Episode 1: The Journey from Student to Stage with Amelia Sanzo

In this episode of Behind the Stars, Amelia Sanzo shares an inspiring and honest look into her journey through the world of musical theatre. She reflects on her time as a student, where she wasn’t always the strongest performer in every area, but consistently committed to hard work and intentional training. Amelia explains how she focused on improving her weaker skills rather than avoiding them, building a strong foundation that would later support her professional career.

Amelia also discusses the importance of continuing to train even after entering the industry, highlighting how growth and development never really stop. She shares the goal she set for herself to become the dance captain in Wicked, and the dedication it took to achieve it. Alongside stories from her time performing in major productions, she offers valuable advice for young performers about persistence, resilience, and what it really takes to build a career on stage.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in Behind the Stars podcast are solely those of the Behind the Stars team and guests and do not reflect the views of any affiliated organisations or individuals. The content provided is for informational and entertainment purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for medical, legal, psychological, or other expert advice. Always seek the guidance of qualified professionals with any questions you may have regarding your health, legal situation, or mental well-being. Hey listeners, welcome back to Behind the Stars. Today, I'm joined by the incredibly talented Amelia Sanzo, a performer whose journey from Adelaide to the world stage is nothing short of inspiring. Amelia is a highly accomplished musical theatre artist who has trained extensively across dance, singing and acting, including a full-time study in New York at the renowned Broadway Dance Centre. She's gone on to perform in some of the world's most iconic productions, including Wicked, West Side Story, Dante of the Opera, and Frozen the Musical. With experience as both a dance captain and a swing, Amelia brings not only incredible talent but also resilience, versatility and leadership to every stage she steps on. Today she's sharing her journey, the realities of the industry, and the lessons she's learned along the way. Here is Amelia. Amelia Sanzo, welcome to Behind the Stars.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Great to have you here. Now, for those of who may not know your story yet, and I'm me being one of them, can you tell us a bit about who you are and how you got to where you are? Just a quick overview.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Yeah, my name's Amelia. I'm 26 years old and I was born and raised in Adelaide. And when I was 17, I went over to New York where I studied for a year and a half in dance and performing arts. And then I came back home, global pandemic. And then I started just training in Australia and auditioning for shows, and then I jumped on um a tour kind of during COVID out of uh that took me out of COVID, and then been touring in musicals ever since. I'm based in Melbourne now, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:02

Oh, so you're no longer an Adelaide girl. Well, you are an Adelaide girl, but you live.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

I come home whenever I can. Great. But uh yeah, I live in Melbourne, I've lived there for five years.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

So uh when did you first fall in love with performing? Uh how did you know this is what you wanted to do?

SPEAKER_00 2:15

I think I always loved it. I look back on videos as a kid and I was like, I actually wasn't that good. But I loved it, like I had the passion for it, and I was a big comp kid. I did a lot of when I was like 10 they bought in song and dance solos at um Dancers Edwards, which kind of was my first introduction to theatre, we could say, and discovered that I could somewhat sing. Um and then so I started some singing lessons, and then I my parents put me into amateur theatre productions around Adelaide, which really just like introduced me to like being a character in that kind of world. And then by the time I was in high school, I kind of always knew that I wanted to at least try and study. I just knew I could be better if I had more training, so that was more of the focus as I just wanted to get like better and reach my full potential as like a dancer, and then yeah, once I was introduced to the world, it just kept going.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

I love the story because you said before I wasn't the greatest, you weren't always center front, you weren't always good at everything, and you really had to work at it, and but you knew you had something, and then you you delved into it and you obviously got better and to where you are today. So I love that story that you know it wasn't just inbuilt in you, you had to work at it.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

I think that like I could have been doing anything in terms of like in an industry or in a field where I had to like be so goal-driven. Dance was the thing I was put into as my hobby, so that was the thing in my mind that I was like, I'm gonna work really hard and I'm gonna get there, and I loved it. But like maybe if I was doing something else, I would be a professional in that. It was just more my personality, yeah. Yeah, I was gonna perfect it and get good at it. But I like obviously I love performing and I somewhat maybe the performance quality and had the ability to do it, but I did I had to work really, really hard. There was a stage there when I was like 14, 15 that I wanted to do full-time ballet. Like, genetically, don't have the turnout, all of that kind of stuff that I need to have. So, like, there were moments where that like got in my way, but yeah, they're in a league of their own, the ballerinas, aren't they?

