Photo: Eddie Hobson 

Hometown: Walled Lake, MI

Current city: New York City

Age: 27

College and degree: The Juilliard School – BFA in Dance

Website: www.brandoncournay.com

How you pay the bills: I am a dancer for KEIGWIN + COMPANY. 

All of the dance hats you wear: Dancer, teacher, assistant choreographer

Non-dance work you do: I am a Tour Guide at Lincoln Center.

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I have been very fortunate to have had incredible experiences in my dance life both onstage and off. I have lived in NYC for almost ten years and cannot imagine living anywhere else. I currently dance for KEIGWIN + COMPANY and Schoen Movement Company. I also continue to freelance in both commercial and concert dance in NYC. 

Childhood: I am so thankful to have found dance. I began dancing when I was 11 after crying my way through tee-ball. In 5^th grade I attended an after school musical theatre camp and got hooked on dancing. The choreographer of our show taught at a local dance studio and I enrolled that summer. I started with one class a year and it snowballed into becoming my whole life. Not gonna lie, I wore my Capezio jazz shoes to school, that’s how much I loved it. 

Juilliard: My time at Juilliard was transformative for me. I grew up as a competitive dancer in a small town in Michigan; I had absolutely no exposure to concert dance. For example, the solo I auditioned with for Juilliard was a jazz solo set to Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life”… the Techno Remix!!!! 

Juilliard provided with me an opportunity to explore a path for myself that I didn’t even know existed. Not only was I given a whole new perspective on what dance could be, I had the honor of working everyday with the most talented artists I know – my classmates. The camraderie and inspiration I got from my classmates was invaluable. We were working daily with the most incredible teachers and choreographers, pushing each other to be better artists, and growing into adulthood at the same time. I am the most thankful for the fork in my life road that brought me to Juilliard. I don’t know who or where I would be without that journey.

First two years after college: My first two years after college took me all over the map. I did not want to leave NYC, so my first year after school was spent building up funds to be able to sustain myself. I taught at a dance studio in Connecticut during the week, assisted for a dance convention on the weekends, and was a cater waiter when I had free time in between. Even though I had lived in NYC for four years, it took me a whole year to find my bearings as a person living a normal day-to-day life in NYC. It was very overwhelming being such a small person in such a big place. 

I also wanted to explore the commercial side of dance a bit. Commercial and theatre dance had been my training growing up and I wanted to change things up from everything I had done at Juilliard. The first performance job I got out of school was as a dancer in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. 

Now (2015): For almost four years I have had the most incredible time dancing with KEIGWIN + COMPANY. In addition to my work with K+C, I also dance for Schoen Movement Company and have freelanced with companies such as the New York Theatre Ballet, Company XIV, Morphoses, and the Mark Morris Dance Group. 

 

Photo courtesy of Keigwin + Company

Major influences:

Larry Keigwin – for his lightheartedness and sense of humor.

Elizabeth Parkinson – for her incredible talent, humility, and mentorship.

Risa Steinberg  - for her belief and trust in me.

My colleagues – who are some of the most diverse and talented people and provide me with endless amounts of inspiration. 

Can you talk about the commercial work you have done and how you got these gigs?What did you enjoy about this work?

I have gotten all of my commercial work through an agent. Right after graduating college, I signed with MSA, and they sent me out on auditions for TV shows, industrials and theatre gigs. My favorite commercial gig I’ve ever done was for Target. For fashion week, Target rented out half of the Standard Hotel and hired dancers to dance in the windows of the rooms for a site-specific fashion/dance/light show. Ryan Heffington, who is the choreographer of Sia’s newest music videos, choreographed the show. It was such a blast! 

As for Keigwin + Company, how did you get into the company (audition, workshop, seen in class, etc)?

I met Larry Keigwin my senior year at Juilliard; he was commissioned to create a piece for my class. The end result was a piece called “Runaway,” which was inspired by runway models. To this day, it is one of my favorite pieces to perform with K+C. A few years after graduating, Larry was interested in touring his larger scale works (“Runaway” being oneof them) for which he needed extra dancers. I was very interested in working for him and K+C, so we got in contact and he hired me for a few gigs. Shortly after that, I joined K+C full time. I’ve been there ever since.

These days, how do you train and care for your body?

I take class as often as I can. My favorite ballet class in the city is taught by Zvi Gotheiner. His class is amazingly organized, fluid, and physical without being strenuous. I often say he teaches company class for all of NYC; it’s always a big reunion in his class. On days that I can’t take class, I take yoga or go to the gym. I try to do a little bit of everything to be conditioned and ready for anything. I am also a huge fan of taking an ice bath at the end of a long day.

Photo courtesy of KEIGWIN + COMPANY

What does a typical week look like for you right now (training, rehearsing, teaching, commuting, etc):

Every day is different, and that’s what I love about it. Living in NYC is a bit of, “choose your own adventure!” Typically, I’ll go to class in the morning and have rehearsal until around 6.  On my days off from dancing, I work at Lincoln Center as a Tour Guide.

What is the role of teaching in your dance career? How did you learn how to teach? What do you love about teaching?

I absolutely love teaching! Teaching gives me an opportunity to share my experiences with other dancers, not by talking about them, but by sharing them through physicality. You can’t get that dialogue in any other form. 

I started teaching when I was 16 at my dance studio back home. The first class I ever taught was for 25 boys! I learned how to manage a room very quickly. I continued to teach while I was in college as a way to work over the summers. That is when I really found a passion for it, when I realized how much I could inform and inspire younger dancers. Since I did not have exposure to concert dance as a kid, I feel a responsibility to share my experiences with dancers that were like me. 

Photo: Matt Murphy Photography

Last performance you saw that really inspired you:

This weekend I saw Hubbard Street at the Joyce. I was blown away, and always have been, by them. They have such a huge range of repertoire, which is always danced exquisitely and honestly. 

I also saw the Mark Morris Dance Group at BAM a few weeks ago. The show was performed and choreographed brilliantly; I was extremely inspired by the cast. I haven’t ever seen a performance by a company of that size (twenty dancers) where I knew every single one of them. I have been a supplemental dancer with the Mark Morris Dance Group for five years, and it was so powerful seeing many friends onstage at the same time. It made me see them not just as dancers, but as humans. It inspired me to dance as myself and not the dancer version of myself. 

Final advice for young dancers wanting to move to NYC:

Immerse yourself in everything you possibly can, dance related or not. Take advantage of living in NYC! Take class, read reviews and magazines, see a ton of shows, go to the museums. Go see something you’re not even interested in. Decide if you like or dislike something, then try to figure out why. Remember dance is a community. Build relationships and laugh along the way.

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