For Bella Valdes, acting, singing, and dancing have never been separate paths. All three forms of expression are part of the artist she hopes to become, and they are now converging during an especially exciting chapter of her career. Following her graduation from NYU Tisch, Valdes enters this new phase with Cha Cha in Ryan Murphy’s The Shards, the film Shuga Mango, and the beginning of her journey as a singer-songwriter through “Playing Pretend” and a forthcoming EP.
In her interview with PopSize, Bella discusses how dance shapes the way she builds characters, reflects on bringing elements of her own Miami cultural experience to Shuga Mango, and explains why music, acting, and movement each demand different forms of presence and vulnerability. Amid the pressure to constantly finish or land the “next thing,” she is also learning to slow down and appreciate what she has already built — without losing the ambition she sums up simply: “I truly want to do it all.”
August marks a defining moment for you, with projects in television, film, and music reaching audiences almost simultaneously. How are you experiencing this chapter, and what does it represent in your journey?
This moment is so representative of that grind, hustle, and climb to live out these wild dreams in my head for others to experience with me. I’m very grateful to be in this whirlwind of excitement yet feeling this insatiable hunger to do so much more. I think as performers we have this pressure to be on top, to be the best, to do the most. As artists, however, our purpose is to slow down time for others, help them be present and experience life more honestly, and to see something real through these fantasies. While I have been nonstop so I can finish the next “thing” or “get” the next thing, I’m reminding myself to fill my artistic cup. To let myself enjoy the beauty of these moments and bask in the joy and sunshine my passions have given me. I hope others feel that when they see my work and feel the fire behind it.
In The Shards, you play Cha Cha in a Ryan Murphy production. What drew you most to the character, and how did your years of professional dance training help you shape her?
The second I got the audition. I knew I needed this part. She felt like a role I was meant to play. Cha Cha has a deep understanding of who she is, she knows she is a star and expects a life that reflects her desires, despite her circumstances. Her relentlessness and complexities, wrapped in a big-haired, glittery bow, drew me in. I fell in love with her, and because she was her, she felt like my evil twin. She’s fierce, vivacious, and simply Cha Cha while having this cunning and real talent that beams through her; this light in every room she walks into.
I danced my whole life and had the privilege of attending Tisch New Studio on Broadway to hone these skills. After having an ankle injury in my last days in college last May, I took it easy for a little while and slowly got back into dancing. When I found out I was blessed with the role, I went full force back into 9-year-old dance convention competition mode. I was remembering to stretch my splits and back became a non-negotiable morning and night. I really wanted to tap into the sensuality that Cha Cha naturally possesses, so I was going to heels classes in LA and “Hot Girl Fitness” at Dance Empire of Miami, and took a pole class or two in NYC. Reminding myself that while technique rocks, people want to feel good when they watch Cha Cha move, and so I needed to feel that myself while I danced in her red shoes.
The Shards allows you to combine your dramatic range with physical expression. How does dance influence your acting, even in scenes that do not necessarily involve choreography?
In college, my favorite curriculum was physical acting. I had a professor who really beat it into our heads that the people we are playing are not characters; they are real people, and we were given the privilege of telling their story. She had us access these people firstly through the way they walked, the way they did their morning routine, the way they spoke, and the inflection in their voice when saying certain sentences. Many actors are “heady” when they immerse themselves in scene work (as do I); reminding myself that thought patterns go beyond feelings and emotions; they are tapped into by trauma (good or bad). What has this person’s (character’s) body experienced over the years of their life, and how does this show up in every way they speak, move, and react? After the backstory is done (which it never really is; there is so much to discover about every character), I believe it is all tapped into through the body. Before any scene work, I stretch, move, and ground myself so I can be fully dropped in and invested.
In Shuga Mango, you take part in a story exploring Cuban American life in Miami. What moved you most about the project, and what did it mean to help bring that cultural experience to the screen?
Mangos, bike rides, dominoes, coming home at sunset so abuela doesn’t get “un atake”- Shuga Mango, directed by Emilie Gateau, is the first of its kind. Regarding our Miami girl nuances, being 15 in 2019 made it feel nostalgic and oddly important as we made it. Having the privilege of my scene partner (Mia Oliva) being my best friend in real life, having known each other since we were 15 ourselves, and getting to bring elements of our culture to the big screen felt moving. The project, in its entirety, felt emotionally driven; it was us being us at a time in our lives we won’t get back. But for a split second, we got to relive it, and that’s a rare opportunity we experienced to go back in time.
