A Friday. After a long training day.
Dancers are highly motivated by the thought and pursuit of perfection. At least that is how I feel it can be. Dance artists, especially professionals, find healthy value in our ability to overcome tough situations. Especially those that can threaten our work days, body or performance. It makes me think of one of my greatest inspirations, Kobe Bryant. Speaking of him, dancers just about thrive on the most debilitating circumstance that can come with the dance profession—Injury.
The world of dance gives injuries this unspoken hierarchy that determines how far we will go. Studio injuries are pushed through, studio injuries with theatre week around the corner gets pushed through, long-standing injuries through the work day, with shows coming up are taken a bit more seriously and injuries that impede upon execution and threaten the longevity or quality of our performance gets the most attention. Funny or commendable? At any rate, injuries are never appreciated and certainly are not welcomed. From the beginning of training we are taught to take bodily measures that can prevent injury from occuring but looking back, I am glad I was injured.
It was the Fall Season of 2015 and the Summer of 2017. Both times, both injuries were insane. Perhaps that adds to both the wonder and beauty of it all. Without rehashing the actual accounts that led to them, I am going to pull your attention in the direction of how I maximized and how those around me maximized each situation for me.
Fall 2015 was a crazy wild ankle injury. I don't remember being too upset but I specifically remember feeling isolated and ostracized. It was at the peak of these moments God used Royce Zackery to speak into my life. I absolutely have always enjoyed the teaching and expertise of Royce. He is studied in the craft of ballet and dance adaptation. He's really too smart for most of us! That evening in the studio I gained much more respect for him as he affirmed my dance dreams and calling. First, he let me have it. I had expressed excuses of how the crutches and injury were limiting and he was not having that. Royce was the first person to paint the image of "excellence at all cost because who cares" (that's how I see it now), for me. After the scold came the embrace and that moment is forever etched in my memory.
I sit here grateful because as I often mention, my career path in dance has been so unconventional that at times I can hardly believe some of it. This particular season came with a double dose of inspiration and push. Shortly after the situation with Professor Zackery, I was still on crutches. However, I was on my way to NYC's Symphony Space although I was unable to perform. I am glad I was injured. At that time God used Professor Tiffany Quinn to be gracious to me. I was able to travel with my classmates and enter a moment that would mark me forever. Here is the condensed version. Phylicia Rashad was the MC and I was sitting in the audience awaiting curtain call, wishing I was backstage with the rest of the dance program. The next thing I knew, I was in conversation and later in the embrace of legendary 50s ballerina, Raven Wilkinson.
Onto the Summer of 2017. I found myself with another injury but this time it actually prevented me from performing in the culminating performance of Dance Theatre of Harlem's Summer Intensive. There are many, many details I will refrain from sharing in order to emphasize the moment that Robert Garland spoke into my life. Actually, he spoke into my destiny. I went to tell him that I would no longer attend the remaining days of the intensive because it isn't like I could dance or anything. I had gone through a lot that Summer and sitting around watching my level rehearse was not going to make it better. He stopped me and told me to keep coming because people were watching me. In that very moment his words struck me. Although I was confused because I wasn't a "popular dancer" in the program I became empowered. His words would echo throughout my journey and prove how God has called me to be in the world of dance.
A Day at DTH before Broadway
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