For the Freelance Dancers Cast in “Étoile,” the Series Offers Welcome Stability
For dancers and ballet fans, the new Amazon Prime series “Étoile” has been a rare opportunity to see their favorite art form—however fictionalized on the show—celebrated in mainstream pop culture. The new series, created by Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino and featuring choreography by Marguerite Derricks, stars dancers from around the U.S. and Europe, many of whom are freelancers.
For those particular cast members, working on a television show with a big Hollywood budget brings a sense of stability and relief. Freelancing is not for the faint of heart; you’re in charge of booking work, managing your schedule, staying in shape, and paying for your own benefits, like health insurance. Concert-dance gigs aren’t always lucrative, and stringing together a patchwork of performances, projects, and teaching or other side jobs can get financially precarious if you’re not careful or widely in-demand.
“Having a film project on this scale—because this is a huge production with a huge studio behind it—definitely brings a boost to your own personal financial stability,” says Arcadian Broad, who plays a company member in the show’s fictitious Metropolitan Ballet Theater. He also serves as the dance double for French actor Ivan du Pontavice, who plays Gabin, a member of the also-fictitious Ballet National de Paris.
Broad and his wife, Taylor Sambola Broad, decided to try freelancing after careers with Orlando Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, and, most recently, Sarasota Ballet. In 2023, when Sarasota’s spring season ended, they started planning a move to New York City and reached out to their connections there. A friend tipped them off that “Étoile” choreographer Marguerite Derricks was giving a master class at Steps on Broadway—and likely scouting. The couple cashed in airline miles and hotel points to make the trip, Broad says, “and we kind of put all our eggs in one basket.” Their gamble paid off—both got hired, with Taylor as a pool dancer for MBT company scenes and Arcadian as a credited cast member.
Former Russian State Ballet soloist Matisse Love, who plays another MBT dancer on the show, turned to freelancing after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. “A lot of dancers who were foreigners in Russia had to redefine our identity, in terms of what’s next,” says Love, who’s American. As a child she had been a series regular on the Palladinos’ previous TV show “Bunheads,” also choreographed by Derricks. When she moved back home to Los Angeles, she reached out to Derricks, who alerted her to a new ballet series in the works. “I thought, Maybe that’s my next thing?” says Love, who put off company auditions in hopes of being cast.
In the meantime, she started booking galas and other guest-artist appearances. Freelancing was a big adjustment, she says, but she had lots of connections and the discipline to get herself to class every day. “If you work hard and really love something, you can make it happen,” Love says.
Fellow cast member Lyrica Woodruff, who has never danced with a traditional ballet company, agrees. After graduating from the School of American Ballet in 2014, she forged a musical-theater career, landing ballet-heavy roles in Susan Stroman’s Little Dancer (and its later iteration, Marie, Dancing Still), an off-Broadway run of Finian’s Rainbow, and the Broadway production and national tour of Anastasia. “One of the fun things about being a freelancer is that you get to work on a lot of different projects all the time,” she says. “It’s hard because your schedule is your responsibility. But there’s also a lot of liberation in that.”
There’s also vulnerability. After the pandemic shut down the Anastasia tour, Woodruff relocated to her parents’ home in Nashville and began teaching at a local studio. And as the cast of “Étoile” cleared their schedules to begin working in the summer of 2023, a series of strikes—first the writers’ union, then the actors’ union—postponed filming for months. While company dancers could return to their places of employment, the freelance cast members had to quickly find other work. “That was a little scary, because I didn’t join a company in order to be a part of this amazing project,” says Love. “Luckily I had a lot of Nutcrackers and spring shows,” which supplemented her income.
Similarly, the Broads put off their move to New York City and stayed with Taylor’s parents in New Orleans, teaching private lessons and booking small performances. Woodruff continued to teach in Nashville and appeared in a few music videos. “Anything to just make a paycheck!” she says.
Once the strikes settled, the months of filming that “Étoile” provided—plus the security of a previously green-lit second season—gave its dancers not only a financial cushion but other benefits, including membership in the Screen Actors Guild. “I knew so many freelance dancers who didn’t have health insurance who were able to get it through SAG because of the show,” says Love. Arcadian Broad adds that, in addition to health insurance, he was able to qualify for pension benefits, “which is great as a ballet dancer, especially, since we don’t always get opportunities to think about retirement funds or pensions.”
Still, Broad says that he and the other freelancers in “Étoile” have to be realistic, both financially (by saving and living within their means) and artistically. “You have to remember that at some point [the show] is going to end, even though you don’t want it to. So you have to prepare so that as you come out of this Hollywood world and go back into your real world, it’s not too much of a shock to the system.”
Broad, who also choreographs and composes music, sees how the connections he’s made through the show, particularly with Derricks, may help him going forward. “Being a part of ‘Étoile’ solidified the fact that I want to do more in film, and move beyond my dance career to choreography and composition, and acting, as well.”
Woodruff notes that, because of the financial relief, moving forward she feels like she has “a little more freedom to take on projects that you’re genuinely excited about.” But she also points to the friendships she’s made with her fellow cast members—because in the freelance world, your network is everything. “We’re a genuine family, and every single one of us have called on each other at some point since we wrapped filming to work together. I need a partner [for a gig]? I have eight people I can call!”
