Ariel Bavly, a Prozdor 9th grader and student at Newton South High School, has a remarkable array of talents in the performing arts. In addition to her studies, Ariel is establishing herself as a songwriter, actress and dancer. She has had the opportunity to collaborate with many eminent artists (including her father).
We are excited to have Ariel at Prozdor, where she is expanding her creative and Jewish passions. Ariel took a few minutes after Prozdor last Sunday to discuss her most recent projects, her advice for aspiring performers, and what she likes about being at Prozdor:
Tell me about your creative projects
My whole life I’ve been doing musical theater, community theater, and dancing. Recently I’ve been interested in film. I’ve just finished working on The Makeover [a TV movie with Julia Stiles that still airs on ABC]. I did a suicide prevention film and now I’m working on The Seduction Theory, [a short film by an Academy Award nominated director] which will be filming inBoston. I’ve also started writing my own music. I write my music with my Dad—we go into the recording studio and then put songs up on iTunes. I have so many musical inspirations—Michael Jackson, James Brown, and all the 70s greats. I’m a dancer as well, and I dance with a program called Boston Youth Moves.
What do you like most about acting?
I like doing more realistic, more dramatic, kinds of characters. What I love so much about acting is you get to create a person and bring your own life stories to the character, which is so rewarding.
Are your different performing practices connected?
They all come in handy for one another. I have to use a lot of my acting skills when I dance and vice versa. All of them come in handy wherever I am. I love being able to do many different types of performance. Each one comes much easier when you have experience in other types of performance.
Tell me about the most exciting performers you’ve worked with.
My dance company, Boston Youth Moves, is a pre-professional dance program for teens. We’ve got a lot of great opportunities there. We’re having Kervin Boyd from the Alvin Ailey dance company come to work with us—and I’ve worked with him before. He’s amazing to work with. It’s intimidating at first, especially because everyone tries to be completely perfect for him, but it’s an honor to work with him and it’s a great experience.
We also had the opportunity to work with Chita Rivera and our dance company got to perform backup to her at her concert. We got to talk with her—It was a great experience.
Any tips for aspiring performers?
Plan out your time well. If you’re fully committed you’ll be to figure out how to balance everything. If it’s what you want to do you just need to commit to it and explore it. If you fully commit you’ll be able to do it—no matter what.
What do you like about being at Prozdor?
I love Prozdor because I get to keep my connections to Judaism. I get to learn Hebrew—which I can’t do that at my school because I’m at a public school now. I’d like to go on one of Prozdor’s trips—maybe toIsrael. I just want to stay connected to this place because it’s awesome from what I’ve gotten to know so far!
To hear some of Ariel’s music, listen here, or watch her video here.
*EGOT is short for Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony- a rare combination of trophies that have only a handful of people have won.
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