Kathleen Hermesdorf. Photo: Robbie Sweeny

From Blog Director Jill Randall:

Yes, the list gets longer and longer to scroll through….but what an incredible list of artists who have shared, in their own words, about their career paths. Since August 2012, 172 artists have taken the time to reflect and to write on their dance experience. 

Browse through the list and click on a name or two, or ten. Any name in blue has also shared a second post, "updating" their artist profile and how life has shifted/changed/grown since first writing for the project.

To quote from Linda C. Smith's artist profile:

Enjoy the journey. Be patient. Decide why you love to dance and then just DO IT. Don’t question yourself every day. Just get up and work and work and work.

Dance is for everyone but life as a professional performer is not for everyone. There are so many ways to make dance part of your life. Don’t get stuck. Experience dance on many levels. Teach it, perform it, make it, fund it, watch it, write about it…love it.

—–

Katie Faulkner (Oakland, CA)

Melecio Estrella (Oakland, CA)

Nadia Oka (Oakland, CA)

Doug Gillespie (Brooklyn, NY)

Rachael McClellan Leonard (Port Orange, FL)

Mike Barber (Portland, OR)

Jill Randall (Berkeley, CA)

Ashley Thorndike-Youssef (Washington, DC)

Tamara Riewe (New York, NY)

Annie Rosenthal Parr (Mill Valley, CA)

Christal N. Brown (Middlebury, VT)

Laura Everling Mulchay (Las Vegas, NV)

Helen Simoneau (Winston-Salem, NC)

Natalie Desch (Seattle, WA)

Jenny Showalter (Phoenix, AZ)

Katie Kruger (Alameda, CA)

Sarah Crowell (Oakland, CA)

Sima Belmar (Berkeley, CA)

Katie Sopoci Drake (Chicago, IL)

Rebecca Johnson (Oakland, CA)

Craig Berman (Las Vegas, NV)

Randee Paufve (Oakland, CA)

Stephanie Sleeper (Brooklyn, NY)

Damon Rago (Los Angeles, CA)

Stephen Koester (Salt Lake City, UT)

Valerie Gutwirth (Oakland, CA)

Mo Miner (Oakland, CA)

Nina Haft (Oakland, CA)

John Beasant (New York, NY)

Jill Voorhees Edwards (Salt Lake City, UT)

Amelia Rudolph (San Francisco, CA)

Christine Chen (New York, NY)

Dawn Robinson (New York, NY and Fort Lauderdale, FL)

Angie Hauser (Florence, Massachusetts)

Janet Wong (New York, NY)

Daniel Charon (Salt Lake City, UT)

Shaunna Vella (Oakland, CA)

Annie Arnoult Beserra (Chicago, IL)

Jennifer Nugent (Brooklyn, NY)

Dana Lawton (Oakland, CA)

Colleen Thomas (New York, NY)

Aaron Mattocks (Brooklyn, NY)

Wendy Jones (San Francisco, CA)

Emily Carson Coates (New Haven, CT)

Gigi Arrington (Salt Lake City, UT)

Elizebeth Randall (Oakland, CA)

Pamela Vail (Lancaster, PA)

Ellen Bromberg (Salt Lake City, UT)

Alexandra Beller (New York, NY)

Charlotte Boye-Christensen (Salt Lake City, UT)

Jill Patterson (Lakeville, MN)

Jillian Harris (Philadelphia, PA)

Peter DiMuro (Boston, MA)

Graham Brown (Provo, UT)

Jennifer Kayle (Iowa City, IA)

Tina Fehlandt (Brooklyn, NY)

Shelley Senter (Brooklyn, NY)

Rebecca Lazier (Brooklyn, NY)

Maile Okamura (Brooklyn, NY) 

Carrie Homuth (Minneapolis, MN)

Patricia West Sotelo (Oakland, CA)

Neal Beasley (New York, NY)

Gretchen Pick (Minneapolis, MN)

Tandy Beal (San Francisco Bay Area, CA)

Victoria Marks (Los Angeles, CA)

Marlena Penney Oden (Brooklyn, NY)

Stephan Koplowitz (Los Angeles, CA)

Sara Rudner (New York, New York)

Julia Burrer (Brooklyn, NY)

Douglas Nielsen (Tucson, AZ)

Juliana Monin (Oakland, CA)

Lauren Grant (Brooklyn, NY)

Kelli Brown (Idaho)