SPEAKER_01 4:28

So, but obviously, musical theatre's your thing, and you've made it work for you, and obviously very successful. So that's amazing. So, yeah, my next question was about growing up in Adelaide as a young performer, but you sort of touched on that. You said you were a big comp kid. Yeah, and just tell us a bit about that. Like, were you always uh were you the winner? Were you the, you know, how did it come? Did you have a lull where you weren't placing? Like, how did it all pan out for you?

SPEAKER_00 4:52

I always did pretty well in comps. I did. It's very the competition world I think is very different now to when I was competing. We had two biggest Sedfords a year, so it was very, very different. But I was, I was very successful at competitions, and I think that is probably again my perfectionist mentality. I was given something and I was given a routine, so I worked really hard at perfecting that and getting really good at it, and then I had the results I did at comps. And as I got older, if you the rewards that we got given at those at Steadford's were quite big, so they started bringing in um if you won a championship or you want an aggregate, you would get a scholarship to go to a summer camp interstate and things like that. And I'm so fortunate enough that my parents were able to take me to do them, but then that meant that I was exposed to so much just out of Adelaide, and I fell in love with that. And my training was then even more because I was training more commercially in Sydney, which we didn't have in Adelaide at the time at all. I was doing ballet and jazz really. So I did do really well at dance comps, but I was driven to do well because I wanted those awards so that I could go learn more and have those opportunities.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

They sound like great prizes and things. And as you said, there was only two competitions. Now you can probably do a competition every weekend. Yeah, it's so different. It's so different. Yeah, yeah. It is. Let's talk about your move to New York. Um, which you were only 17. Now, I mean my daughter's 15. I can't imagine in two years' time she'd be mature and able enough to move to New York. How tell us what gave you the confidence to do that?

SPEAKER_00 6:29

I actually can't believe that my parents let me. Now being a little bit older, I'm like, wow, I can't believe. But I was always a mature kid. Like I think that they knew I was gonna be okay. And I also was at a school and an institution, so it's I had a schedule and yes, you know, they they trusted me. I can't believe I did it.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

Where did you go in New York?

SPEAKER_00 6:50

What was your Broadway Dance Centre? Okay, yeah, so I was living right in Hell's Kitchen next to Times Square, and yeah, it was it was a lot. Like now looking back on it, I just think what an amazing like achievement that I even lived there and moved there and did all of that. But at the time it just felt right.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Yeah. But you would have faced some challenges. What sort of challenges did you face? What I mean, obviously it was an English-speaking country, but being away from home, um, walking into that into Broadway Dance Centre, you know, as a 17-year-old, do you remember any specific moments that you thought, oh I think I remember being in clo in the first week of classes, and the dances in there were just incredible.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

You had rockets, you had Broadway performers, and I think it's amazing at 17 that I was able to do this, but I didn't look at it as a place of I'm intimidated or scared. I looked at it that I was at the bottom of a ladder and I just had to climb up.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

I love that.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

And I think that that coming from Adelaide, it's obviously a smaller pond, and like there is that analogy of a big fish in a small pond, but I was very prepared, and I think that's maybe because I was interstate with those other opportunities that this was going to be the case, and it took me months to get noticed in these classes. It took me a long time, but then once I did, the like feeling was incredible, and then the bull just kept rolling from there, and I kept getting better, and then suddenly I'm on a gig with those dancers next to me. And I always like say to like students now or dancers, you know, in the industry if there's somebody in the class that is really great, inspires you, learn from them, stand behind them. I would go to classes and I would sometimes just stand behind someone and mimic them.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

If they made a choice, I would make the same one. And that's how I learned from like different people. And I think that was I was there to learn and I was there to grow, and I was in my own lane and my own race to get to where I wanted to go. My goals are gonna be completely different to the person next to me, and that's okay, but I'll learn from everyone around me to get there. Um, so yeah, it was it definitely was challenging, but I was just having so much fun. Yeah, I made the best friends over there. We like ran amuck in New York City, you know. Like I get to do that. I know, like I was growing up with just like the best people around me, and I'm still really close with my friendship group now. They were a couple years older than me, but they were able to like watch me grow up and help me as well.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

I love that, you know, it's such a mature thing to do. You could have you could have gone the other way, you could have been in New York and you're 17 and and you know, just just not considered it and not been mature about your decisions and what you were doing, but you took it so seriously and yeah, and there were people there that did that.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Yeah, and I would I'd watch them and be like, Well, what are you doing? Like, you've been given this opportunity, wouldn't you be making the most of it? And I have people reach out to me from Adelaide or other places saying that they maybe want to do it and yeah, absolutely go for it. But it's like I don't know you well enough to know if you would go over there and maybe achieve what I achieved because it like was my personality that like fit for that environment.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

Yeah, you were made for that sort of environment. You didn't what I love is that you you weren't intimidated by the the better performer, you were you wanted to learn from them, yeah, and you know it obviously worked for you, which is amazing, and I love that. That's a really good way of looking at it for our young people who would like to get into this sort of business.

