Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Loh.
Hi Amanda, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
At age 3, I was put in in ballet classes and I fell in love. From that point, ballet became that one stable constant in my life. I have trained at some of the top schools in the country including Boston Ballet, Houston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet. I have also danced professionally with the professional division of Pacific Northwest Ballet and as a company dancer at ARC Dance in Ballard Washington
Needing a fresh challenge after two years at Pacific Northwest Ballet, I enrolled in school at University of Washington, during which, the first year I still was employed at ARC dance in Ballard as a dancer. I eventually retired from professional ballet full time and worked on earning two bachelor degrees: one in Electrical Engineering and one in Computer Science. I went on to work at Tesla, Ekso Bionics, Nio, and other FAANG companies with a goal to build technology to improve the worlds through electric vehicles, exoskeletons for paraplegics, autonomous driving, and developing internet of things solutions for a diverse group of enterprise customers.
Around the pandemic, working remote, I used social media to connect to the rest of the world and make friends through revisiting dance but this time I pursued commercial dance with hip hop, jazz funk, and heels styles. Around April 2021 I was invited out from Seattle to LA to train with the iconic Jojo Gomez and from then on was hooked on creating music videos and choreographing in the commercial dance space. In November 2023 after building a strong base in Seattle choreographing and teaching I moved out to Los Angeles permanently to pursue being a creative directing music videos, some select dancing projects, and teaching dance.
My goal is to build a community centered around dance and technology. As an engineer and dancer, I believe I can bridge these two worlds that people often find so different from one another. Please join me as I revive my dance journey with my ultimate goal being, a new and exciting form of entertainment for you all whether you’re a ballerina or a tech nerd!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
One of the hardest challenges has been juggling a full time career in software engineering and pursuing my dance creative projects. I am only one me so I have had to develop a very strict work ethic I abide by to get everything done. But the balance of dance and tech hence why I am known as Silicondancer is me and why I do what I do.
I also challenge with having haters who didn’t believe in me and would blast me on public platforms to degrade me but I managed to push past these critical people that now I realize were jealous to just focus on myself and my own lane.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am known for music videos with engaging visuals and have high quality aspects despite the fact I don’t have professional resources. I am able to make my dreams come true with a small budget and working with a dedicated passionate team who is creative and up for some serious problem solving!
One of my proudest projects is working on a music video dedicated to the queen Parris Goebel one of the most iconic commercial choreographers of our time right now and I involved almost 50 dancers in this project to create a 4 part visual where part of it was shot in my tech office at work!
I am a little shy and a little introverted and the sweetest person on the planet but my creative work is some of the fiercest, extroverted, quirky content anyone has ever seen.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
Engineer by day and dancer by night!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.silicondancer.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/silicondancer/?hl=en
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg8hvywOqpZ9sI0kb0gumjQ
Image Credits
1. picture with gold streamer – gold shoot – @monimedia_
2. laptop with jump split @evanysphotography
3. hooded pic – holo hoodie – @tristan_nguyentran
4. Vietnamese outfit with purple hat with leg up @tristan_nguyentran
5. battery picture with lights – @balletzaida
6. photo with cords @theamceo
7. jedi photo @marcia.davis
