Welcome back to It Pays the Bills! Today’s guest is Holly Gibson, a singer, dancer, and choreographer. Holly and I chatted all about her life at sea, her life on land, and everything in between.
A bit about Holly:
Holly has worked as a dance teacher and choreographer for over 15 years. She has taught for multiple dance schools and franchises in both specialized dance and musical theatre, winning multiple awards for her choreography. She has coached students for All England Dance Competitions and finalists for ITDA Miss Dance of Great Britain.
As an artist, Holly completed her Master of Arts Degree at the prestigious Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, with a thesis focus in ‘Choreography and Narrative in Musical Theatre’. Holly is a multi-skilled dance choreographer, working for Catapult Theatre Company London, having debuted work for the London Maiden Speech Festival and appearing as a guest performer and choreographer for the Shenandoah Conservatoire in Virginia, USA. Holly is qualified in Classical Ballet and Modern Dance tutoring with the I.S.T.D and regularly collaborates with professional dancers internationally in creating new works. She was employed as Dance Captain/Opera Vocalist for Silversea Cruises for five contracts and has just returned from an overseas contract for Mein Schiff Cruises as a Principal Vocalist.
In the condensed transcript below, I’ve italicized my questions and comments. Enjoy!
What is your creative pursuit and how did you get into it?
Cruise ships were always something I wanted to do, actually. And that came because my sister, who is very different to me, in a sense, well, the opposite. She's very, very tall, beautiful long legs, and she trained in ballet. And her first year after graduating, she was a dancer for Costa Cruises. She was obviously the perfect fit for a cruise ship dancer because she [had] beautiful long legs and beautiful arms and had all this beautiful technique. And so she was a great showgirl. She did about eight months. It was quite a long contract that she did, but we did go and visit her at the end of the contract around two months before she finished.
And I absolutely just watched the lifestyle of it. I watched the shows and I loved what she did. I loved what the shows were about. They had a classical singer, so they had a whole bit that I remember opened with La Traviata, which is I think the first time I heard the drinking song. I just thought, this is something I want to do. You get to perform for a living.
I mean, all of the kind of economic benefits eluded me at that point. But in terms of just the joy of performing, the joy of seeing the world, having your own time as well, I just thought this looks amazing.
I started dancing around four years [old]. Joanie is two and a half years older than me. I took longer, I think, to get my bearings through training than she did. She knew where she wanted to train. She went and did her degree, went and did her ship. So her transition from training to the dream job, if you like, was very smooth. Mine, I jumped through many, many hoops before I finally got my first ship job.
Can you take us on that journey?
So I think the first time I did any sort of auditioning for cruise ships was in 2014. By this time, I'd done a Bachelor of Arts degree in choreography. I did a top-up year at a place called London Theatre School. I had some lovely teachers, a lot of teachers that are still working in the industry. I started auditioning after I'd been polished and primed after a year. I started basically just going to the main cruise ship auditions.
They're very much the same now as they were then. Sometimes you'll get material that you're asked to prepare. The particular company that I eventually ended up working for, I auditioned for them in 2014, 2015 and 2016. So I went three times to their auditions and the thing I liked about them was that they had opera shows. At this time, I enjoyed all aspects of musical theatre but I knew that I wanted to turn my wheels towards that sort of classical legit sound which isn't very common in a lot of the mainstream musical theatre, or at least it wasn't then.
So I was very interested in this particular company. And so I kept going back to their audition. I auditioned for them three times in a row. [In] 2017 I decided, they obviously don't want to offer me a contract, so I didn’t go to the auditions that year, ironically - because in 2017, I finally got an email to say, “We would like you to come and be a vocalist for the sea cruises.”
That was my first cruise ship. I was hired as a Girl 2. They have six vocalists, or at least they did have six vocalists in their cast. Girl 2, I guess, is kind of the crossover one. You have the musical theatre, but then you also do the pop. Because their opera girls, at that time, were people that had been specifically trained in opera. Not always, but in the beginning. And I think the Girl 3 is kind of the rocker, the musical theatre, but the more kind of belty sound.