SPEAKER_02 10:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

Okay, so my next question is about your professional work. Yeah. So how did you go from full-time training to obtaining work? Did you did did Broadway Dance Centre do it for you? Was there a breakthrough? Um, how did you get started on your career?

SPEAKER_00 10:43

Broadway Dance Centre opened me up to so many connections and networks over in New York, which I was really grateful for. If I was to stay there, if I was to move back, I know exactly where to pick up from because of the connections that they gave me. Uh, America is a little bit easier, a place like New York in the sense of people are scouting in the studios, the choreographers in the classes that you're in will hire you. So you're making your networking and making connections a little bit more on the daily basis. Australia is a lot harder to meet the people that are going to employ you, to expose yourself. It is, it's just harder, and that's why having a great agent helps and all of those kinds of steps. I came back just before the pandemic around then, and I realized that I didn't have that many connections here in Australia. So I went to Melbourne and I just went to every single dance class every day, pretty much. Right. Would make money spend at these dance classes. Like that's how I networked, and I was like, I'm not going to go back into full-time study, but I will try and mimic that as best as I can in these open professional classes, and it really did, it worked for me. Um, and I met people there and I networked there. Then when I came back to Adelaide when Melbourne shut down, I auditioned for a fringe show that happened in 2021. And the choreographer, his name was Brendan Yates, big choreographer in the musical theatre industry.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

Right.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

And it was being produced by some producers that also work in theatre production stuff. So they were really great people to get in front of. I auditioned for the show, and there was no role for me in this fringe show, but they ended up creating a dancer role in it. Well, that's that's a very big compliment. It was, it was like amazing. So it was Tim O'Matic and Paulini were the two designers, and then there were two other vocalists, and then me as a dancer. I've been to this show. Disco Wonderland. Yes, that was amazing. Um Wow. And I remember I remember when I booked that job, and I was in um, I'd just done an open class in Adelaide for homegrown. And I was in the car after with my best friend Jaden Prok, and I just like looked at him and I was like, I got I got the job. Like I booked this fringe show.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

And he just looked at me and he went, Oh, this is gonna change everything. And then we just started like celebrating, and it is really because the circle is so small and the industry is very hard to break into, and there was this slight opening, and it wasn't necessarily that this like Adelaide Fringe show was going to book me work and musicals, no, but the people that it was going to expose me to if I did a good job was really gonna change it for me. Right, and it did because then Brendan Yates was the co resident choreographer on West Side Story. I auditioned for the show and I knew him and was able to knew you by then, exactly, and was able to book book that job, and then from there I was then exposed to more people. Yeah, I kind of you learn on the job as well. I was experienced, and then the ball kind of did roll from there.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

So it was that fringe show in Adelaide that yeah, so like from a tiny fringe show in Adelaide, which you know no one expects to get to where you are just by being in a fringe show, but there you have it. Yeah, there it is.

SPEAKER_00 14:14

I also think that like I could have done the fringe show, been really unprofessional and not great, and it would have ruined it for me. Obviously, it was your talents and your demeanour, your I worked hard, I did all the right things, and then it meant that I was in the right spot, right time, right place for that next job.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

So then, you know, as you said, is it Brendan or Brenton?

SPEAKER_00 14:35

Brendan Yates.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

Brendan Yates. You know, he's like, This this girl's reliable, she's good, um, I like her, and there you have it. Yeah, it was such a good stepping stone. Yeah, yeah. What a great relief that you said you you went for that.

SPEAKER_02 14:48

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

Yeah, I love that story as well. So now I want to talk about your major productions. Yeah. So I'm gonna rattle off a list here and please correct it if I'm wrong. You've been in Wicked, West Side Story, The Phantom of the Opera, and Frozen the Musical, and I'm sure there are others, but they're obviously the more well-known ones. Amazing. Please tell us about your experiences, either one by one or as a on a whole.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

So West Side Story was my debut, right, which was an incredible experience. That is like the one of the hardest out shows, and it is known for being that. And we were taught by the Broadway creatives that came down. So we were learning the proper original version, which isn't done very I don't think it's done a lot now around the world. I think there's like revivals in different versions of the show that they're doing, but I learned the real deal. I re I learned the OG and that was really, really hard.

