Meet Faustine Lavie | Professional Dancer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Faustine Lavie and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Faustine, how do you define success?
I think success is a very subjective concept. For me, being successful means being happy and fulfilled in the professional career and lifestyle I chose. As a freelance dancer and an artist, I might not have the most lucrative career, neither a huge notoriety, but as long as I feel engaged artistically speaking, I participate in various and interesting projects, and keep evolving in my art, I consider myself as successful. Of course, being able to live from my dance career is also important to my success, which I’m extremely happy to be able to do right now, but getting in a routine just to do so would be terrible. My success is living from my art while achieving diverse projects, working with various choreographers with different styles, and always keeping the creation process alive.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’ve started dancing ballet when I was 3 years old. I’ve danced my entire life and never even imagined stopping. I knew I wanted to be a professional dancer from the age of 7. I’ve had some hard years when I was a teenager, physically speaking but also mentally. It required a lot of sacrifices and dedication, I had some ups and downs, but dancing definitely taught me how to be strong and never give up. I’m very decisive in my career, I know what I want and what I don’t want, and I always fight for my choices, and I know that it’s because I’ve had to overcome some difficulties when I was younger. I think my main qualities and keys to my success are my passion and determination. I just love being on stage, but I also love to rehearse. Hours in dance studios are very fulfilling for me, as much as performing. I also love trying new things, experimenting new styles, and evolving. I’m a ballet, modern and contemporary dancer, but I just started hustle a few months ago, which is a couple dance born in the disco years and that I absolutely love. We’re getting ready with my partner to do some exhibitions as well as competitions.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Well, living in NYC offers a lot of options. It might not be very original, but as a dancer, I’d definitely want to bring my friends to some shows. I went to see many musical on Broadway and they’re all incredible and very different. It’s definitely something to see. I love going to museums as well. One of my favorite and which is maybe not the most famous in NYC is the Whitney Museum. They mostly have temporary exhibition, and they’re always great. I also love food, but there are way too many restaurants and bars that I’d like to bring them to to start doing a list of them. One of my favorite brunch place is a small cafe called Good Thanks Cafe in Lower East Side. As a French person, I also love going to Juliette in Williamsburg once in a while, it’s a very cute French restaurant with affordable prices and amazing food.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
First and most important, I’d like to thank my family for their unconditional love and support. It’s definitely thanks to them that I was able to pursue a dance career, and to all the sacrifices they made when I was young to help me succeed. I’d like to thank also all the teachers who helped me becoming the dancer I am today, in France and the US, as well as my dancer friends with who I’ve grown and evolved in the past 10 years.

Website: https://www.faustinelavie.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/faustinelavie/?hl=fr

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/faustine.lavie

Image Credits
Rebecca Marcela Oviatt Paul DuBois Nir Arieli Deto Ahn David Ovitsky