Today we’d like to introduce you to Caitlin Holt.
Caitlin, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I am a ballerina and performing artist from South Carolina, and began studying dance at the age of three. I have been dancing in Atlanta and surrounding areas for three years now as a freelance artist and working on bringing ballet into the world of commercial dance and modeling. After experiencing a foot injury due to bone deterioration and working to gain my strength back, I decided that I wanted to take a non-traditional route with my dance career. I became passionate about bringing ballet and commercial performance opportunities together and has been pursuing these opportunities by collaborating with local photographers and film artists here in Atlanta. Since starting in the commercial industry, it has been my goal to bring light to what ballet should be. I feel that classical ballet and ballerinas have been underrepresented in the past, with many big brands working with models that are not trained in dance in ballet photo and video shoots. By working with artists here in Atlanta in these types of shoots and growing my following on social media, I feel like I have been able to influence other photographers and videographers to move in the direction of hiring trained dancers if they need them for a shoot. In the future, I hope to be able to do more of this work and eventually work with big brands.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I’d say the hardest part of my journey with dance so far is getting over my foot injury, and not so even just getting over the physical pain. The worst part of the injury was breaking out of the mental mold that I had to go back to a ballet company after I recovered, or I wouldn’t be considered a real ballerina anymore. I felt so much pressure from former teachers/trainers, and even friends, to go back to an environment that I didn’t really fit into anymore, and I would say that it did take time and mental strength to become comfortable in who is was and the direction that I was going with my performance career.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I would say that in the present, I am most known for my photoshoot collaborations with photographers. I have had the opportunity to work with world-renowned dance photographers to local photographers just getting started in their careers. I get DMs on my Instagram every week with requests to collaborate with new photographers, and wish that I had time to respond to everyone and work with them all!
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
If I had to start all over, I wish that I could have started breaking into the commercial world at a younger age. The thing is, I didn’t really know that it could be an option until I discovered it for myself. While I am grateful for the time that I dedicated to my classical training, no one really told me that I could be doing other things along with way to better myself as an artist and to make connections in the industry. It all kind of happened by accident for me – as I reached out to Richard Calmes, a world-renowned dance photographer on Instagram about paying him for a photoshoot, and he told me that he was interested in working with ME as an artist. From there, I started sharing the work that we did together on social media, and it grew to working with other photographers and videographers from there. The entire time that I trained as a classical dancer, no one told me that I could be doing that, and I wish that I had discovered it sooner.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://caitlinaholt.com
- Phone: 8434952889
- Email: caitlinannaholt@gmail.com
- Instagram: @caitlin.a.holt
Image Credit:
Robert Rainbow, Richard Calmes, Bertram Moore, Allie Toy, David Ahn
Suggest a story: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
