Ballet Misfits Podcast Episode 2 with Drew Jacoby: On Being Tall and Creating Your Own Ballet Career

Hello again friends!
Welcome to this second episode of the Late to the Party Ballet Podcast! This episode was recorded in July and it was supposed to air shortly after. But then my life started to crumble a bit due to the pandemic and travel restrictions, and all my energy was focused on resolving that.

But, now that IT IS resolved (yay!), I am excited to come back to this conversation with a very fascinating dancer, choreographer, artist: Drew Jacoby!

I came across Drew shortly after I started ballet, when I was struggling with being by far the tallest dancer in my beginner classes. And not seeing much of tall dancers in the professional ballet world either! So I googled my heart out, found Drew, and got really drawn into her story and mentality.

The reason why I wanted to chat with her for this blog is that for me, she is a great model for how to build a self-directed career in dance. What I mean by that: She created her own opportunities vs waited to be cast/hired/asked to perform. This is exactly the mindset from which I have always approached my dance and also the Late to the Party Ballet mission. For us adult dancers, it might not necessarily mean “career” but a way of taking or ballet training and transform it into a diversity of creative projects - vs. just taking classes and learning the usual classical variations.

Drew grew up in Idaho/US and got her training at San Francisco Ballet and Pacific Northwest. She joined Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet at the age of 17. What followed then is quite unusual for a ballerina: Instead of sticking to company life and working her way up through the ranks, she left the system and started freelancing in New York City at age 22. It wasn’t until her late twenties that she turned towards a company career again, when she joined the Netherlands Dans Theater and then later became a principal dancer the the Royal Ballet of Flanders. Drew has a daughter and together with her husband they now live in Seattle.

I think what stands out to me about Drew’s path and her approach to art is that even when she experiences frustrations and rejections, she doesn’t doubt her abilities. She is good at discerning that when you don’t get what you’re aiming for, it’s not so much about that you’re not cut out for it, but rather that others/environments have their own ways or working and are not ready or suitable for you. Yes, hard work is still required, but the important thing is to let go quickly and continue to look for what’s a good fit. Also, to me, she lives the opposite to “shrinking” - she is not afraid to be seen and noticed; she owns her height and movement abilities and welcomes the impact that she can have with them.

We talk about the key moment that prompted her to move to NYC and start freelancing despite always dreaming of a classical career; her advice for adult ballet starters and how to use your ballet knowledge to create opportunities for yourself; how becoming a mother changed her outlook on dance and her corner stones for raising a strong daughter.

Hearing Drew speak about the huge amount of flexibility, braveness, and confidence that she had from a very young age and that helped her create her unique career trajectory was so liberating. It reminded me that in the end, we can’t control outcomes, but we can choose what to pursue in a way that works for us, we can choose to show ourselves and go for it. Please enjoy this conversation!