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Where Diligence Dances Louder Than Perfection: The Shift That Builds Legacy

 The dedicated artist quickly becomes acquainted with difficulty, tough days and that sort of tug-of-war with mastery. I'm sure you've been there. It's those moment s y ou need to analyze after relaxing into the burning muscles and deep sigh because who is thinking about anything else while trying to stay alive in ballet? Since beginning my dance career, I have always been coached by incredible teachers.  Literally!  Dale Shields, Lydia Abarca-Mitchell, Erin Jaffe-Gardner and so on. While still a high school student, I learned to handle the demands and pressures of dance training to become a professional. I wouldn't say that tough moments feel unfamiliar to me, it's knowing how to deconstruct them for greater outcomes.  Yesterday I learned that I don't need to be a crazy perfectionist in order to elevate my body, mind-body connection, artistry or overall beauty. At this point in my career, I am unlearning and relearning a couple of things. I enthusiasticall...
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Making Legends or Only Remembering Them

 There is a huge gap between our honored legends and dancers of today.


Who is grooming the next Hinton Battles, Raven Wilkinsons, Luctricia Welters? There seems to be this great deficit in dance that only allows us to constantly relive the days we did not actually witness but vicariously live out through memory. This is great! Acceptable even. I honor those courageous giants but I don't merely want to read about them. Who is gathering the hungry ones and teaching them what it takes to make your stamp on nations?

Dance has become a thing to conquer, rather than an art to indulge in. Quick fixes, quick reps and quick processing strives to extend legacies while the need to nurture, needed for new legacies to be birthed, is neglected. Duplicates are being valued beyond originals. It takes more, but teaching a man to fish is far more valuable than constantly bringing him the supply. 

Who will be our generation's Alvin Ailey, Eartha Kitt, Joan Myers Brown, Janet Collins, Michael Medcalf, Pat Thomas, Sandra Fortune-Green...


I know alot of the people we love lived in a time that fostered never-before-seen feats when the moments were seized. Those moments are extremely different from today. However, I believe strides can be made in new ways and one of the greatest ways to pay homage to those who have gone out before us is by connecting the dots and bridging the gaps. The art of dance should not fall into obscurity

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