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Are You Still Immersed In The Process? How Content Culture Can Cap The Artist

 It felt so good to move, undulate, and slide into a deep second position to recoil into a contorted contraction. It truly felt like breathing. Surely, I adore codified technique. However, taking a contemporary class last night taught me way more than I bargained for. Get out of your headspace, get out of the mirror, ditch the "content concept" and just dance. I reckon that is my honest thesis. I felt like Jodie (without my Cooper) as I whisked across the floor. Throughout class I thought about the likes and wisdom of dancers like Robert Battle and Matthew Rushing. While dancing, I recalled both of their sentiments that included abandon and connection (to the floor, to the movement, to the work...) while dancing. Truly, I felt that. Suddenly, I am met with a challenge. Maybe it's culture or maybe its Maybeli — nope! It's definitely culture.  For about one minute, I wrestled with walking off of the floor, grabbing my phone, finding a proper angle to record, propping...
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Hop On This Dance Train or Clear The Floor!

 If I could have it my way, dancers would stick around forever because there is something to be said about longevity, a legacy of beauty, expertise and artistic strength. I feel it deeply when great directors and dancers move on to retire. At times it can alter future dance artist expectations and at other times it can widen the gap of understanding and care for the craft and art of dance. These are needed. There was a time that understanding and care was widely seen from studio to stage to screen. It's like being so great of an artist that your very presence demands more hunger, more passion from those dreaming to walk in your shoes. It's felt. It teaches. Dynamic dance artists aren't just for choreographic integrity and aesthetic. They are trailblazers and commissioners of timeless dance. That can never die.

Seated at the table with Delores Brown, Dianne McIntyre, Hinton Battle and Ann Williams


When we become fans more than stewards, stories fade and successorship doesn't stand a chance. To me, it seems that things have been changing rather quickly. While not all change is bad or counterproductive, I wrestle with the observation that pertinent components of strong dance art are not being fully embraced. Has intense investment become archaic during a time it is needed most? Between people moving on and some passing on, I can't help but to think that dance is, while functioning, being pushed into a corner of cultural passivity and subtle oblivion. 



In class at Steps On Broadway, catching gems from Matthew Rushing.



Before the tides complete their turn we must understand the importance of this legacy. Dance, specifically professionally, should not lose its savor once a pervious generation or group moves on. How do we prevent the strength and needed mentality for dance preservation from evaporating before our very eyes? Investing in, consuming, mastering and implementing timeless dance concepts. This, on top of integral training will save the craft and art of dance. It is why I created The Dance Career Coach. As a training dancer, aspiring professional and professional artist, you and I have a great responsibility to uphold standards and to positively become what is needed to carry the work of this great art forward.



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