SPEAKER_02 15:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

I have never danced as well as I've danced as when I was on that show. I look back on videos and I was I was so strong and I was really, really good at it, but it pushed, it really did push me, and it was a shock. I think they try and prepare you for what the professional industry is like, but it was hard doing that eight times a week. My body was hurting. I was trying to learn how to fuel myself properly to be able to do that schedule. We were in ballet every day to try and keep us strong enough to do that dancing. Wow. So when I finished, I like remember just being so exhausted. I was proud of myself, but I was so tired.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

And you'd have to also, you know, have a rest schedule.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

How did you cope with you know the rigorous dancing and all the singing and everything and keep yourself well?

SPEAKER_00 16:33

I don't even know how I did at that age, you know. I I think in Wicked I really learnt or I prioritized how to maybe do that. And I started investing into nutritionists and learning from them and um having just some like external people help me of how I can be my fittest and most energized version. Yes. Um so yeah, you know what? On that first contract, I don't know. I don't know how I did it.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

You were also quite young. What how old would you have been by then? 21.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Yeah, yeah. Okay. So that was yeah, it was really hard. And because of COVID and the borders are still kind of being shut, I didn't have my family come to be able to help that transition or or whatnot. So yeah, I don't know. I honestly that first contract is a bit of a blur.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

Fair enough, fair enough. You would have met so many new people as well.

SPEAKER_00 17:26

Yeah, exactly. And I was like, we were having fun. I was so young.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

And then Phantom, yeah, Phantom was different because Phantom was an outside production.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

What does that mean?

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Um, so it was done on the Sydney Harbour outside. Oh, I mean, literally outside. Okay, so we weren't indoors, we were on an outside stage. It sounds so great. Yeah, because of that, we only did six shows a week because we couldn't do matinees, so obviously the light, the sun had to be down to do it. So that was a little bit um easier in the sense of I had all day to rest, go to the gym, feel myself well, go to work at night, and then come back. Um, and I had a blast on that show because we would be out there singing and dancing in the rain, and there was like one performance where I looked down at my tutu and like my eyelash had fallen off. And it because it was raining. It was raining.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

So you would have been like a mascara running.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

Mascara was running, and like we were like trying to sing, but there was like water in our mouth from the rain, and it was just funny, and we like had so much fun with it. When are you ever gonna have that experience again? And it was the first time that Phantom had been put on outside like that, or outside of its original um format. So we had like Andrew Lloyd Webber come and work with us, and I remember being in tech one day, and he stopped the run and said he said something like, I never liked this bit of the music, and then changed the arrangement on the spot, like in front of us. And I was like, I'm doing Phantom of the Opera, staring at the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and Andrew Lloyd Webber's changing one of the most successful scores. And I was like, This is just a once-in-a-lifetime. That is a once-in-a-lifetime, and I tell everyone, I'm like, if you have the opportunity to audition for those productions outside, do it. It was incredible, amazing, it was incredible. So that was I love that.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

That's a great highlight, and that's something you can that's probably a story you tell everyone, you know.

SPEAKER_00 19:19

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

And then tell us about that.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

Frozen was a really big step for me. It was, I was quite young in that company, and it was full, the cast was full of the best and most experienced Australian performers. So it was a little bit intimidating to walk into, but it was an absolute privilege to be there. I remember walking into my first day of rehearsals, and the choreographer and the musical director were wearing Wicked jumpers, and Wicked was always my big dream, and my heart was just beating so hard because I was like, I'm in the same room as the creators of Wicked. Wicked. Like that's what I was like shocked about. Love it. But I think the beautiful thing about Frozen is that it was my first show that I did in Adelaide.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

I was just gonna say, how did it feel coming back home doing a show like that?

SPEAKER_00 20:11

It was just so special. And to have my dance teachers come watch and all my family be able to come watch. My mum was there every week. Of course, it was so special. I was there, and like there were so many people that I hadn't seen in a long time that I was able to reconnect with, and it was just a very like proud moment, and it was a reminder of how far I've come because we're always looking forward.

SPEAKER_01 20:39

Oh, you should be so proud.

SPEAKER_00 20:41

Yeah, it was an incredible, incredible moment.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

When you were in these wonderful musicals, and I'm sure there's others, what sort of parts did you play? Were they were you an understudy? Were you uh uh you know, chorus? What was it?

