STEPPING OUT THE SHADOWS and into the spotlight

Syndee Winters

Triple threat and Miami Palmetto Senior High alumni, Syndee Winters, has dominated the Broadway stage since 2010. Prior to her debut as Nala in “The Lion King,” and later taking the stage in “Hamilton,” she dazzled in the spotlight of Palmetto’s activities.

Originally born in New York, Winters had to create a brand new life for herself across the globe in the sunshine state. Six weeks before summer vacation of her eighth-grade year, Winters became the “new girl” at Southwood Middle School.

“I was born in Queens. My parents are from Jamaica, originally. And I grew up in Brentwood, Long Island, which is a predominantly Hispanic, Black and Caribbean community. And then in the summertime of my eighth-grade year, my parents separated and I moved to Florida. Nothing is worse than showing up when everybody’s solidified their relationships,” Winters said.

After feeling like an outsider, Winters graduated middle school and in the next school year, transformed into her true Panther self, embracing every opportunity at MPSH.

“I signed up for everything. The African American Heritage Club, the Hispanic Heritage Club, Pep Squad, Variations, Omega singers, the musical — anything that provided an opportunity for me to perform and choreograph and create art and collaboration with others,” Winters said. “My friends would just be like, ‘Syndee, you are too serious. You are really taking it to another level.’”

Despite Winters’ involvement at Palmetto, she still faced challenges concerning her personal life. Apart from her closest friends living more than 1,000 miles away, she also faced a distance between her parents. Yet, her connection to the arts allowed her to find a relationship to something deeper.

“You know, having been a product of divorce, you have to create your own world. So performing music was the thing that kept me really focused,” Winters said. “I would go home and I would be so depressed because my life was somewhere else. I listened to the music and played it loud in my bedroom, and I felt that it was keeping me company.”

After graduating in 2004, Winters took her talents to the basketball courts as an NBA dancer for the New York Knicks. During her high school years, Winters immersed herself in every performing arts class, including the Variations dance team. Winters’ best friend from school, Brianna Belletiere, was one of her biggest inspirations when it came to dance. Belletiere was the first choreographer that Winters “worked under.”

“[Brianna and I] became such good friends that her mom, Ms. Scarlett said, ‘Syndee, Brianna tells me that you are a singer and singers can train at my studio for free on scholarship.’ Well, the truth was, my dad did not have the money to pay for me to go to anything extracurricular outside of school. So, Ms. Scarlett gave me a scholarship to learn at her school, and then I eventually taught there,” Winters said.

At MPSH, Winters was surrounded by an array of teachers, including Trisha Jarett who gave Winters a helping hand through her troubling academic endeavors. Jarett describes her as a light.

“As time went on, I saw that she was very talented with dancing and she learned really fast, and she had a natural knack of getting along with different personalities. So she was just easy to talk to,” Jarrett said.

Although Winters was not considered a “perfect student,” she worked hard to graduate and move on to post-secondary education — even if that meant attending night school.

“So I was teaching night school and she was across the hall in one of my colleague’s room, Mr. William’s class, and she would always ask if she could come sit in my class to do her work. And he allowed it, and I would help her with whatever concept was going on, and she would just sit in my room and do her work,” Jarrett said.

Looking for a way to avoid stereotypical castings based on ethnicity, a problem common in the entertainment industry, she changed her last name “Chinloy” into her stage name “Winters.”

“When I first started in the industry, I changed my name. I went from being Syndee Chinloy, that is how I am known at Palmetto, to being Syndee Winters because I did not want to be pigeonholed into being typecast, for having an Asian last name or I was not wanting to be ambiguously ethnic,” Winters said. “Syndee Chinloy is the person who created Syndee Winters and that person is a student of music.”

Portraying Nala in the Broadway production of “The Lion King” officially marked Winters’ first professional production. To Winters, this role was everything she had envisioned, regardless of the various attempts it took to land the role — with a threeyear lapse from when Winters first auditioned and then auditioned again.

“I wanted that show, I did not want anything else. Hamilton did not even exist when I wanted to be Nala in the Lion King,” Winters said. “When the opportunity came, it was just like, oh my gosh, I cannot believe Syndee Chinloy who drives a 1987 Volvo that I bought for 250 dollars in Miami, Florida who has no connection to Broadway or any sort of musical theater profession, nothing, is being asked to audition for Nala.”

Although Winters first took center stage as Nala, she saw Hamilton as an encompassment of every musical element she enjoyed such as hip hop, r&b, jazz, gospel, soul music, and reggae, which attracted her to the production.

“[Lin Manuel Miranda] loves hip hop and he loves musical theater, and those two worlds combined. So do I. I know all the references that Lin pulled from to create Hamilton. All the musical references and all the artist’s references, other rappers and singers that he pulled as inspiration to create the themes of all the characters that are in Hamilton and how they tell their stories,” Winters said.

Although she stood on multiple Broadway stages, it never stopped Winters from returning to her alma mater and giving back to the community that shaped her.

“When she came in, she wanted specifically to teach my beginner students, and she explained to them that the reason behind that was when she was here at Palmetto, there were a lot of beginner classes and only one advanced class,” MPSH theater and stagecraft teacher Robin Barson said. “If you are just in her presence, she is just a bouncing bundle of positive energy. She has come in through the years and done some masterclass workshops for my students both advanced and beginners.”

Despite the challenges throughout life, Winters persevered, took advantage of every opportunity given and dedicated countless hours to her craft ultimately leading her to dazzle atop the Broadway stage.

Amy-Grace Shapiro Online Co-Editor-in-Chief a.shapiro.thepanther@gmail.com

Gabriella Alvarez Copy Editor g.alvarez.thepanther@gmail.com

DESIGN BY IVY LAGARTO our skill sets and putting the effort and the time in… So I think trying to develop the work ethic and work on our skill set and getting the opportunity to be in the gym all the time was a positive influence on them,” former MPSH basketball coach and current Head Basketball Coach at Daniel Boone High school Christopher Brown said.

Like any highschooler who transfers to a new school, the transition did not come easy. At first, making new friends and navigating the halls seemed daunting, but once students met and my head coach, Chris Brown. Those two were mother-father figures for me outside of my parents. They taught me how to work hard, they taught me how to be passionate and be persistent in the work that I involve myself with. And most importantly, to be respectful. Be respectful to not only your peers, but to anyone that you may encounter, because you never know who’s watching, and you never know who you could leave a lasting impression on. So, I just try my best to listen to them and follow their lead and be a great student athlete,” Hardaway said.