We recently connected with Shantavia Smith and have shared our conversation below.
Shantavia, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
I believe it came from me coming up in poverty and watching dance movies, such as You Got Served, Step Up, those type of movies. There wasn’t much eat in the house or a lot to do outside. So, me and my cousins would practice day and night when I was about 7 until we got the moves down to a science. We wouldn’t sleep unless it was perfect. Everything had to align. We just knew we would be on tv like them one day. I’m the only one that continued to pursue my passion for dance and pretty much the arts. I was extremely determined not to be in a repeated cycle of what I seen around me growing up.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Hi! I’m an amazing movement artist from South Florida, who now resides in LA. I specialize in freestyle dance. I travel state to state to perform, battle, teach, create content and also, throw artist events inside and outside of my community. My artist name is Lucid the Dreamer. I’m well known for my uniqueness and rugged way of attaching myself to dance movement. The most exciting part about this field is inspiring the people. Walking up to introduce yourself and them knowing exactly who are, asking for pictures and advice for their own journey. There are three new projects that are coming really soon from me. I’m apart of two upcoming short dance films and writing one myself called “Survivor’s Guilt”. Be on the lookout for that and also, starting to teach more workshops and private dance classes across the country starting January 2024.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I think the three things that definitely kept me going was to persevere, pray and to be mindful of the art you put out.
The best advice I can give is to, also, persevere. Do not give up! The dream is right there. If you give up today, you never know if tomorrow was your big break. Also, be very cautious as to what you allow people to see in your art, there’s always someone watching. They could be looking to follow in your footsteps and use your blueprint.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I’m looking to collaborate with Tyler Perry and Lauryn Hill in the future. I would love to be in one of his films to showcase my art. Also, I’d love to do a video project with Lauryn Hill. She sings a cappella while I move. You guys can reach on my social media and through my email. My Instagram is Silence.Tae and email is [email protected]
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/silence.tae/
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@LucidtheDreamer7?si=qXKcJNeUs1MVCG7M