SPEAKER_00 20:52

Yeah, I was in the ensemble for all three of my first contracts.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

Okay, perfect.

SPEAKER_00 20:57

Um, in more of the like harder dancer plots. So like shows are always designed to have your you've got like your few really good dancers, and you've got like people that do a little bit of both, usually covering, and then you've got your singer singers that cover the lead roles. It's like the puzzle is very particular. So I was in more of those harder dance plots. I covered Consuela when I did um West Side Story, which was a great her role isn't huge, but it introduced me to cover calls and learning somebody else's plot and like how to navigate that, which was a great skill. And then obviously I swung and danced Captain Wicked, which was completely different. But I'm tell us about Dance Captain. Yeah, I'm really glad that I had years in the ensemble where that was my only focus, and that introduced me to the industry and taught me a lot, and then I was able to take on all of these other responsibilities when I was ready.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

So, as a dance captain, sorry my ignorance on this, I've never been in a production like that. So you You obviously do you choreograph or do you just position? How do you what is your role?

SPEAKER_00 22:04

Uh dance captains, their role and their requirements of the job are completely different on every musical. So I can only speak on my time on Wicked, because I know on other shows it's very different. But on Wicked, we learnt the show from the American choreographer.

SPEAKER_02 22:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:23

And then the we have an Australian associate. So she then would put the show in in each theatre. She would come in and out every like few weeks and watch and see how it was traveling. But then, apart from that, it was kind of my job as the dance captain. And once we learnt the show from the creators, it was my job to make sure that that is exactly what we were doing every single night, and that is exactly the integrity of the show, and all of that was being done correctly. So, in terms of creative decisions, I don't make those. Okay. There were some situations where we would creatively have to change things if we didn't have enough performers on stage that night. And so, but you know, mostly I would contact someone and be like, Do you approve this and that side of it? Oh, okay. But yeah, my role as dance captain on Wicked was basically once we learnt the show, it was then in our hands. So each day I would do cast change in the morning. So three hours before the show, performers need to call in and out for the day. So if they're sick or injured or not coming in for the day.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

I was gonna ask about that. What did you do in those instances?

SPEAKER_00 23:32

So they would, I would get a message from our management that would say, This person, this person, this person won't be in today.

SPEAKER_02 23:39

Ah.

SPEAKER_00 23:39

And then it would be up to me to figure out which one of our swings would go on for that. If one of the leads were were off or Glinda, I would have a conversation with our musical director and be like, who should we put on? And then we would figure it out from there. Obviously, once you're putting an understudy on, their ensemble plot is available. So then a swing will jump into their ensemble plot. It's all a puzzle piece to work out. We then go into something called split tracks. So that's when we have more performers off than we have coverage. Right. So if we have we could have a team of six swings, so three females and three male swings. We have 10 people off. It means that we're gonna have to split people's tracks and split it up so that we are being two people in that show and whatnot. So that's cool to split tracks. So that was kind of my job in the rehearsal process to figure out what parts of this show we can cut and get rid of, what parts have to be there, who takes props on and off, what's it?

SPEAKER_01 24:40

So even cutting not scenes but bits.

SPEAKER_00 24:43

Yep. We would like there's you know, some people in the um Osdust ball that don't do the dance part. So we would instead of having a swing stand on the side being that person, we would make them do the dance part and we cut the person on the side. It's all like a very complicated puzzle that goes together. So three hours before the show, I would find out if we were in that situation and then I would put together how the show would work. And I had so much help from the associates and the team when I was first learning how to do it. Obviously, after a year or two, I I knew what I was doing there. And then that gets that document that I put together gets sent out to all the departments: sound, wardrobe, hair and makeup, and management to see how what they need to do to make that show work. So if I'm being two people, it means I might be saying this person's line and this person's line. So my mic needs to be on for both. So it gets very technical.

SPEAKER_02 25:38

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

So your communication with all the other departments is also integral. So once I have created that document and sent it off, I then will go to work and I'll check in with everyone to see if every department is okay. And then we get to the hour call. And then so every day at the hour call, we would run a physical warm-up for the cast, like a dance warm-up, some cardio and a stretch for everyone. And then we would either give notes if we had notes that day, we would run um some partnering if we had a swing on with a different partner for safety, or if we were in a split track, we would talk through that show and we would have 20 minutes to respace it. So there were some days where we were on stage until just before that curtain was going up, respacing numbers. Um, because it did, it got really messy at some point. So that's kind of my job.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

And then that's a big responsibility. And you know, you're quite young.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

It's a big responsibility for someone, not not because you're young, but just just to have in general.

