As the first American to join Russia’s Mariinsky Ballet, Keenan Kampa is now leaping onto the big screen with “High Strung,” a New York City–based film about a ballerina’s budding relationship with a British busker (Nicholas Galitzine). Kampa tells us about her fight to be cast, her dream dance partner, and why her peers have called her “White Chocolate.”
Tell us about being cast in “High Strung.”
I had been dancing in Russia and I’d come home for a hip surgery. A few months prior to that, NBC had come to Russia for the Sochi Olympics and interviewed me. So I was in a hospital bed in L.A., and the director [of “High Strung”] and his wife saw me on TV and reached out to me on Twitter or Facebook and asked if I had any interest in acting. Everything was great… until I had to tell them, “There’s just one complication: I can’t walk yet!” But once I got off my crutches, I went to read for them. I was doing three sessions of rehab a day, working really hard to get back into ballet shape. They were about to give the offer to someone else, and I ended up just randomly sending some videos of me dancing and they called immediately and offered me the part. This was my first time in a film, so it was like Acting 101, just being thrown into it. But there wasn’t a moment where it wasn’t enjoyable.
What do you wish you’d known before you started dancing?
I wish I had known how to better block out negativity and critical comments. No matter how strong you are or how confident you are with your dancing and what you know is good, it’s really tough to not be affected, because people give their opinions so freely and so carelessly. I look at myself as a student in ballet and I’m envious of where my head was back then. It was so much fun. Now I think it’s the different experiences that help you get back in touch with those feelings.
On whom do you have a dancing crush?
Roberto Bolle is my dream partner. I think he’s every female dancer’s dream partner! He’s like a man-god. My friend and I have a WhatsApp chain where we just send each other pictures of his abs or his biceps.
What was your most memorable survival job?
I worked for American Apparel for, like, one day a week. It was my outlet to normal people! Within the ballet world, especially in a professional context, it’s very closed off and insular. It was nice to be with a group who knew nothing about ballet.
In an alternate universe in which you aren’t a dancer, what would you be doing?
Probably driving monster trucks. I was also thinking, people call me “White Chocolate” on the court because I’m pretty good at basketball—kind of, not really. But I wish I was! I used to play when I was little, until seventh grade. I was so short. People would hit me and knock me down. I broke my wrist, my fingers, pulled my tendons. They called me “the Scrapper” because I’d try so hard next to these girls who had already hit puberty. Probably for the better [that I stopped playing]: I don’t have the muscle mass!
How do you typically prepare for an audition?
I record my lines and the other person’s lines and listen to it a bunch of times—even when I’m driving! I make sure I know my lines inside and out. When I feel comfortable with the words and I don’t have to think about them it’s so much easier to act and be present in the moment and feel that you are that character. With pilot season it’s hard to memorize so many lines, but it makes all the difference.
For dance auditions, you don’t come with a prepared script, you just come with your instrument as prepared as possible. Just keep with the work [of your craft] before you’re in the hot seat.
What’s your go-to audition song?
Right now I’ve been listening to a lot of Hall and Oates. I feel like songs are like perfume. If you overuse them at a stressful period in your life, you can’t ever go back and reuse them, so I have to be careful not to overuse so it doesn’t remind of that one horrible audition or something!
What is your worst audition story?
Ah! There was one for “La La Land” [due in theaters December 2016, starring Emma Stone with Ryan Gosling], and I went in having lines prepared. I sat in the waiting room and they were behind schedule so I sat there for about an hour and a half. I knew the audition was going to be hard, but I felt I was set. [The CD] calls me in and starts reading off other lines. And I was thinking, Oh my God! Do I have the wrong sides? First I was embarrassed, then she was really mad, and I was delirious from waiting for so long. She told me to go back out for a few minutes and memorize the script. I went back in the room having barely given them a read. In retrospect it’s funny, but it was a really bad audition.
Which of your performances has left a lasting mark on you?
When I was dancing with the Mariinsky in Russia, a new choreographer set a new ballet and we took it to Italy. It was based on Oscar Wilde’s “Salome.” I played Salome, and it was such a crazy experience to have something created for you and choreography made for your body. Because it was so complex a character, it was an emotional experience to play it on stage. At the end she’s killed and I had an experience on stage that was definitely like an out-of-body experience. I cried and it shook me up so hard it took me some hours to recover from it. Those moments don’t happen all the time, but when they do, as a performer, it’s like, This is why I do this!
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