Lights, Camera, Hustle: The Artistic Journey of Ariana D’souza

For Ariana, the theatrical arts are fundamentally about acts of storytelling. “My journey began from the moment I heard my first story,” she states. “It is my imagination that has motivated me to dream, to think and to learn.” Ariana’s parents were travelers, and as a child she was exposed to diverse cultures and different narratives. “Art and performance can bridge worlds and leave people feeling more connected than ever,” Ariana explains. During her childhood, listening to music and watching films would leave her feeling changed – “feeling like I experienced true catharsis.”

Ariana tells stories to teach and to grow. “There are so many things that I have learned from art, and I felt as if I could only express the way I felt through dance or music or film or theatre. That's what inspired me.”

As a young woman, Ariana didn’t just want to see and hear stories; she wanted to make them and share them with others. She starred in Only a Girl, the flagship play of the Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation, directed by Lindsey McAlister, then devised and wrote a collaborative ensemble piece of theatre entitled ‘No I Refuse,’ followed by sharing the creative process in a documentary for the work collection, ‘Pull Back the Curtain.’ She then received a scholarship to study performing arts in Los Angeles and New York at AMDA College of the Performing Arts and the American Musical Dramatic Academy, Ariana has also trained and performed around the world, training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Pineapple Dance Studios, Face Productions, as well as King George V School. Followed by her work with the Ghetto Film School (where she starred in the film Folded Heart.) She starred and appeared respectively in national and international commercials such as Tecno Mobile, Talkin and Liquid Death and was featured in Vogue. She starred in Pearl Redone, a CSUN film and in Twelve Angry Jurors, an adaptation play of Twelve Angry Men directed by Eve Gordon.

Finding those opportunities hasn’t always been easy. In her history of not only performing but teaching young performing artists such as when she taught theatre to students at the Lantau International School of Hong Kong, Ariana warns them of how challenging it can be to feel trapped by your circumstances, how easy it can be to just succumb, “feeling like the day you get told no is going to be every day.” But, she believes, “every rejection in my life has enabled me to achieve more. The biggest challenge as an artist is getting used to the idea of being told no. We're essentially taking on a career where we're told no all the time.”

For Ariana, that challenge is intensely personal. She has a deep appreciation for the performing arts and their power to express and communicate. “It's a universal experience, and that's why we come together to tell stories for those who don't have a voice,” she says.