SPEAKER_00 26:39

I think on a massive show like Wicked as well, it's not small. There's a lot of set, there's a lot of safety. Yeah, I also was a swing, so once I've respaced that show for everyone, I have to get ready and figure out what I have to do on stage that day as well. So it was a lot. And then once we went overseas, you know, I would with uh with help from others, but we would be teching the show in and looking at lighting plots and things like that. So I know that show inside out, and I I know that if I was to dance captain on another show, I might not have that much responsibility because they would have uh a lot of shows have resident choreographers that tour with the production and do that. Um, wicked didn't, which I'm grateful for. I learned so much, but yeah, it's a lot. You're a you're in between management and you're in between being a performer, and so you're trying to, from a business perspective with management, get the curtain up every day and make sure the show goes ahead because if it doesn't you lose a lot of money, but you're also a performer in making sure that everyone is happy and the well-being of the cast is okay. And I have to also make sure that that person might not be able to do their understudy role today, right? Because I know as their friend that they're mentally not great today or whatnot. So it is just such like a big kind of it's such a jigsaw. Yeah, it's complicated.

SPEAKER_01 27:59

And also I'd imagine that you'd become one big family.

SPEAKER_00 28:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

And so you would, you know, with with all its beauty and all of its uh, you know, maybe not so beautiful moments, you know, where everyone has to get along or maybe not get along, and you all have to work as a team.

SPEAKER_00 28:14

Absolutely. I always like to look at it as a community. Okay. Um, we are a community and we all function together as a community, but we are not brothers and sisters, and we can't speak to each other like that. At the end of the day, it's a professional workplace, and that is also important to remember because the lines in the arts industry are very blurred between professional and personal. It's very hard because you spend so much time together.

SPEAKER_01 28:38

So much time together. Yeah, yeah. You're right though. It it is it's still a workplace, then those rules have to be followed, don't they? Yeah. So, as you know, um, you or you may or may not know, uh, we focus a lot on well-being here at Star Academy and uh our mindset, our resilience. So, what we would like our listeners to know is how did you maintain your mental and physical resilience and well-being and your approach to health along the way? Because, as you said, you're so busy, it can impact your physical sense and even your mindset. And well, as we know, mental health is very important, and we do a lot of podcasts around nutrition, around um you know, psychological effects of this world, um, getting knocked back, that sort of thing. How did you manage yourself in that space?

SPEAKER_00 29:27

I think one of my biggest values is community and my community around me. That's my friends and my family and my um support network. And I'm very grateful that I grew up in Adelaide and at uh an academic school that had nothing to do with performing arts, because it means that my friends and the people around me are very mixed and varied, and they don't if I don't want anything to do with the industry, I don't have to have anything to do with it. And so they really keep me grounded and reminded and give me perspective as well because sometimes it's very hard when you're in it to realize that it's okay, like it is just singing and dancing at the end of the day, and like I'm I'm very reminded of that, and I have a great network around me. I have therapy as well. Um, not all the time being away in Asia for so long. I was having it weekly just to make sure I had someone to speak to because removing me from my community and my friends and my family, I did struggle a little bit. Yeah, but also it's something that I think you do need to learn on the way. The hard thing about being a performer is that Amelia Sanzo is my brand. I am my brand, I am my product, and so I've worked really hard to figure out what makes me just feel like me as a person. And that does sound a little bit cheesy, I understand that, but it wasn't until I like was maybe removed, especially from Australia, that I started to realise what are the things that make me feel like myself. And I would journal about that or write that down to make sure that moving forward I'm always prioritizing doing those things so that I am staying as mentally fit as I possibly can. And your mental and physical health I think go hand in hand. Totally. So just making sure that they're on track is is great. And surround just honestly, the people around me make the biggest difference.

SPEAKER_01 31:28

Yes, of course. I love that you journaled and that you sought uh therapy or some help, or maybe not even help, just just some as you said, like a sounding board. Yeah. That's just really smart of you to do that and not wait till it got to the point where you needed it.

SPEAKER_02 31:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:44

So if I was a young person, which I am not, um, but if I was a very young person and wanted a career like yours, what advice would you give? I know this is again a very cheesy question, you know, but really what would you say to someone that you were trying to advise on a how to get into the business, how to stay in the business, and you know, what m I'm not mistakes because I think everyone has to make mistakes, but what things to look out for?

