Raja Feather Kelly; photo by Kate Enman

Five years into this blog project, the artist profiles are still at the heart of the project – sharing many ways to explore dance and have a life in modern dance in the United States. To date, 162 profiles have been published. 

Today, we look at the 12 profiles written in 2017, and a quote from each is shared below. Click on any artist's name to read their full artist profile. 

And to the 12 artists below – thank you for writing, for opening your hearts, and for contributing to the field in multiple ways. 

Nicole Vaughan-Diaz, age 28 (New York, NY)

Collaboration means a constant flow of influence, openness, and malleability to such inputs. There is little in this world that is not a form of collaborative effort. In my work, collaboration can be as commonplace as the inclusion of music, or even having a dialogue with a friend or colleague about their suggestions regarding the direction I may be going with an idea. 

Raja Feather Kelly, age 30 (Brooklyn, NY)

How do you find dancers? What do you look for in a dancer?

I haven’t really found dancers. I have never had an audition, and I have never went out looking. I make friends, and with my friends, we make work. It’s less like that now. I don’t necessarily think my company members are my friends; it’s different and closer, but not family and not serious. We’re a company. We support ideas, and we come together to realize them. It’s actually quite special. I think because when I started my company, I had nothing to offer, that people gravitated toward my work because they were interested in it. And they stayed around because of their own interest. And now they are just there. I never want to have to convince someone to be a part of what I do, and I surely don’t want to tell someone they can’t do it if they want to. It’s a self-selection process. That said, I value that each member of my company has a mind and options of their own. They know what they can do and are interested in learning more, and they don’t consider the work we do a job, but a commitment to being a contributor to culture.

Molly Lieber, age 33 (New York, NY)

I guess I’m saying that each work experience is different–each project, each group of artists, and each artist from project to project. And each work experience is therefore a further accumulation from the last one, for each person. So I enjoy this life, of freelance dance work, and varying commissions, because my experience of dance continues to get richer.

Becky Radway, age 36 (Brooklyn, NY)

Art is a fascinating outlet. It's not to be taken lightly. Whether you are making it, watching it, treating it as a hobby or a full-time commitment… art brings a sense of wonder, a sense of play, it challenges us, distracts us, makes us uncomfortable. It makes us think, and makes us dream. With all of the difficulties and uncertainties that may come our way, let's always continue to dream.

Becca Levy, age 37 (Jacksonville, FL)

I have always wanted to work with a group of dancers that I could choreograph on and perform with. My idea of complete contentment is the opportunity to create dances as much as I can, for as long as I can. The manifestation of this was to start a dance company.

I co-founded Jacksonville Dance Theatre in 2012 with two of artists I admire greatly – Katie McCaughan and Tiffany Santeiro. It was created out of a need for professional work for dancers in the city. There were a handful of professional dance artists living in Jacksonville, and they were incredibly talented. They had experience dancing all over the world and had landed here for diverse reasons. It’s been an adventure teaching ourselves how to run a dance company of this size from the ground up. There are ups and downs not only with the ins and outs of running a company, but also educating the city we live in as to why a company is important, and what it can provide the cultural landscape of Jacksonville.

I spend every day, including weekends, working on company business whether that be artistically or administratively. Communication with dancers, board, directors, community members, gigs, etc., is constant. The biggest challenge for me artistically is having the funds to rehearse the company more. We take pride in paying full company members for all classes, rehearsals, and performances, but that means there aren’t as many rehearsals per week as I’d prefer. 

Jess Humphrey, age 40 (San Diego, CA)

Teaching is a way of learning for me. It’s a somatic practice, a mirror, a dance…it’s exposing, risky, exhilarating, inspiring, exhausting, nerve-wracking, and life-giving…sometimes all within the same class! I felt ready to teach dance long before I started, but I’m glad I identified more as a student for so long. I learned as much from terrible and abusive teachers as I did from my favorites, so I believe that students are more responsible for their learning than their teachers are.

Being a teaching artist means that I am co-creating knowing and knowledge with students. I try to reveal my preferences, desires, and biases. I know I’m not “neutral," so I put my stuff out there as much as possible. When I think of my favorite teachers, there is some relationship between vulnerability and credibility that comes to mind.

Rebecca Stenn, age 49 (New York, NY)

On balancing parenthood and artmaking:

There is no balancing. I’m aware of trying but I often feel that one of the sides is out of whack – if I am giving too much time to my work, I feel like a bad mom. If I am giving more time to my kids, I feel kind of irrelevant, out of the loop, unfocused. I accept that I am a mother who makes art and there will be some great moments and some awkward ones too (many of them in fact).

Dayna Hanson, age 54 (Seattle, WA)

For better or for worse I’ve always been a polymath. I do things that interest me a lot, either in sequence or simultaneously.  This is sometimes challenging, and I’ve had to find ways to manage my varied interests, but it’s the nature of the beast for me.  I love dancing and choreographing, I love writing music. I love filmmaking, and I love writing. I love to draw. I try not to have more than eight distinct projects going at any one given time.

Nia Love, age 54 (New York, NY)

My 50s: Here I am pushing against dancing and creating work as a mid-career artist, a grandmother of two amazing wonders of the world, and beginning to receive more accolades – at this period in my life. I received a Bessie along with 21 other womyn, non-conforming artists, curated by Eva Yaa Asantewaa. Residencies through the Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX) and Movement Research. I am also BAX’s racial and equity advisor and AIR advisor.

Heidi Henderson

Heidi Henderson, age 55 (Wakefield, RI)

As a performer, and given that I only perform what I make these days, I have been working on finding quiet in my body, on pausing for long seconds, on a stillness of the body if not the mind. I am not sure that I can separate the maker and the performer. I like to make movement that I can barely do. I like to pretend that what I make does not have meaning. 

Laura Colby, age 56 (Brooklyn, NY)

What do you love and enjoy most with your job (Elsie Management)?

I love working with my staff (Anna Amadei, Katie Diamond, and Jimena Alviar). As it happens, we are all dancers, so we speak the same language. We are organized, we can keep track of stuff, we're super disciplined, and we are not afraid of working hard. We are often accomplishing the impossible. 

I love the artists I work with and the incredible worlds they bring us. I love the incredible people (presenters at venues and other managers) I work with throughout our country, and around the globe. And I do love to travel. Discovering different cultures is endless adventure…

You didn't ask, but I'll let you know that the thing I least like about my job is how risky it is. Our work is at the mercy of the market – the economy. And when you represent international artists, you increase your risk factor with all of the variables working against you: visa applications that can be readily declined; taxation obligations that many companies are unwilling to abide by or unable to pay for; venues cancelling out of a routed, contiguous tour; and the arrival of freight that can go all sorts of wrong.

Jan Erkert, age 65 (Champaign, IL)

The contemporary world desperately needs what dance artists know. Dance artists have developed profound knowledge about perception, consciousness and collaboration that needs to be shared with scientists, environmentalists, humanists, engineers, etc. Unfortunately, those folks don’t always know they need us, so we (dancers) have to be proactive in engaging with worlds outside our own. While the work on-stage is critical, it is also time to move off the stage and into the center of the great issues of our time.    

Jan Erkert

—–

Related posts:

Dancing and Reflecting: Dancers in their 60s

Dancing and Reflecting: Dancers in their 50s

Dancing and Reflecting: Dancers in their 40s

—————-