Rising Stars: Meet Steven Atwater of Silver Lake

Today we’d like to introduce you to Steven Atwater

Hi Steven, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My passion is dance—and it’s been so since I was a kid. I directed a pre-professional dance program in NY, where I lived, before moving out to LA. I relocated because my husband got a job here. But during my time as a director, I started making memes. It’s been another mechanism for expression that’s given me a lot of joy, especially during the pandemic shut-down. I’ve since grown the platform on Instagram to a little over 90,000 followers, and at times, it reaches up to 25 million IG users. It’s been a wild ride!

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
As a freelance choreographer for most of my life, there have always been challenges. But I feel like this life prepared me for the ups and downs of content creation—gaining followers some months and having no momentum in others; folks not crediting you for your original ideas; getting brand deals at times and not so many at other times. But I take the bad with the good. It’s all worth it.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I make memes that I hope will give folks a moment or two of laughter or escapism. My audience is primarily gals, gays and theys, and I love that as a queer person. The community I’ve built is really important to me. Another thing I’m proud of is the partnership I had with What Do You Meme? That was a really exciting moment, and I’m looking forward to more collaborations like that in the future.

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
Yes, and that lesson is to continue creating in whatever ways you can, even in seasons of difficulty. I honestly think that’s what led to my passion for content creation. It became another way to be creative. But whereas my dance art is heavy and serious, memes are joyful. And yet both tend to be political, which I love and think is important.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.stevenatwaterdance.com
• Instagram: sirbanksalot11
• Other: Tiktok: sirbanksalot11

Image Credits
Headshot photo by Thomas Ford
All others courtesy of Steven Atwater