Today we’d like to introduce you to Valeriia Vakar
Hi Valeriia, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I moved to North Carolina three years ago from Taiwan. I am a professional dancer and choreographer. I currently work as an instructor at Fred Astaire Dance Studio. I started dancing when I was a child and my mother was my first teacher. For me, dancing is a kind of meditation, when I dance I am completely immersed in my feelings. I also loved the camera since childhood, I liked to take pictures and pose wherever I could. I am a very creative person and I like to create art in all its directions. At the moment, I work with many American cosmetic brands as a model and shoot creative videos with their products. I started my videos by filming on my phone, shooting transitions and creating beautiful makeup This is my separate world, where I escape and create my own reality there. I have many dreams of how I would like to share my art with people.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I would never call my road smooth and easy. I am one of those people for whom everything is very difficult, but it makes me very strong. The biggest difficulty in my creative path is immigration. Being an immigrant in a new country is a challenge every day, and no matter how much you want to change it for this one, it takes time. Another difficulty for me is that I combine my hobbies and sometimes I create videos at night and I don’t have days off) that’s how it is))
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I would like to start with my work. I have been dancing since childhood and have always dreamed of traveling and living in other countries. I come from Russia, from a small town, where the chances of realizing your dreams were negligible. I decided to devote my life to dance and received a professional choreographic education. I studied ballet and folk dancing. At the age of 21, I moved to a big city and flew to my first dance contract in the United Arab Emirates. This was the beginning of my path as a dancer, then I got on a cruise liner in Europe. And then I got a contract on the island of Taiwan, where I lived for three years. Afterwards, my husband (he is also a dancer) and I decided to move to America. We have been living in the USA for three years and work as ballroom dancing instructors at the Fred Astaire Studio. We are studying a new dance style for ourselves, American Smooth, and we may perform in the future)
As for my other hobbies. I learned to do makeup thanks to dancing, but I started working seriously with brands and creating videos when I was in America. Now I am in a modeling agency and developing my career in this direction. I like this area because it is my little magical world that I created for myself and where I show my creative potential. I am proud that no matter how difficult it is for me here, I do not give up on my dream and goal. What distinguishes me from others is that I believe that nothing is impossible.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
Oh, there are so many. My favorite childhood memory is how I always put a small camera on the closet, ran and danced, sang, took pictures, paraded in front of the camera.
I also asked my mother to take pictures of me wherever possible. I loved it since childhood.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/val.vakar/profilecard/?igsh=OGFlM3MzODIxczI=
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/valeriya.vakar.7?mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ValeriiaVakar
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@valeriia.vakar?_t=8qgxJxwUIU3&_r=1