You are also beginning a new chapter as a singer-songwriter with the release of “Playing Pretend.” Which emotions, experiences, or stories inspired the song and your forthcoming EP?
Playing Pretend feels like an especially important project for me because it allowed me to use a piece Aleksei, my producer, had written and put my own narrative on it. The music video is my coming-of-age story in a visual nutshell, representing the transition from innocence and yearning to becoming the woman I have longed to be.
Dancing’s physical grit and passion inspired by “Flashdance” and “A Chorus Line,” wrapped in a glittery-pink bow; touching on the emotional nuances of the party, it is about breaking free from limitations we box ourselves into and serves as a question to ask: Where in your life are you playing pretend and why? For the performance of it all? For the party? Because you are chasing your dreams or the ones others have put on you? My hope is that viewers catch the wider narrative of the piece, resonate with it, and just love the vibe and experience all the joy I did while making it with the people I love the most. It was made with my sister-in-law, Brooke Valdes, as the best choreographer and creative soulmate. The dances were filmed in the studio I have been dancing at since I was 3 years old, “Dance Empire of Miami”. The cast was made up of all my best girlfriends, whom I have known them since the 4th grade, and shot by the incredibly talented Gaby Perez. I love being surrounded by women and others who love me when I do my vulnerable work, and I pray I can continue to do so.
Necessity is the mother of invention. Music is my water when I’ve felt just about anything. My forthcoming EP is a culmination of years, journals of songs, and exploration; writing lyrics as far back as I can remember. When I was 17, a college freshman in NYC, I bought my first guitar and spent my nights in my dorm messing around with chords, singing along to sad girls like Phoebe Bridgers and Mitski. So much of this EP is based on that time. Those experiences at such a pivotal point of my life all felt so big, and now I laugh because things have their way of sorting themselves out; evident as the EP ends with “Fix Me” and “2nd”; songs I wrote in this time, touching on this emotional concussion I gave myself (if you can’t tell by the titles) Also written and produced with close friends that are like family Thomas Moro Sanders, Carter Bannwarth, and Aleksei Laziç. We have been messing around with our music since college, and I’ve taken the next steps to bring our dreams and songs to life with this EP.
Acting, dance, and music require different forms of expression, but each depends on presence and vulnerability. In which of these disciplines do you feel you reveal the most intimate side of yourself?
It fluctuates, truly, and feels hard to answer because they are all so different, and I say that confidently. What I’ve said about dance is that it’s inescapable when you’re on the floor. It’s you versus you and what you can do when there’s nowhere to go but the floor you’re dancing on. When dancing in a group, it can be harder to be as one because, in a sense, you have to lose yourself while being so deeply connected to everyone else. (Similarly to the ensemble in theatre). Your vulnerability when dancing is read all over the body; you can’t leave your own flesh.
In singing, you can fake your voice, but who would feel that? True authenticity is singing from your gut, from the bottom of the earth. Every breath you take from the roots under your feet, the breath goes all the way up the legs through your hips to your gut and chest, and it doesn’t stop at your mouth. It shoots out of the crown of the head and beyond. I’ve felt this point of deep catharsis and oneness with the world and God when I’ve sung at some of my most emotional peaks. When I’m singing, truly emotionally, physically, and mentally dialed, it’s felt like the most spiritual thing I have ever done. Like my body is floating out of itself and my voice is reverberating all around me is my truest form. Before instruments were made, there was the voice, and that is how we made music. Music and singing are what made me such a believer in love, in God, and knowing there is so much more to this world than what we see.
I think good acting requires a presence that cannot be fabricated. Being fully invested and dropped into this world we have created. What I think makes acting the most vulnerable and scary is the scene partner. Being across from another human being, you can’t fake the words being said because the text and the person in front of you does it all. I struggle to melt into the softness of myself at times and I feel all three disciplines have brought different lessons and understanding of myself. By stepping outside of yourself and taking a risk to be vulnerable, you step deeper in. In all three, I can say there is no faking to the viewer whether you feel what is boiling inside of you or not.
After graduating from NYU Tisch and working on projects including Law & Order: SVU, American Psycho, The Shards, and Shuga Mango, what kind of artist do you hope to become, and which stories would you like to tell in the next chapter of your career?
I hope to remain true to who I am. I want to be an artist who sparks the “aha” moment in another young artist. I want to continue to do everything I love. Acting, singing, and dance is part of my being. In this next chapter of my career, I want to tell stories that fill my creative cup. I truly want to do it all. I appreciate POPSIZE and everyone who took the time to read this. I want to thank my family and friends for their support. I hope you enjoy Cha Cha and connect with Siren Song.
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