So that was my first contract in 2018. Did that for six months. Took a year out to then go to Mountview to do my master's degree. Then I went straight back onto the ship five, six months after. Unfortunately, then it was cut short by COVID. Spent a year at home as we all did.
Then when ships went back out again, I got selected to join my third cruise ship at that point, which was the Silver Muse. That was in June of 2021. That only lasted two and a half months because of COVID.
I then joined another one. That was the Silver Moon. That was the end of 2021 until 2022. Took about four months off and then did my last one, on the Silver Dawn. So yes, that's my history with cruise ships so far.
What is your current day job and how did you get into it?
My current day job is just freelance teaching. I'm lucky in a sense because I have skills in dancing, singing and acting, I'm quite useful as a cover teacher. There's a lot of dance schools near where I live, which quite often at the drop of a hat will need somebody to go in.
Though I keep myself busy because I would say singing is what I do for a living, but my heart sort of lives with dance choreography. And that's, I think, what keeps me sane. I think that any performer helps you keep your sanity if you're always working on something creatively. And for me, that's always working on the dance side of things. So I'm always extra excited if I get to do dance with children if I get to go in and teach. I always enjoy that.
And actually, that was one of my projects between ships, because I started it during COVID, was to get accredited with the ISTD in being a ballet teacher and a modern dance teacher. So I actually now have some pretty good credentials to advertise myself as a teacher.
Moving on a bit, what have your previous day jobs been?
I think they've all been teaching.
I think my very first, before I kind of pursued this as an actual career, because obviously I had jobs growing up, I think I did some waitressing for an event place that held weddings. And I was just, you know, washing dishes and handing out things and everything. But that was before I went to university.
Most of them I would say has been teaching because it's one of the few jobs that allows you the flexibility to go for auditions because [there are] hundreds of people that can cover you if you need to take the day off. That's literally how I make my money at the moment is being a cover teacher.
So that's pretty much always what I've done, I’ve never done anything but that.
But I mean, teaching gives you plenty of administrative work anyway. You're creating all the time as well. So you're serving that side of the brain that sort of needs to be nurtured while you're, you know, auditioning and everything else.
How does your day job feed into or relate to or oppose your creative pursuit?
I would say it doesn't really. Because while being a cover teacher means that you are the plan B, you're not in danger really of severing ties with somebody of not being asked back. Because you are the plan B anyway. So for me, doing all the extra teaching, it doesn't really hinder what I do because I'm always very upfront about it. I would say the difficulty can come because you have a lot of dance schools and teachers who are now very set on making sure that they have continuity within their dance schools.
So I would say it means that your jobs will only be small and may only be for week on week, which can be quite stressful. Because you might have a month of covers where you’re working every weekend and then you might have a month where you don't have any work. But I would say a lot of schools are quite upfront about that.
But it does mean also that you get creatively - it means then you won't be helping them with their summer show if you're going to be only there for three weeks. You won't be helping them with this competition or that competition if you're only there for three weeks. It limits the commitment you can give, which can be quite sad because it's another aspect of work.
Some people are very lucky. They are kind of affiliated with dance schools who understand that they're going to go away all the time, understand that they've got to take a year to do this or six months to do that. But the job will still be there for them when they come back. But that comes a lot to do with networking.
And then can you talk about the kind of financial plus sides of being on a cruise?
Lots of plus sides to being on a cruise, because you do not pay for any food. You do not pay for any rent. So that's already a huge part of your finances taken care of for six months or a year, depending on how long you do it.
At the beginning of a cruise, there's a lot of stuff you have to stock up. So financially, there's a little bit that comes off the top at the beginning because you're going to have to pay for things that you need. If you're going somewhere way out, somewhere that you're not going to be able to go to that favorite store around the corner to get that exact hairpiece or things like that, then you have to bring enough that you'll need.
