Check Out Sam Chavez (SamCha)’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sam Chavez (SamCha).

Hi Sam, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My story leading up to today is quite a journey. I have always been a very athletic and a very artistic kind of person, it’s funny I actually just talk to my mom today and she told me about how I started walking at eight months so I was ready to move, haha. But the arts has always influenced me and ever since I was little, I’ve done a lot of different things leading up to where I am now. I didn’t start dancing until I attended a middle magnet school so I didn’t start dancing until middle school and I actually was kind of thrown into it. I learned things kind of in a mixed-up order and improv was actually my safe place from the start it felt like the place where I could be my true self through an artform. I also was interested in acting, art and playing the cello. I loved playing the cello but I got more serious about dance and went to an actual studio. I started attending competitions and conventions and really invested and cared about it and wanted it to be a part of my life. I went to a college dance fair where I ran into Amda and I actually ran into Amda again at a convention. I didn’t think I did well at the convention there’s this thing that happens where you can get a scholarship for some kind of assistant status and you audition and it’s a big thing and it was my last time so I was hoping that maybe I could get the scholarship to feel like I had accomplished something big in my journey with dance. I ended up getting cut before they selected the final group, I was really disappointed of course, I was still a teenager and it felt like the world was over you know.

I went home early and I didn’t stay for the last event I just wanted to go home and do my homework and I get a call from my best friend at the time screaming saying oh my god you got the major scholarship to go to Amda, oh my God and I’m screaming on the phone crying freaking out just because that was just insane. I had never thought in my wildest dreams that I was going to be able to pursue this. I mean it was on the other side of the country, I’m from Tampa, Florida I guess I could’ve included that from the beginning but it’s kind of coming out now, haha. My family help move me across the country to California and I attended Amda where I wanted to be a choreographer. I decided I did not want to be a dancer I am going to Amda for a degree in dance to be a choreographer. I created as soon as I got there, I was so excited to create on people my own age that were so passionate about the same thing and I made pieces and I choreographed and directed a show with one of my friends Alyssa who is an amazing artist and we’re still really close to this day. I started to get inspired by her because she is a fantastic videographer and editor; she did that before coming to Amda and started to dive more into it when she came out there ended up of course is this isn’t my story. This is her story but it is part of it; she ended up leaving and began to study film and I got to peek over her shoulder and get inspired by her work and I was like this is so cool she captures movement on film. SO amazing; I love any form of art combined; it’s just so incredible and little did I know that that would transition me later. But I continue to strengthen my craft and it shifted a little bit because I realize that part of the reason why I didn’t want to be a dancer was because I didn’t believe that I could be a dancer and Amda help me believe in myself which is a beautiful thing.

Towards the end of my Amda career, I started incorporating workshops that they offered. I was doing shows and other things and they had a filmmaking and editing workshop. I participated in the workshop for about three semesters. I was just so struck by how limitless things can be when you combine different art forms and I started combining choreography and improv and filmmaking. Shout out to Cain DeVore he’s insane his name should be plastered everywhere. I am so inspired by him even to this day and walking forward. I took filmmaking for a ride and I had two more semesters of school and Covid hit, that was and is still a tough time. It was a time where things really shifted for me, dance didn’t just become a performance, studio or stage; it became a living breathing thing. I did a lot of improv and dance outside almost every single day during quarantine. I would go outside on the tennis courts, I called it my court moves and I would just connect and feel the energy that nature was giving me and through that, I incorporated and let that lead me into more filmmaking and editing as well as making me think a little bit deeper into who I am as a person and what I wanna do. I think a lot of us have had those questions during this time as we were really stuck with ourselves even when we didn’t want to be. It took me into a journey with meditation, spirituality and with yoga, I ended up getting yoga certified over quarantine. That all really led me to where I am in time and space right now in terms of almost calming everything down.

I love to be busy, I love to have a lot going on and the meditation and yoga and spirituality and taking care of myself has really supported my art and I think a lot of artists I would say like myself can get lost and struggle. I’m not ashamed to talk about my mental health struggles, I had a really hard time and still deal with having a hard time being diagnosed with depression and dealing with that. Having to take medication at one point and not being in safe place with myself, it’s hard. We all experience it in doses some of our doses are a little bit larger in and a little bit longer but I am thankful for all the things I’ve incorporated and the balance I continue to achieve. I can’t give and not have a backbone or in other terms fall and not catch myself. I came back at the beginning of 2021 and graduated from Amda virtually. I live in downtown Los Angeles which is quite an interesting change from Hollywood, California haha. Its been so interesting transitioning from being a student for about 22 years of my life and now getting to just do anything. It is really strange so you’re catching me at a cool time. I am actually working through that. I am towards the end of understanding and I would say I don’t know if that’ll ever end but I said this the other day to my friend, it’s almost as if we’re in societies program the program that society has assigned us for about 18 to 20 something years of our lives and then they tell us all right it’s over now you’re supposed to know how to live life. It’s quite jarring but the beautiful thing that I am realizing is that I don’t have to do one thing forever I don’t have to assign anything, I don’t have to be an emotion I don’t have to be anything other than who I want to be in any given day.

I am on a cool mixed journey right now. I was teaching virtually for a while on this program called outschool. I was teaching film class, I was teaching dance privates, I was teaching intensives virtually for kids that could not access things in person because of Covid but also kids that prefer learning online. Once things opened up a little bit more, I started teaching at a preschool, I still do that. I am also a freelance editor/filmmaker, a dancer, an actor and recently, I’ve been hired at Amda to be a videographer/editor as well as help with their upcoming dance show which is very exciting. I am still training in dance, doing gigs and it’s all becoming very thrilling, who knows where the next step is but it’s very exciting. I’m also a part of geometry dance company run by Mackenzie Martin. I absolutely love her and I love being a part of a community and I am also a part of her creative team. I’ve helped with some of her videography and editing as well. I like to mix it all up, haha. Right now, I am also incorporating improv together with a projector we have in our apartment. I’ve been doing this improv series in front of the projector and it’s becoming something different something that I think could change the game. The game will be changed with dance and I want to be a part of it. I want to be a part of the wave and I want it to be meaningful and I want it to be inviting.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
– Moving from one side of the country to other with no family.

– Depression.

– Body image: This struggle is scary real. I see the shift slowly happening in our society but remembering shifting doesn’t heal the damage from before so I encourage all people dancers especially to acknowledge the past, so you heal and be a part of this future movement with acceptance of body image. I struggle daily but it’s a process I’m willing to work through.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a creator! My motto is “busy distorting reality” oh man, it’s so fun living in this world when you chose to constantly change your perspective. I am a dance, choreographer, filmmaker, editor, creative director, yogi and Radiohead mega fan, haha. I guess I would what sets me apart is that I do things in life wholeheartedly with my ego at the door and never with intentions of diminishing someone else’s light.

So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
Working and existing with good people because life is so precious and it’s more than booking a sick gig that will come at the right time with the right people.

Pricing:

• Freelance editing- $40/hr (not currently booking for filming)

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: https://samchainc.com/
• Instagram: @Samchavez25

Image Credits:
Lindsay Rosenberg