Meet Hannah Graham | Artist, Dancer

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

Hi Hannah, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
Artistic is an adjective meaning having or revealing natural creative skill. Creative is an adjective meaning relating to or involving the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work. I have never wanted anything more then to pursue an artistic career, I had a big imagination as a kid, writing, drawing, painting, and dancing everything I could imagine. It officially clicked when I was 15 that this is what I was going to do, nothing else, this is plan A fully committed, there was no such thing as plan B. I grew up in a small town playing sports and dancing, I was really able to utilize my creativity within my art at a young age, especially in my writing, drawing, and painting, I didn’t figure out how to utilize my creativity and my voice until later on in dance. I was about 12 or 13 years old, competing 4-5 solos a year which was becoming expensive but I was determined to do the dances I wanted to do, so I started choreographing my own. I had a playlist on shuffle, and found thee song, I loved it. I spent hours in my room creating everyday, it’s how I wanted to be, creating pieces about my story in a way that others might relate to. Being able to dance my own work in front of an audience, was an unimaginable feeling, it was amazing no matter the outcome. I continued creating for myself and others until I moved away from home when I was 17, that was the year when I moved away from home. I received amazing training that year away from home and not only prepared me for the journey ahead, but also got me to where I am today. These past few years I have really been focusing on myself and my dancing to continue to discover things about myself, and to be curious and playful, to enjoy the small things that bring inspiration. Recently I have been in a space that really allows me to fully submerge into my creative and artistic abilities, and am currently working on a project that I’m very excited about, a film that will really share who I am in a very vulnerable way. As difficult as it may be sometimes this is what I love to do, more than anything. Creativity is my heart, and art is my language.

