Alexa
  • Directory of Taiwan

Taipei’s Samantha Panda Continues to grace the air

One-on-One Interview with outstanding aerial performer, Samantha Panda

  3111
Taipei’s Samantha Panda Continues to grace the air

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) –- Last Sunday at Urban Nomad Opening Freakout, Taiwan News had the chance to catch up with aerialist Samantha Lee (Sam Panda) and talk about performing and her road to recovery.

Taipei’s Samantha Panda Continues to grace the air
Sam Panda Training. (Photo courtesy from Sam Panda)

Last September, Lee's rig broke during her performance in Bali. She had to be taken by emergency medevac from Bali to Taipei, where she had her surgery.

Lee has performed in three continents and numerous countries for more than a decade. She currently lives and performs in Taiwan, most recently performing at Urban Nomad Opening Freakout.

Taipei’s Samantha Panda Continues to grace the air
Sam Panda Training. (Photo courtesy from Sam Panda)

Te'Qin: What [types of performances] do you do?

Lee: I'm an aerialist, acrobat, contortionist, kind of an all-around circus performer, but I don't juggle or do unicycling, or anything like that…I do dancing and contortion.

Te'Qin: What is your favorite form?

Lee: I enjoy aerial shows the most. I definitely used to be more into silk (also aerial) and I think I'm leaning a bit more towards my hoop shows being my favorite ones. As a contortionist, you get to do a lot of really bendy stuff on the hoop and it really translates well. So it's fun.

Taipei’s Samantha Panda Continues to grace the air
Sam Panda performing at C.U.M. party. (Photo courtesy of Sam Panda/C.U.M.)

Te'Qin: How long have you been performing?

Lee: I started gymnastics and dance when I was about five. Got into circus when I was in university, so, like 18 years old, and I've been doing it ever since. So pretty much my whole life, I've been doing some type of theater, some type of dance, some type of stage [performance].

Te'Qin: How has it been performing here at Urban Nomad?

Lee: It's great. This year they really went all out. This is not my first year performing at Urban Nomad….So this year, especially after my accident (Oct 2017), I told them that if you want the circus shows, we need to build a…proper stage, we need to build proper equipment. And they went, "Yea, sure, let's do it". And they created this (the circus stage/trust) for us basically to be able to do [the aerial] shows. Just having this trust and this set up has made everything so nice. It's visible for everyone to see. So, it draws a big crowd. People can come and see it. People really seem to enjoy it. It's a cool vibe here. Everyone is into artsy stuff. When you're at an arts festival, there's a lot more appreciation [for our shows].

Taipei’s Samantha Panda Continues to grace the air
Sam Panda performing at Urban Nomad.

Te'Qin: Let's talk about your accident. How was the recovery process for you?

Lee: It has been weird; I guess is the best way to put it. It's very fast. Everything's happening really quickly, which is good, because you know you want to recover as quickly as possible. And at the same time, I'm worried, I'm like: "Is this normal? Am I pushing myself too hard?" I go see my surgeon all the time…He checks to make sure that nothing is out of place, [and] I've not actually pushed myself into a place where I shouldn't have. And everything's going fine…What my surgeon did was fantastic. He took a big risk and did a really major surgery and it worked out obviously for the best. And the other part of it is I am seriously determined to not lose the life that I had before. So, I work really hard to keep training and keep going. And sometimes I have to remind myself like "it's only been four months since you started walking again. So, take a nap or something."

Taipei’s Samantha Panda Continues to grace the air
Sam Panda practicing on silks. (Photo courtesy of Sam Panda)

Te'Qin: How long ago was the surgery?

Lee: It's been almost six months since the accident, five months since the surgery, and then about three and half months since I've been able to walk on my own. Even before I could walk, I started training, like using walls [to do splits]. It's hard when it's part of your life, and that's what you do. You can't give up on it.

Taipei’s Samantha Panda Continues to grace the air
Sam Panda performing at C.U.M. party. (Photo courtesy of Sam Panda/C.U.M.)

Te'Qin: What type of surgery did you have?

Lee: I had a full vertebrae replacement and disc replacement. So, what they normally do with broken necks is called fusion, they fuse your bones together. It works; you can heal. But then you have very, very limited mobility in your neck, obviously, where you would have three bones is now one bone. The bones were damaged so badly that the fusion would have been very extreme; it wasn't a guarantee. So what they did instead was take the vertebrae out, take the disc above and below it out, and replace it all. So the vertebra is titanium, and [there are artificial discs]. So there's no fusion. The individual pieces can still function like a normal neck. It can still move like normal.

Te'Qin: Has this limited your abilities in terms of contortion or movement?

Lee: It's still healing. I have to get my flexibility back, because there was a lot of damage done. And those muscles are still healing and everything is kind of getting back to [where it used to be]. Once everything is healed and I can get that mobility and flexibility back, there will not be any limitation of what I can do.

Taipei’s Samantha Panda Continues to grace the air
Sam Panda performing at C.U.M. party. (Photo courtesy of Sam Panda/C.U.M.)

Lee's next performance will be in Taipei, this Saturday at the C.U.M. party.

For our stories on Lee, please go to Taiwan News stories: American Aerialist Needs Medevac and Aerialist in Taiwan for Surgery

If you would like to know more about Lee, follow her at the Samantha Panda Facebook page.