SPEAKER_00 32:11

Yeah, absolutely. I get asked this question a lot. You would. And I often think about something different that I can give as well that we don't hear. But I think the two answers that I can give to that is never stop learning, and you always have something to learn. You have to keep training. The dance lessons and the singing lessons never stop.

SPEAKER_01 32:33

Good girl, I love that.

SPEAKER_00 32:35

They just never stop, you have to keep going. And I think that's like a mistake that I see a lot. People go from school where they're given a schedule, they go into full time, they're given a schedule, and then suddenly they're out in the industry unemployed. And which is something that you will face in your career every like few years. Of course, all the time. And it's in those moments that like you need to have the resilience and you need to have the work ethic. You should be in classes all of the time, right? All of the time. And people as well now are only getting better. Although I had the most amazing experience for three years on Wicked, I because of my responsibilities as dance captain and swing, and just because I was fatiguing and trying to manage my physical health, I wasn't able to get to as many dance classes and singing lessons as I have been able to on my past contracts. So it meant that now that I have finished and I have a little bit of time off, I am in classes all the time and I am back to weekly singing lessons. And that is why I made the money on the job so that I can spend it now to better myself, so that I am able to book the next job. Right. So there's always things to learn, and you just have to keep training, and it is not done, and that is one of the biggest mistakes I feel like I see people do. My second piece of advice is just be very goal-specific. The industry can be very overwhelming, and sometimes you can feel lost or you don't know where to go. And one of the best things I learned when I was in New York is this like ladder theory. And I remember going into management on my first week there, and they had like a picture of a ladder printed out, and they were like, What is the top goal? What um they said be as specific as you possibly can, not be in a like, don't just say be in a musical, be really specific. And my goal that I set when I was 17 was I want to be dance captain of Wicked. That like I walked, it's it's incredible. But I walked into that office and I said, That's what I want. And from there, we went down the ladder and what I needed to do to be able to achieve that, who I needed to be in front of, what kind of classes I needed to be doing. So suddenly I was in contemporary classes every single day. I was in ballet every second day, I was in rep classes for singing to get my song ready for that audition. And it is crazy to think that the song that I sung in 2022 to book the job, I learned in 2017 because that was the goal I set. So it was very specifically done. But what I found is that by the time I had the opportunity to audition for Wicked and it came around, if I had didn't book the job, I was going to be okay because I was just gonna fall one step down off the ladder. I wasn't completely at the bottom because I'd done all of these steps, and all of those steps just lead on another path, another opportunity, and people that you meet. So I am so specific with my goals because those steps that I take, if I don't quite get that top one yet, I'm not falling very far. And then I just wait for the next opportunity to get back up. And that is something that ladder analogy helps me so much. And once I booked Wicked, I made another ladder.

SPEAKER_01 35:56

Right.

SPEAKER_00 35:57

Once I was there, I was like, all right, I think I want to be able to cover a principal role. What do I need to do to be able to cover this principal role? I increased my singing lessons so that I was vocally stronger. I wanted to make my range a little bit better, so I started setting those, and then two years into Wicked, I auditioned for a Nessa Rose cover and I got it, and then I was able to do it. But I would not have been able to do that when I first started Wicked. So I'm just really specific with those goals. If I had never gone on as Nessa or never booked that, I'm not very far away because I've done all the work to get there. So hopefully on my next show I am able to book that cover. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01 36:37

It totally makes sense. I absolutely love the latter analogy that, and and whoever introduced you to it is a genius, and you're a genius for actually achieving your goal. And as you said, even if you didn't get to that top step, you are still just below it.

SPEAKER_00 36:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:56

Yeah. And the wicked thing could have come next year. Exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:59

And that's the thing, like Wicked auditioned three times or twice while I was on it. And like I was in the audition room cast, like helping cast people and teaching them the choreography. Like it was just incredible. You know, like the way that it grew and the things that I was able to do on the job. I was reminded every day on Wicked of like, you're actually doing it. Like you're not. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 37:21

It's like living, well, you I lived my dream.

SPEAKER_00 37:23

You lived your dream. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:24

Yeah. Amazing. Well, just to wrap up, um, just some fun questions. Yes. Um, do you have a pre-show ritual or superstition?

SPEAKER_00 37:33

I'm so superstitious. Like very superstitious.

SPEAKER_01 37:36

Undies on backwards? Which one is it?