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 grew up in a small town on the west coast of Canada, Prince Rupert B.C., and it’s located on Kaien Island near the bottom of the Alaskan border. I grew up playing sports both recreationally and competitively, I am that stereotypical Canadian that grew up in the cold and played hockey. I was also a competitive dancer, started dancing at the age of 2 and I started competing at the age of 4, competition has been apart of my life until I graduated high school. In my hometown it was difficult being a competition dancer because there were two dance studios and there was what I believe to be an unnecessary rivalry, everyone wants to be the best but we could have all been the best together. I danced at both studios, the first one from age 2-10 because my mom was a teacher, and my teacher but once I was 10 due to unkind behaviour from my teammates I wanted to quit. My mom hated seeing me so sad and wanted to give it one last shot so I went to the other studio. I grew immensely as I was pushed to dance with the older girls, and it was amazing, I had the opportunity to start being creative and choreographing for myself and others, I also got to perform with the Jorgen Ballet which was really cool. But within the opportunities the more I pushed myself, I always work at 110%, I was always growing, and sometimes people didn’t like that. A relative of mine said to me, “This town is like a bucket of crabs, everyone is trying to pull you down when you get to the top.” I overcame a lot of challenges throughout my years as a competition dancer, and I eventually hit a rough patch, but I knew I wanted a career in it so I had to figure it out. I did research found a studio, the best studio, moved away from home and began intense training that got me here today. New York has been challenging because I came during the pandemic, my first time ever in NYC and no family with me to navigate together. It was scary but I eventually found a great group of people who helped me a lot. I spent two years training intensely, one year we spent half on zoom, and the other year was fully in person, but I often had to miss. During my first year here, near the end of the year, I had a seizure in one of my classes, and nobody knew that that’s what it was, nobody even knew I fell unconscious because I didn’t make a sound, except my partner who I scared a lot. I went home that summer and was diagnosed with epilepsy, it wasn’t a great feeling. I came back to New York a few weeks after to start the following year of classes, and began a hard journey of not being able to dance as much because nobody knew why I had epilepsy so we were still discovering seizure triggers. It took a lot of trial and error, I have a great neurologist-shoutout to him for helping me, but it was a really hard year all round. It involved loss of friends but also myself, it became my identity for awhile I let it become that way, that’s how people saw me. It has taken a lot of work to have unlearned unhealthy habits, and mindset to learn new but I have found myself and am constantly putting in work to better myself, and now epilepsy is just apart of me, it’s not me.
My mom is the reason why I was able to overcome every obstacle I had to face, she was by my side through it all, my biggest supporter. It took a lot of perseverance to get here but I have so much gratitude for everyone and everything that has gotten me to where I needed to be. Through that I learned that it’s okay to lean on people for support, and to be open, vulnerable, it’s still hard but it’s a work in progress.
My work is very much inspired by my life, and the events that have occurred within, it helps me heal parts of me that I didn’t know were still fragile. I make my art for me, but I always hope that someone would be able to relate to it, or understand it, but art is subjective, and as long as it makes sense to me that’s all that matters.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If my best friend were to come visit me, the first place I would bring them is the Lego store, I love Lego and the store is incredible. I also have been searching for the best doughnuts with one of my friends and that for me currently is Dough Doughnuts so that would definitely be on the itinerary. I would love to go to all of the performances happening while they are here, and visit every museum possible within the amount of time we have to spend together. Otherwise, I would like to create the itinerary with my friend in a sense that there is so much to explore here in New York City and within the surrounding boroughs. I love adventure, exploring, discovering new places, new things and that is something I would want to do with my best friend. I tend to be a very scheduled person, I have everything planned out even timed sometimes, and having no schedule or specific place or thing allows more freedom for us to go and explore with it being able to feel timeless rather than limited. There would also be no expectation or disappointment if we didn’t get to do something together, so I’d love to go to the Lego store and Dough Doughnuts otherwise my best friend and I will go off on an adventure, make some new memories, and do anything else they would like to do.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to dedicate my shoutout to my mom, she is my hero. I could without a doubt not be where I am today without her. My mom was my dance teacher from the age of 2 to the age of 10, choreographing my solos until I was 12. She played a large role within my dancing as both my teacher and dance mom. My mom is my biggest cheerleader, supporting me like no other no matter the outcome it was always okay because she was there, and she sacrificed a lot for me to be where I am today. There have been a lot of ups and downs through this journey but no matter the situation, she was always there for me and stuck by my side. As a former dancer turned dance teacher, she saw my love for dance grow and knew my dreams were big, but no dream was to big, she believed in me most even when I had doubts. My mom means the world to me and I can’t express enough how grateful I am for all the sacrifices she’s made, and everything she has done to help me achieve my dreams. She is my rock and I couldn’t do it without her love and support.

Everyone who I have met has played a role within where I am today and I am so grateful to every person I have had the opportunity to learn from as they all encouraged me to be best I could be, but one person who has played a major role in my journey is Julie Pham. I met Julie when I was 11 years and we bonded immediately, she took me under her wing and helped me grow immensely in all aspects of dance. She was someone I looked up to, who inspired me most and was always there for me. I couldn’t be more grateful for Julie and all that she did for me.

Someone else who also played a major role in where I am today is Shannon Stewardson Gombar. My last year of high school I knew if I wanted to pursue a professional career that I had to find the training that could get me there and I came across Tri-City Dance Centre. My mom sent videos of my dancing, I did the audition and I was so nervous because that was something I wanted so badly. Shannon and the rest of the Tri-City Dance Centre family took me in and welcomed me with open arms, it became a feeling as if I had been there for years when it had only been one year. Every faculty member challenged me greatly, helped me grow to my fullest potential, guided me and prepared me for my next steps following graduation. Shannon really believed in me and never let me settle for less, she always knew I could do more then I thought could do, and helped me realize what I was capable of, and I couldn’t be more grateful, it was one of the best years of my life, and I couldn’t be more grateful.

Instagram: https://instagram.com/hannah.grahamm1?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==

Image Credits
blue dress- Valerie Kosnevich Peridance Center black outfit strawberry shoes- Geo Mantilla photographer, sponsored by Taylor Wickham yellow outfit- Tomasz Augustyn outside – Julian Hunt Lighthouse Photography