Grace Under Pressure: Dance Artist Faustine Lavie’s Dynamic Aesthetic
By Dean Evans
Dance Artist Faustine Lavie’s exceptional combination of strength, grace, technical precision and boundless interpretive skill have made her one of the most respected and established forces in the highly competitive New York dance world.
The French-born, Manhattan-based Faustine’s involvement with dance has been a profound, life-long romance, one reaching back to earliest childhood: “The only thing I know is that when I was 3, I asked my mom to take me to a ballet school,” she said. “And she did, because she thought it would be a good activity for me. Now, I cannot even remember my life without dancing. It’s really a part of me now; I don’t think I could ever stop.”
That innate, almost mystical drive is Faustine’s defining characteristic, an inescapable imperative upon which she positively thrives.
“Dance is in my blood,” she said. “My dad is also really into sports, and I love them too. I’m very active and what I like the most about in dance is even though it’s considered an art form, there is also a competitive sports-like aspect to it, so it matches my personality perfectly.”
The path Faustine took was not an easy one. Beginning with her childhood ballet training in hometown Toulon, France, she continued after the family moved to Paris, attending the famed l’Ecole du Ballet National de l’Opéra de Paris, followed by additional studies at the prestigious Ecole Supérieure de Danse de Cannes Rosella Hightower (named for the renowned American ballerina who founded the school in 1969). There, Faustine was also introduced to modern and jazz dance styles and, after graduating high school, moved on to further training at the acclaimed contemporary dance school ACTS in Paris.
“I started to learn the Graham technique and discover more contemporary dance pieces,” Faustine said. “There I had the opportunity to work with famous European contemporary choreographers and I became a fan of the Nederlands Dans Theater, a company based in Holland. I spent two years with them, returned to Paris to attend the two week Ailey School summer intensive workshop before joining the Ailey Certificate Program.”
She makes it sound far easier than it was: the distinguished, world famous Ailey School, is a groundbreaking, progressive and deeply respected organization which accepts only the most capable practitioners. Gaining entry to the Ailey Certificate Program is a rigorous process that finds the dance artist in competition with literally thousands of other talented performers (Ailey runs annual auditions in the US, France and Italy and also accepts video submissions). Faustine’s characteristically impressive execution at the Paris audition handily earned her a spot in the program.
On completion of the 3 year program and armed with a boldly ecumenical resume of world class training, Faustine’s professional life burst into a vibrant, thriving series of successes. She is currently a member of multiple New York dance troupes companies (including i KADA Contemporary Dance Company, Arim Dance, Nathaniel’s Dance Collective, Bloodline Dance Theatre and The DynamitExperience) and also participated in the 2018 edition of Jacqulyn Buglisi’s annual 9/11 commemoration Table of Silence, an eminent artistic ceremony that is performed at Lincoln Center Plaza, and broadcast on television and streamed on the internet.
One of her most intriguing affiliations came when she was accepted as a member by An Nuo Spiritual Dance & Art, a high-profile contemporary New York dance company founded in 2017. The troupe’s unique Spiritual Dance technique, created by visionary founder-director Nuo An, combines classical ballet, modern and contemporary dance with tai chi, meditation and traditional Chinese traditional dance.
“It’s called Spiritual Dance because it’s based on feelings more than the movement aesthetic,” Faustine explained. “It has a deep connection to Nature and the essence of life, yet is not at all related to religion.”
That exotic mixture of wildly disparate elements perfectly suits Faustine’s holistic skill set. She quickly became an integral part of the company, and An made the most of her boundless capability.
“I became a member when I did the audition in October 2018,” she said. “It was very competitive, with a lot of talented dancers but I got the job and started right away to work on the pieces we were going to perform in January.”
It was a very high profile engagement — as an attraction at the esteemed Booking Dance Festival as part of the ongoing Jazz at Lincoln Center performances, a true artistic jewel in Manhattan’s always dazzling cultural crown.
“Performing there with An Nuo Spiritual Dance & Art was amazing,” Faustine said. “We performed two excerpts of projects from the company repertoire, Nuo An’s signature project ‘Moving Through Tea,’ and a new piece, ‘Iceberg,’”
“Dancing at Jazz at Lincoln Center was one of the best experiences of my life,” she said. “The costumes and the music were superb. It felt like we were part of something grandiose — it was like a dream come true.”
It was not without challenges however, as Faustine relates: “We performed in the Appel Room, which is designed like a Greek amphitheater and has a huge wall of glass as a backdrop, so there’s an incredible view of Columbus Circle with its globe and Central Park, it’s a very majestic venue. Since the shape of the room is circular. it was a little tricky especially during ‘Iceberg’ because we danced while manipulating large poles for the first 5 minutes — we had to be extremely careful and the dancers in the back row were also very nervous about the wall of glass. If they hit it, it would have broken and we would have been in a lot of trouble. Fortunately, nothing happened and the performance went very well.”
The sold out performances were enthusiastically received and critically praised, and for Faustine, represented a significant professional achievement.
“Performing for such a prestigious event in such a famous venue is always rewarding and great to put on your resume,” she said. “It was very inspiring. Every time I perform, I want to get better and better so I try different ways to do a movement, try to play with dynamics, to see what works best or feels more natural and appropriate.”
Faustine’s profound dedication and astonishing capacity — as a member of seven different dance companies she routinely rehearses and performs more than half a dozen separate and totally unalike projects — has gained her a hard-earned reputation a widely recognized and established force in one of the most demanding and high pressure disciplines in the performing arts. She’s a true, natural born dance artist.
“You need to work every day to improve your technique as well as your interpretation,” she said. “You need to be very passionate to succeed. I don’t think you can keep going if you don’t really love it. And that is my goal — to keep dancing and loving what I do. That’s what is most important to me.”