I think as well - the rehearsal process. My rehearsal process for Silver Sea, we were always either in a hotel in Fulham Broadway, which is next to where we did our rehearsals. And that was all taken care of and paid for. We paid for our own food, but I think we had a little allowance towards that as well.
When I worked for Mein Schiff, the rehearsal process was two and a half weeks in Berlin. And you did get some money allocated towards them if it was a certain amount of location away from your house. So obviously I was coming from a different country, so I had the maximum amount.
Economically, I've had castmates that have had houses and apartments and things that they've had to sublet while they've been away. So that's a whole other thing that they've got to take care of. And sometimes they can't always get someone to be there the whole time.
But financially, apart from that, those are things that you can then resolve well enough. At least in my experience, I was able to resolve them well enough.
Apart from that, it's a very lucrative way of saving. You can go out and get a coffee - that’s not going to break the bank because you've not got rent to pay that week.
Costumes. I mean, even makeup was provided for me on Main Schiff. I've never had that before, but they actually bought everything new. I didn't actually use it. I'm a creature of habits.
But most things as well, you know, it's up to you a little bit how much you want to spend before you get on a ship. And everybody always, you know, you'll buy clothes when you're out there. And the hardest thing as well is if you're experiencing different climates, because obviously you'll take things you need for the hot you'll take things you need for the cold. And so you have to prepare a sort of varied wardrobe.
You're going to spend money as well because there are experiences on the ship. Some of these are arranged by the crew welfare. We have a crew welfare organization on most ships who will arrange any money that is tipped by guests into this welfare fund. Sometimes that pays for everybody having a big dinner. Sometimes that pays for everyone having a big dinner party. And sometimes it pays for everybody a chance to see something particular where you went.
The only thing that can hinder a little bit of saving sometimes I think is the internet. I'm very lucky because when my sister was on the cruise ship, it was 2008. So whilst I think we're pretty sure we did have internet, a lot of what she did was calls home. And from Dubai, that gets quite costly.
Nowadays it's much easier. We’ve got contracts that will let us virtually call for free home and do video calls . But if you've got days at sea you are then wholly dependent on ship internet and it can get quite costly.
Do you have any advice for anyone looking to pursue a creative career?
Do something that makes you happy. Do something that you have a lifelong vested interest in and not something too specific.
I think if my goal was always I enjoy choreography, I don't really mind how small or big it is, I will find the joy in it. I think if I had decided, okay, I want to be the next choreographer of so-and-said venue, that dictates a lot of the conditions that are then going to come with it.
So I think just creatively pick something that you're going to enjoy. Pick something that you enjoy doing for very little money.
One of the things I did to keep me sane on my last job was I used to connect and network and collaborate with the dancers. I would choreograph bits for them and we would do the choreographic collaboration. So that was a way of keeping my creative side alive whilst doing my day job. And it's great because you get to do your thing and quite often with very talented people.
Pick something that is not defined by a certain person, place, or a certain style. Pick something that you enjoy doing no matter what.
What is your creative dream?
I would love to choreograph a cruise ship, funnily enough. Just because you've got so much talent to play with, you've got so much scope. They've got these lovely, big, gorgeous stages, as big as any that you have in the West End. You've got these great techs and everything. It's limitless, because there's a lot of money that's put into entertainment. They want the ship guests to have a good time. So anything like that.
I did play with the idea of - I wanted to sort of at some point have my own sort of dance company. Not necessarily a dance school, but a dance company. But I think that dream is a little bit on the way off. I think the path is going this way at the moment.
What is your dream day job?
My dream day job would be teaching at a dance school and getting to kind of take lead with the choreography of some of the big projects. Because there's a hierarchy within dance schools and sometimes you have to pay your dues sometimes in terms of you have to have been there a long time.
But that would be like, if I had that to come back to every time I'd gone on a cruise, I'd be laughing because that’d be perfect. It'd be both loves of my life for singing and the choreography that I would get to make most of that.
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