Check Out Shelby Whallon’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shelby Whallon

Hi Shelby, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up in Southern California, spending my after-school hours training at a small ballet studio. I moved to Seattle during my senior year of high school to train in Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Professional Division program. Following the PD program, I moved back to SoCal, joining the corps de ballet of Los Angeles Ballet in 2016. I continued to dance with Los Angeles Ballet for eight consecutive seasons and was a guest artist with other dance companies in the Los Angeles area.

During my time dancing with LA Ballet, I prioritized my education equally with my athletic career. Performing artists are well aware of the fragility of their careers. Like all professional sports, one slip and fall could be detrimental when your body is your job.

The pandemic was hard on performing artists with in-person performances closing. I decided to shift my attention almost fully to academics while we were inside. When I was accepted into an Ivy League school in 2021, I was eager to be looking forward to new possibilities beyond the stage. However, when the financial aid offer came back with little help aside from personal student loan debt alongside my meager dancer’s salary, I was devastated.

I went looking for any and all resources I could to help fund this opportunity. I came up short, finding only one resource across the country available to help performing artists transition into school. To me that just wouldn’t cut it. So I started a second one: The Encore Fund.

I continued to dance with Los Angeles Ballet for two additional seasons after the COVID shutdowns, retiring in the spring of 2023 to transition into UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs with a concentration in nonprofit management. I focus my areas of study on resources to help continue to grow our mission and serve the professional dance industry across the US.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The development of our mission was the easiest part: to provide dancers support in their steps away from the stage. Since our inception in 2021, we have been able to give away five scholarship awards, each $1,000, helping dancers fund their higher education journies necessary for their second careers.

One difficulty we have run into is communicating the need for this. Most patrons of the arts argue that they give money to the dance companies themselves, shouldn’t that be enough? Well no, dance companies are concerned with the success of the company and the dancers in the present, not with the longevity of dancers’ success beyond the organization. Money donated to performing arts organizations is rarely earmarked for the dancers but rather spent maintaining organization operations, which is fair! But dancers deserve more than a final bow, they deserve support systems to continue to thrive. In supporting dancers beyond the stage, we can support the entirety of the performing arts ecosystem.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
The Encore Fund is dedicated to helping dancers in their transitions away from the stage into higher education through our scholarship awards and mentorship opportunities. We select as many dancers as we can for $1,000 scholarships that can be put towards whatever expenses they may encounter in their education programs (rent, textbooks, tuition, transportation to name a few included in applications, but all five winners have intended to spend it on tuition costs).

Our mentorship connections set us apart from the other performing arts resources out there. Our selected winners are connected with our mentorship partners to connect them with a mentor in their desired next industry. This sets our winners up not only with an improved financial situation but with someone who knows the ins and outs of their next steps and can help them get there.

We are most proud of our commitment to the professional dance community. We are currently operating on a volunteer basis only. All donations to our cause are given directly away in these scholarship awards, guaranteeing maximum impact of our mission.

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
The biggest joy that I’ve gotten out of Encore has been talking to transitioned dancers about their experiences. Our scholarship winners have gone on into the most incredible next steps, from working to fight eating disorders in the dance industry to doing clinical cancer research. Throughout my time as executive director of the organization, I’ve looked at every single application that has been submitted (42 applications over 3 years), and it has been an absolute privilege to read dancers’ stories about how they got to where they are and where they intend to go next. The stage is only one portion of their story, one chapter, and we get to assist them in getting to the next one.

Pricing:

• $1,000 donation will support one scholarship award
• $250 donation will support a dancer’s textbooks for a semester
• $100 donation is enough to help cover transportation costs to and from
• $500 donation will contribute to half of a scholarship award

Contact Info:

• Website: https://theencorefund.org
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/theencorefund
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/theencorefund
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzUX8AUTarY&t=6s&ab_channel=TheEncoreFund

Image Credits
Beau Campbell Photography (only the first 3 and headshot)