Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Daly.
Hi Amanda, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was born, raised, and trained as a dancer in San Diego. I’ve had the opportunity to work with some wonderful teachers, mentors, and employers, most notably Marie Arts and Jared Nelson. I have been the Director of the Ballet Academy at West Coast Dance Complex since the studio opened, and I am very proud of the community I share with the staff, parents, and dancers at the school.
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?
Most dancers that I know myself included have struggled at some point with body image, work-life balance, and other mental health concerns that are a result of being a part of a discipline that demands intense physical and emotional dedication from a very young age. My personal struggles with building confidence in my body – not just its shape, but also its abilities – have informed my approach to teaching young dancers. My main goal as a teacher and director is to help dancers develop the confidence which I only discovered in the last 5 or so years of my performing career. It is also important to me to guide young dancers as they form their own unique relationship with dance in general and, in particular, ballet. It has been my experience that sometimes ballet dancers feel there is only one way to relate to ballet, sort of an all-or-nothing approach, and I have found that more dance students can enjoy dancing for longer if they are able to set the boundaries and tenets of that relationship.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
As Director of the Ballet Academy at West Coast Dance Complex, I oversee a program that trains young dancers in classical ballet technique, with an emphasis on performing in full-length productions. Each year we perform not only the Nutcracker but also a full-length, original ballet each Spring. Our Spring 2022 production was an original production of Snow White, created for our students by myself and our incredibly knowledgeable and dedicated Ballet Academy staff. We are proud to offer our students the opportunity to experience first-hand what it is like to audition for and originate a role, learn new choreography, make artistic choices about their characters, and be a part of a world premiere show. We also educate our students on the theater staff that are essential to putting on a stage production, from our stage manager to lighting and sound technicians to the crew members who are in charge of our backdrops and set pieces. We are very fortunate to work with the wonderful team at California Center for the Arts in Escondido. I am particularly proud of the level of professionalism with which our faculty approaches these students’ productions, as I believe it gives our young dancers a solid foundation for participating in live theater.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
It is my hope that the dance world continues to shift toward inclusiveness and the prioritization of artists’ health. I have seen wonderful changes in recent years regarding the variety of faces and bodies that are representative of who a dancer can and should be. Classical ballet has propagated for centuries very specific ideas of what a dancer can look like. There is still a very long way to go in terms of unpacking and transforming these standards into something that can be accessed by anyone who finds joy in ballet, and I intend to do what I can to be a part of that transformation.
I also hope to see more changes in the treatment of dance students and professional dancers by their teachers and directors. In terms of artist health, it also seems we are moving away from the standard in which the person at the front of the room is inaccessible and unforgiving toward a more collaborative and understanding artistic process, which in my opinion, creates a healthier environment for everyone involved. It is true that ballet requires an incredibly high level of physical, mental, and emotional discipline, but I believe there are ways to access that while maintaining the individual artist’s agency and capacity for self-determination. It is part of my personal philosophy as a teacher to find positive ways to encourage my students to develop their best dancing selves.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.westcoastdance.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/westcoastdancecomplex/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WestCoastDanceComplex
Image Credits
Samantha Zauscher
Sydney Arts-Suter
