From Stage to Santander: Kate Lally on Resilience, Growth, and Finding Value Beyond Dance
From injuries, to lack of funding, to not being taken seriously, dancers face some unique challenges throughout their career and during the transition away from it.
We sat down with Kate Lally, recent placement at Santander, to talk through her unique journey and the lessons she learned through her 20-year dance career which have helped her to where she is today.
Early Beginnings and First Setbacks
Kate started dance classes in Dublin aged just 3. Nearly a decade later, she suffered the first major setback in her mission to become a professional dancer: a broken ankle which forced her to leave dance for several years. A naturally sporty child, Kate took up swimming, but “knew in her heart that she always wanted to go back to dance”. At 17 years old she did just that, identifying Musical Theatre as the perfect way to combine her aptitude for dancing, singing and acting.
Whilst studying a degree in History and Politics at University College Dublin, Kate continued to train in ballet, modern dance and jazz, and performed in major productions such as Legally Blonde. These few years reaffirmed her desire to travel to the UK and train full-time. Kate was awarded a scholarship to the prestigious Brighton Academy. However, after a successful first year came another major setback. Amidst severe cuts to funding of the Arts, Kate’s grant was withdrawn, forcing her to leave the Academy two years early: “this was a really challenging moment in my life…this was my dream, this was what I wanted to do”.
Adapting to Challenges: A Path Beyond the Arts
Kate reacted to this nadir with characteristic resilience, and looked to what could be next. In January 2020, she landed a role in Executive Search within Financial Services, where she spent three years. This sparked her interest in the sector: “it gave me an interest in Finance which was never really open to me before…I found it interesting, because it was never something I was exposed to”. Alongside work, Kate studied online courses in financial markets in her spare time to expand her knowledge.
Seeking to progress her career further, Kate decided to study a Masters in Business Management at the University of Sheffield. As well as making the Dean’s List, Kate was the top academic performer in her year. She maintained her passion for performing arts by teaching both singing and dance, and also represented the university in three national cheerleading competitions.
Upon her graduation, add-victor helped Kate into her current role as Relationship Manager at Santander, based in Liverpool. Kate speaks highly of her new team: “Commercial Direct is a really special, dynamic place…full of democracy of thought”. Acknowledging her background in humanities and the arts – quite unusual in Banking – Kate says she is thriving in an environment where her “unique perspective is listened to and actually highly valued”.
Skills Transfer: From Stage Presence to Corporate Success
Dance has in some way shaped every step of Kate’s journey. So which skills would she pick out as the most transferable to the corporate world? Discipline immediately springs to mind: “you get very good at getting the job done…you have to be very organised”. She also points to the ability both to lead and to be led: “dance teaches you to listen…a good leader is someone who can listen really effectively”. And Kate notes the invaluable development of presentation and people skills: “being in the Arts teaches you to sell…you have to be likeable”.
Breaking Barriers and Being Heard
Although she started her role with Santander earlier this year, Kate’s relationship with add-victor began two years before that, when she met with our Head of Partnerships at Sheffield’s Freshers Fair: “I wanted to put myself in a slightly different career, and I was struggling to see how I would do that”. Despite her remarkable journey, Kate found it hard to get her dance career properly recognised: “it wasn’t taken seriously…I’ve been laughed at by recruiters before [when mentioning her transferable skills]…they told me the best I could hope for was some sort of admin role”.
Fortunately, add-victor was able to help: “I always felt I had given so much blood, sweat & tears… that this has to mean something…or get me somewhere that I wouldn’t have got without it…add-victor was the first recruitment agency that ever took it seriously or ever even took an interest in it”.
What message would Kate give to young, aspiring dancers? “It does mean something, it is worth it…even if you didn’t make it to the West End, it doesn’t mean that your journey was any less valuable or credible than anybody who did, because you still learned something”.
The Dancers Career Development (DCD) is a UK charity that supports professional dancers across the UK in their transition into an alternative career beyond performance. add-victor CEO, Steve White-Cooper, will be speaking at the DCD’s “Inspiration Day” on Monday 11th November, as part of the charity’s celebration of its 50th year.
Milo Hodgkiss