SPEAKER_00 37:38

No, just like my undies have to be bonds.

SPEAKER_01 37:41

It's very Australian, obviously.

SPEAKER_00 37:43

Yeah, very Australian. Um, I have to have this orange frank green water bottle all dented now, but I used it on West Side and I have used it on every show.

SPEAKER_01 37:55

And it comes with you wherever you go.

SPEAKER_00 37:56

Yep, and I have this like random ab routine that I learnt to a Michael Jackson song in New York, and I do that before every show. I love that. And no one would know. No, I don't think anyone around me knows them, I think, because I just do them, but yeah, I am very superstitious. That's excellent.

SPEAKER_01 38:13

And you know, if if it helps, why not? You're not hurting anyone. No. Um now this is a tricky one. Favourite role you've performed so far?

SPEAKER_00 38:21

I know they're all fantastic, but I think in West Side in Act Two, there's the dream ballet at the start of Act Two, and I had quite a featured role in that, and that is like one of my favourite things I've ever performed. Or there is a track in Wicked called the Palm Tree track.

SPEAKER_01 38:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:42

Um, and she just does lots of crazy lifts and dancing, and that's probably one of my favourite things I've danced. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:49

Is there a a dream role or production that is still on your bucket list?

SPEAKER_00 38:54

I'd love to be in Hamilton. I don't know if that boat has sailed, but hopefully it comes back.

SPEAKER_01 38:58

Of course, they all do.

SPEAKER_00 39:00

Yeah, but I think maybe, maybe it's that. But I'm kind of or Chicago. I am kind of excited though that now that I've done Wicked, which was like the dream show, I can't wait to see like what productions I end on, end up on. And I'm like, this is the best, and like this is a dream I didn't even know I had. So yeah, I'm excited to see. But probably Hamilton and Chicago would be two I'd love to tick off.

SPEAKER_01 39:25

Oh, look, I have no doubt you're gonna get there. Not even one. What is something surprising that people might like to know about you? I actually love fishing.

SPEAKER_00 39:33

Random. I grew up fishing. We have a family shack and we would go every year and fish.

SPEAKER_01 39:38

Love the family shack. Yeah. Does that like you just said you've come back from there? Does it ground you? Does it keep you?

SPEAKER_00 39:44

Yeah. Yeah. The beach for me is like one of my places that I need to be around water. I just love it.

SPEAKER_01 39:51

And salt water at that.

SPEAKER_00 39:52

Yeah, it makes such a difference. So I will swim and I spent my whole weekend fishing, swimming, and kayaking with my family at the shack, and I feel awesome because of it.

SPEAKER_01 40:03

Well, you are glowing. So I think it's the beach vibes, yeah. So what's next for you, Amelia?

SPEAKER_00 40:10

I don't know. Okay. Yeah, which I think is like important to also acknowledge because I think from the outside, and I sometimes get this from other professionals saying, Well, look, like, look at your run and you're jumping from show to show, but there are always gaps in between. And I have personally never finished a contract knowing what contract I've got next. I think timing has always worked for me that shows have come up and I've been able to book them and and do them. But yeah, I don't I don't know what's next. I think I want to rest. We have to sacrifice a lot in our industry, and so I'm very keen to prioritize everything that I've had to sacrifice for the past few years. My friends and my family be there for birthdays and things like that, and just get back into training. I will teach as well. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:03

So we can uh we've already secured a workshop date at Star Academy with a with the amazing Amelia, and we can't wait for that. Yeah, and I'm sure you do lots of that sort of work as well.

SPEAKER_00 41:12

Yeah, in Melbourne for sure, I definitely do. I'm going up to um Brisbane as well to work with some students there. But I am in like an audition season at the moment. Okay, yeah. So I'm just yeah, doing that whole process and doing the grind of auditioning, and hopefully one of those land. And if it doesn't, it's okay. The next one will just get keep going. But yeah, it is, it's wild that this three-year journey has happened and now it's and it's done, and now you're back into the real world. Back into that scene and back into that audition. But it's great to see everything that I've gained on that job and how different I feel in the audition room, and we'll just see. But I don't I don't really know.

SPEAKER_01 41:52

There's nothing wrong with that. Yeah, some I still don't know, and I'm way, way older than you. Well, Amelia, thank you so much. It's been so wonderful having you here on our podcast, and I'm sure that our listeners will love to hear your journey. Thank you. And we can't wait to see what's coming up next for you.

SPEAKER_00 42:08

Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.