Hometown: Hong Kong

Current city: Brooklyn, NY

College and degree: BA from Brown University

Graduate school and degree: MS in Computational Finance from Carnegie Mellon

Website: http://samsam.freesite.website/

All of the dance hats you wear: Dancer, choreographer, teacher, website designer, lighting and costume designer, poet.

Non-dance work you do or have done in the past: Trader at a hedge fund. Risk analyst in sales and trading.

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When I had a full time day job on Wall Street, while doing a master’s program, my dancing was limited to weekends and some week nights. I just started to perform around 2002. Marriage interfered with that. It interfered with many things. I came back and claimed dance as my calling in 2012. Most of my time is now spent in the studio, taking class, giving class, rehearsing, training and researching by myself or with my colleagues.

Major influences:

Pre 2002, I was mostly a Simonson dancer. Other influences included Oliver Steele and Guido Tuveri. I first met Jennifer Nugent then. Just seeing her standing, I was swept away, as if the ground itself was transformed by her, just standing.

2012 and beyond, I am most grateful for the learning and partnership I have enjoyed with Talli Jackson. I began to find my soul when I saw him dancing.

What is on your calendar for the rest of 2016 (teaching, choreographing, performing)?

May 11 through 14th, I will be performing for Mariangela Lopez in an ensemble piece as part of the Gibney Repertory Initiative for Tomorrow.

May 21st, I am presenting a duet with Elise Knudson at the Open Source Gallery in Brooklyn in collaboration with the Rawiya Collective, a group of female Middle Eastern photographers.

June 4, and 8th, I will be performing for NOT for reTALE, directed by the beautiful, multi-talented mover and visual artist Emily Smith.

I teach children regularly at Dancewave. I also do adult private, semi-private sessions. I am looking to pick up a few regular adult open level classes.

What does the phrase “the choreographic moment” mean to you? When do ideas take shape? When do you begin on a project?

When I first started making, I needed a concrete date, performance venue to focus my attention. Ideas subconsciously took shape during the making. 

Now I am living and breathing the life of an artist everyday as best I can. The creative state — I think of it as a state of being fully present, available, porous, taking in the world, allowing the world to affect me as if for the first time. Ideas take shape continuously.

Then when I land a gig, I make the piece on what I have been most obsessed with lately.

Current training practices and care of the body:

Ballet and Gaga are my staples. Outside of rehearsal, I like to take one or two classes or workshops a day when I have the money, which hasn’t been the case.  I recently join a gym, where I can use their studio to hone my own practice, prep for classes I am teaching, or prep for rehearsal.

I pack my lunch most days. It is cheaper and healthier. I stay home and rest most evenings. It is cheaper and healthier.

What is the role of teaching within your dance life? What do you love about teaching? What does the phrase “teaching artist” mean to you?

Structuring and delivering a class demands many of the same skills as choreographing and performing. I enjoy the craft. I enjoy sharing and seeing happy sweaty faces.

I quite like the term “teaching artist” as opposed to dance teacher. A dancer, a technician, a choreographer, a craftsman, these are jobs we can leave behind, and be, just a person on our days off.  An artist is a 24/7 gig. Yes, most of the time we are teaching technique and craftsmanship, and rightly so. Sometimes the soul peaks through because that is what it does.

Non-dance interests, specialities, service work, or hobbies important to you:

Animals, nature, sounds, light.

Last performance you saw that really inspired you:

Batsheva

Advice to dancers wanting to move to NYC:

Prioritize. Do you really know what your needs are? Talk to people. Learn from your mentors and your peers. Question what really nourishes you and what just distracts you from yourself.

Final thoughts: Hope/belief/love of the profession:

The journey is yours.

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Related posts:

Artist Profile: Jennifer Nugent

Advice on Moving to New York City

Speaking as a Teaching Artist: Thirty Perspectives

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