If sophomore Carson Seeley divided her life into a pie chart, it would include a slice devoted her sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, a chunk for her apparel construction major, and a huge portion for dance. Between dance auditions, Greek life, and class, Carson doesn’t have a much time to spare. Carson says she chose UA because she wanted to be a regular college student. “I really did want the whole college experience,” she says.
However, she is anything but regular. With a resume that includes dancing for the CMA Awards, on stage with Beyoncé during the Billboard Awards and in the recent remake of the movie Footloose, she definitely stands out from the crowd.
She signed with an agent on her 18th birthday, and her career took off immediately. Her big break came when she was a senior in high school when she was cast as a dancer for Big Momma 3. It was her very first audition, and she says, “It just kinda happened.” Now she works with two agencies, Xcel in Atlanta and GTA in L.A. They are boutique-style agencies that represent smaller groups of dancers. Carson likes that they are more intimate agencies, saying “They really care about you and want you to work.”
Dancing competitively in her childhood has helped Carson when it came to booking jobs. She started dancing when she was 3 years old, taking jazz, tap and ballet lessons. After meeting a famous choreographer at age 14, she really started improving. Wade Robson, who has worked with MTV and also dated Brittany Spears, taught a dance exhibition that Carson attended. “He really took the time to explain musicality so that we understood, and I’d never been taught that before,” she says.
Now Carson focuses on hip-hop and street dancing, like the styles seen in many music videos and movies. Big jobs like those are hard to land and mean a lot of negotiation with teachers. She says that she gets calls from her agents about try-outs a couple days before the auditions. If she is chosen, rehearsals begin a few days or a couple weeks after. This means working a lot of working with teachers to make up missed work. Because of this, Carson says really tries to just accept jobs that she feels are worth it, such as getting to work with choreographers she admires.
Her advice to young women comes from her personal story of balancing her dance career and her college career. “Definitely live life to its fullest. It goes by fast, and don’t take anything for granted. I had a lot of stress in my life, and I had to learn to let it go,” she says. It was difficult for her to spend so much time dancing her first year at UA and not see her friends as much. But over time, she’s learned balance.
Right now, Carson is not sure what her future holds. She plans on spending the summer in L.A. and is considering whether or not to commit to dancing full-time. She knows how big of a decision it will be to delay her education, especially since her major is apparel construction. That degree would perfectly complement her experience performing in the entertainment industry, and Carson says she would love to become a stylist. However, with her talent and stacked resume, Carson Seeley surely has a great future ahead as a dancer!