. Be able to adapt the movement to the body and feel free and one of the best sensations. I love improvisation too, following the music, following his feeling of the day, and following his instinct; I like taking classes of the Gaga technique. I recently started to create my own choreography. I discovered the other side of dance, being the one who creates and the one who is inspired by the dancers. And I feel very charmed in this role too. I am always looking for new experiences and new sensations.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you.
Being a soloist on stage is quite a magical feeling; the space of the stage is that for you, you are free to change the expression of the movement while challenging yourself by keeping the requested choreography because with stress and adrenaline you can leave in improvisation, for my part. Then this feeling as small as it’s large on the stage is a very powerful sensation. The breath of the audience and their gaze on you puts a lot of pressure on you, and you have to contain yourself and give them the best of you.
Then dancing in a group is such an important role; sharing the stage with other dancers is a completely different feeling, between us we give ourselves an overflowing energy, feel the overall movement, and breathe together is an exceptional thing.
Being a lead role in a piece is a big responsibility; you have to be able to keep the thread of the story, be a second role you have to give energy when you go on stage to the main roles to keep the performance level.
In dance for me, there is no role more important than others; the audience must feel the crazy energy of all the dancers on stage. Whether you’re in the front, in the middle, in the back, we have to give whatever we can.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Rosebbn
- Facebook: Rose Barbantan
- Youtube: Rose Barbantan
Image Credits
@the.thief.of.time
@richard_pelchat
@d13g0
