Golda Rabe is a 23 year old professional dancer. Having just come off the stage performing at Kendrick Lamar’s recent concert, she’s also featured on the show So You Think You Can Dance. We caught up with the beauty to chat all things dance.
Dancing is your passion, how does doing what you love feel like?
It makes me feel alive and confident. When I dance, nothing else matters and the world around me disappears. There are no words in the English Language that are beautiful enough to be able to capture how dance makes me feel!
You were one of the dancers at the Kendrick Lamar SA tour, how was that? Did you get to meet Kendrick?
The experience was out of this world, the best ever!! We got to perform alongside Reason and Khuli Chana and perform the opening piece which was mind blowing. All 3 crowds JHB, DBN and CPT went mad when we got on stage. The feeling of hundreds of people cheering for you while you’re performing is priceless!!! Unfortunately we didn’t get to meet Kendrick Lamar, but I would have loved to if given the opportunity.
‘So You Think You Can Dance’ was a tough one, did you learn anything?
SYTYCD was indeed a tough competition. It took a lot out of us emotionally and physically! We probably danced for 8 or more hours a day, 6 days a week for two months. In a week we had 3 days to learn, polish and perfect our couples piece and group piece, and then the rest of the week was stage runs, camera and light blocking, interviews and inserts. I did take a lot out of the competition like styles of dance I’d never done before, working with amazing choreographers and knowing what all goes on backstage, behind the scenes, on camera, live shows, production, voting and much more.
Any advice for lovers of dance who would love to pursue a dancing career?
I think dance is a calling for the people who do it for the love and professionally. And if it isn’t then it’s too hard a life. If it’s your calling, it’s the best! It’s a great thing to be a dancer. You have to follow your heart and have the passion because you live, breathe, eat and sleep dance. It’s all about working harder than you ever thought you could work and pushing yourself past any limit you thought you could set for yourself. You have to be very humble, very self-critical, a good listener and learner.
What are the challenges you face?
Always understand there are going to be incredible moments and opportunities (shows, gigs, tours, work) but also disappointments and losses of opportunities (competition, jealousy, people not telling you about auditions or other work that you miss out on) and you have to just take it all in stride. Just make sure that as a dancer you put yourself out there in the industry so that people see you and never stop pushing!!
Any other projects you’re involved in?
At the moment I’m doing the call back castings for the Coke advert which will be filmed in March and be aired in Russia. We recently performed at Pop Bottles Vintage as the Miller Dance Crew. And for the next 3 months I’m planning workshops for Jhb, Cpt and Dbn to showcase my work and allow other dancers to learn and grow from me.
That one song that gets you on your feet no matter the weather?
That has got to be Chris Brown’s ‘Love More’!
Written by: Bridgette Makhela