Artist of the Week
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Artist: Shannon McAvoy
Artform: Dancer What is your name and where do you live? Hi! My name is Shannon McAvoy. I am from the United States and just recently moved to London! What was your role in 'Snow White: Reimagined'? I was the Evil Stepmother! What excites you about the art world today? I think there is a lot of crossover of genres these days. Ballerinas are working on the West End, hip hop dancers are booking movies based on classic musical theatre shows, and I think the concepts are limitless! |
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What do you do and what are your main focuses?
I am primarily a dancer. My training as a kid was very focused in ballet, contemporary, jazz, and tap. However, since performing professionally, I have mostly been in musical theatre based shows which encompassed all types of dance and some singing!
Where have you studied?
I grew up in the state of Wisconsin where I trained from the ages of 3-18. I then moved to California when I was accepted into The Young Americans College of Performing Arts. From there, I moved to Chicago and studied ballet and contemporary at Lou Conte Dance Studio and then to New York City for a musical theatre concentrated program at Broadway Dance Center.
I am primarily a dancer. My training as a kid was very focused in ballet, contemporary, jazz, and tap. However, since performing professionally, I have mostly been in musical theatre based shows which encompassed all types of dance and some singing!
Where have you studied?
I grew up in the state of Wisconsin where I trained from the ages of 3-18. I then moved to California when I was accepted into The Young Americans College of Performing Arts. From there, I moved to Chicago and studied ballet and contemporary at Lou Conte Dance Studio and then to New York City for a musical theatre concentrated program at Broadway Dance Center.
What and who are you influenced by?
I tend to be influenced most by the peers and mentors I am around at any given time. I have travelled a lot and have been a part of many different casts and companies. And I choose wisely who I spend my time with and learn from. I learn from my peers and their insight about the work they’ve done in the past and what they are looking to do in the future and their recommendations they give to me personally. I have found that the dance and theatre community is full of people willing to help each other. It’s a very tough business, so we’ve learned we have to stick together!
I tend to be influenced most by the peers and mentors I am around at any given time. I have travelled a lot and have been a part of many different casts and companies. And I choose wisely who I spend my time with and learn from. I learn from my peers and their insight about the work they’ve done in the past and what they are looking to do in the future and their recommendations they give to me personally. I have found that the dance and theatre community is full of people willing to help each other. It’s a very tough business, so we’ve learned we have to stick together!
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Why do you dance?
I genuinely don’t know what life would be like without dance. I have been doing pirouettes and shuffles consistently since I was three years old! All I know is that during times of rest or involuntary breaks, I haven’t felt whole. Over the years, dance has become everything to me: it’s my exercise, my form of expression, where I found my community of people, my work, my play, my hobby, the way I get away from a bad day and the way I celebrate a good one. I am very aware that dance is intertwined with each and every part of my life and being a dancer is what I identify as first before anything else. So, why do I dance? Because it’s what I love to do and I cannot imagine going one day without it. What is the most exciting/interesting thing you’ve done to date? I have travelled to 66 countries around the world within the past 7 years! One of my favorite memories from my travels was when I was a part of an organization called The Young Americans that put on music outreach workshops and we visited two different all male prisons in Germany. We taught those prisoners an entire show full of singing and dancing. And let me tell you, when you witness those men dancing in a costume, singing a song into a microphone, or reading a poem they wrote, you never forget it. |
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Tell us about about your time at Utah Festival...
I recently finished a contract at Utah Festival of Opera and Musical Theatre where I played Graziella in West Side Story, was in the Ensemble for Mary Poppins, and also was an understudy for a Bowery Beauty in Newsies! It was a new experience for me to learn and perform three shows at once. But I like to stay busyand challenged, so I actually enjoyed having so many different things going on at once. It definitely kept things fresh when we’d have West Side Story one night and Mary Poppins the next, or even both in one day! It was a very special experience for me to be a part of two shows that had such important stories to tell, that are still extremely relevant to life today.
I recently finished a contract at Utah Festival of Opera and Musical Theatre where I played Graziella in West Side Story, was in the Ensemble for Mary Poppins, and also was an understudy for a Bowery Beauty in Newsies! It was a new experience for me to learn and perform three shows at once. But I like to stay busyand challenged, so I actually enjoyed having so many different things going on at once. It definitely kept things fresh when we’d have West Side Story one night and Mary Poppins the next, or even both in one day! It was a very special experience for me to be a part of two shows that had such important stories to tell, that are still extremely relevant to life today.
What motivates you?
My past and my future motivate me. I trained SO hard as a kid (still do) and my parents invested so much of their time and money into my training, and we never knew if I’d make a career out of it. In fact, I think we were all pretty clueless as to how that would happen! So I am always motivated to validate the incredible amount of time and effort me and my family put into this art form for so many years. And as for my future, well I am a pretty realistic person and always try to keep things in perspective. I am aware that this career will not last forever, unfortunately. Being a dancer has an expiration date due to health and injury. Therefore I am motivated to use what I have,while I have it, and to reach as many audiences as I can. |
Talent or hard work?
Hard work wins all the way! It truly does pay off in time. And in my opinion, I think it is much more rewarding to become successful from your hard work than your natural talent.. speaking from experience. 
What advice would you give to anyone wanting to become a professional performer?
Everyone’s path to becoming a professional performer is completely different. There is no right or wrong way to do it. There is no step by step. Which is really difficult and you will probably feel extremely lost most of the time. But it’s also extremely amazing because you get to create your own path that is unlike any other’s! 
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Have you ever failed at something and what happened as a result? What advice would you give to people as a result of that experience?
I have been “cut” from probably 50 auditions within the past two years (New York can be brutal). I could see this as a complete failure, or I can just know deep down that what was meant to happen for me, has. I was meant to do the jobs that I got offered. I was meant to go to those places and meet those people and perform for each of those audience members. And now I am meant to be sitting here at my dinner table in London, typing this answer out for YOU to be reading. And if any of those little failures (those auditions) actually resulted in an offer, everything would be different now. But that’s not what was meant to happen! So if you have “failed” at something, just know that there truly is a reason. There is something you are supposed to learn from it, or something better suited coming your way. It’s definitely hard at the time but the more you know in your heart that what is meant to happen for you will, you will feel a lot lighter. Keep moving forward. |
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What are your future ambitions?
One of my near future ambitions is to assist a choreographer throughout a whole process of putting a show together. I have some experience in assisting within rehearsals and helping them come up with choreography before teaching a cast. But I’d really like to be the right-hand woman to a choreographer from start to finish, give notes to the cast, help teach choreography, and learn directly from a successful choreographer about what their job entails as well.
One of my near future ambitions is to assist a choreographer throughout a whole process of putting a show together. I have some experience in assisting within rehearsals and helping them come up with choreography before teaching a cast. But I’d really like to be the right-hand woman to a choreographer from start to finish, give notes to the cast, help teach choreography, and learn directly from a successful choreographer about what their job entails as well.
