Sam Salter

Model, dancer, West End performer and Instaceleb, Sam Salter, is fast becoming one of London’s most sought after artists.

Having trained at the Sylvia Young Theatre School in London, and Laine Theatre Arts in Surrey, Sam has gone on to carve out quite the incredible career, performing in Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake 2018/19 tour and in West End productions of Wicked, On The Town and Dick Whittington at The London Palladium, as well as touring the UK in productions of West Side Story and Mary Poppins. 

We met with Sam and talked about his journey. 

Wellcome to Chromatica Magazine, thank you for joining us, How are you? how are you coping with the pandemic?

I’m good thank you! I’m doing good at the moment regarding the pandemic. Some days are better than others and that’s ok. I’ve had a bit more acceptance this time around I think. I mean, I want life back to how it was as much as the next person - but I’ve been looking after myself better this time round. 

Let’s go back… how did it all start, when did you start dancing?

I started at around nine years old. Which is relatively late for a dancer; who usually start from age 2/3. I love it though, I still remember my very first dance class. I knew that’s what I wanted to do, even at that age. 

Can you describe your style of dancing?

I would say it’s a mixture of ballet, contemporary and jazz all in one. My favourite style is ever evolving though as new things inspire me to move a different way. 

Dancers you’ve aspired to?

I love the American choreographers Travis Wall and Erica Klein, their movement is so inspiring to watch. I watch them on YouTube like a complete stalker haha!

You also love to choreograph what inspires you what stories are you trying to convey?

I usually like choreographing from a feeling, a lot of my dances are to sad songs actually - I feel like I can convey that emotion through movement more easily than others. I use my experience a lot of the time too. If a song moves me emotionally, I’m in it.

To add - if I can move an audience member in some way with a story then I believe I have done my job correctly, if I can take them out of their thoughts for just two minutes then I’m happy.

I want an audience to ‘feel’ something watching one of my pieces, whether it’s happiness, sadness, anger, frustration, euphoria etc...

What’s been the highlight of your dance career so far?

I think the international tour of Matthew Bourne’s ‘Swan Lake’ was the most epic. It was sold out every night (no... really!) across the world. We performed in LA, NYC, South Korea, Japan, all over China and all over the UK - so epic. It’s also such a iconic dance show for a male dancer to be in so I was so chuffed when I booked the job. 

You also performed for the Special Olympics in 2019 with Nicole Sherzinger, how did that come about?

That was awesome. I was on a three day holiday from swan lake, and I got a PM from Nicole’s personal assistant asking if I was available to choreograph and perform at the Special Olympics in Abu Dhabi alongside Nicole. It was insane getting flown out for 2 days then going straight back to swan lake after - so much fun! 

We loved your sobriety video on Instagram where you captured milestone days of the process, tell us more about it? 

Thank you. Sharing my story has always been important to me, I get many messages from people online saying that they saw my videos and it helped them get sober/cut down/recognise it. I had relapsed after 18 months in 2019 so when I got back into recovery and cleaned up, I made little vlogs at certain milestone days. It wasn’t really for anyone but myself. But the day I was 18 months clean (round 2) I decide to share little snippets. It’s crazy how different I felt from day 1 onwards, I think you can see that easily in the videos. It’s the thing I’m most proud of; getting sober.  

You spoke candidly about being sober, how has it effected you during this pandemic?

Really up and down actually. I have to be honest, I’ve questioned my sobriety even recently. 

I’m nearly two years clean, 26 years old... so being ‘too young to be sober’ often come into my mind. But the way I see it is, if I ever feel deprived from not drinking or taking drugs, I just remind myself that I can do ANYTHING I want in my life; anything at all - just NOT drink and take drugs. Keep it simple. Then I snap myself back into shape once I’ve given my head a talking to and I’m fine again. 

I also remember how bad it got for me and the reason I decided to get my life back... because I was losing everything around me. 

Most of the time, during this pandemic, I’ve actually been pretty focused but yes, I have slips with my thoughts - I’m human. 

Most valuable lesson from your dancing career?

It’s not personal!!! 

Any advice on dancers striating out?

Work hard, be nice, give yourself time off to rest. Stay focused in the room, be like a sponge and absorb as much information as you can, in as many styles as you can! And finally, just know that it is a tough industry, you have to LOVE it, truly love it. There are many set backs, you spend your life training in front of a dance mirror getting criticised, pointe this, straighten that...but if you’re passionate about it and you love it - it’s all worth it. 

How do you keep fit ?

Right now it’s home workouts! But I often teach at the moment on Zoom and I always do my 20 minute warm up every class with students, so that also helps! 

I enjoy HIIT workouts, I try and squeeze in 4 a week. I like the occasional run... and eating nice and clean 85% of the time! 

Future plans?

I want to wait and see; could be a dance show, choreographing, teaching, movement direction, modelling - I want to leave it open. I love teaching at professional dance colleges so I’ll continue to do that. Right now, I’m an open book - I just want to have fun and continue to enjoy my job/my life. That’s all I really want! 

Your Motto in Life

What’s for you, won’t go by you. 

Sam Salter @sammsalter at Milk Model Management @milkmodelmanagement

Photography: Dimitris Theocharis @dimitristheocharis