Ivy Baldwin (Brooklyn, NY)

Jennifer Salk (Seattle, WA)

Cathy Davalos (Richmond, CA)

Joanna Kotze (Brooklyn, NY)

Dawn Karlovsky (Saint Louis, MO)

Leah Cox (New York, NY)

Michelle Yard (Brooklyn, NY)

Kate Weare (Brooklyn, NY)

Onye Ozuzu (Chicago, IL)

Ellie Goudie-Averell (Iowa City, IA)

Abigail Hosein (Oakland, CA)

Eddie Martinez (Wuppertal, Germany)

Linda C. Smith (Salt Lake City, UT)

Jennifer Monson (Urbana, IL and New York, NY)

Anna Sperber (Brooklyn, NY)

Jeanine Durning (New York, NY)

Netta Yerushalmy (New York, NY)

Abby Fiat (Salt Lake City, UT)

Alice Sheppard (New York, NY and San Francisco, CA)

Vicky Shick (New York, NY)

Carley Conder (Tempe, AZ)

Lily Baldwin (New York, NY)

Molly Heller (Salt Lake City, UT)

Chantal Sampogna (Oakland, CA)

Brandon Cournay (New York, NY)

Donna White (Salt Lake City, UT)

Keith Johnson (Long Beach, CA)

Sarah Wilbur (Los Angeles, CA)

Ashley Anderson (Salt Lake City, UT)

Adriane Fang (Silver Spring, MD)

Dawn Stoppiello (Portland, OR)

Richard Burrows (Seattle and Vancouver, WA)

Cynthia Oliver (Urbana, IL)

Debra Knapp (Las Cruces, NM)

Sondra Fraleigh (St. George, UT)

Abby Zbikowski (Champaign, IL)

Jesse Zaritt (Brooklyn, NY)

Gwen Welliver (New York, NY and Tallahassee, FL)

Lia Bonfilio (New York, NY)

Joan Woodbury (Salt Lake City, UT)

Rashaun Mitchell (Brooklyn, NY)

Susan Marshall (New York, NY)

Jodi Melnick (New York, NY)

Tiffany Mills (Brooklyn, NY)

Kathleen Wessel (Atlanta, GA)

Liz Lerman (Baltimore, MD)

Todd McQuade (Los Angeles, CA)

Reggie Wilson (Brooklyn, NY)

Banning Bouldin (Nashville, TN)

Elizabeth McPherson (New York, NY)

Jo Kreiter (San Francisco, CA)

Pamela Quinn (New York, NY)

Elisa Monte (New York, NY)

Rosana Barragan (San Francisco, CA)

Paloma McGregor (New York, NY)

Amy Chavasse (Ann Arbor, MI)

Gerri Houlihan (Durham, NC)

Samsam Yung (Brooklyn, NY)

Michelle Boule (New York, NY)

Rogelio Lopez (Oakland, CA)

Phyllis Haskell Tims (Arizona and Idaho)

Amy Foley (San Francisco, CA)

Tami Stronach (Brooklyn, NY)

Angela Demmel (San Francisco Bay Area)

Jennifer Edwards (New York, NY)

Camille A. Brown (New York City)

Christy Funsch (San Francisco, CA)

Laura Faure (Portland, ME)

Linda Carr (Berkeley, CA)

Pamela Geber Handman (Salt Lake City, UT)

Courtney Moreno (San Francisco, CA)

Risa Jaroslow (Oakland, CA)

Donna Uchizono (New York, NY)

Jeremy jae Neal (Brooklyn, NY)

Marc Brew (Glasgow, UK)

Dante Brown (Brooklyn, NY)

Gesel Mason (Boulder, CO)

Jess Humphrey (San Diego, CA)

Jan Erkert (Champaign, IL)

Becky Radway (Brooklyn, NY)

Molly Lieber (New York, NY)

Heidi Henderson (Wakfield, RI)

Becca Levy (Jacksonville, FL)

Rebecca Stenn (New York, NY)

Raja Feather Kelly (Brooklyn, NY)

Laura Colby (Brooklyn, NY)

Nicole Vaughan-Diaz (New York, NY)

Dayna Hanson (Seattle, WA)

Nia Love (New York, NY)

Kristin Damrow (Oakland, CA)

Charles Slender-White (San Francisco, CA)

Shirley Ririe (Salt Lake City, UT)

Kathleen Hermesdorf (San Francisco, CA)

Lauren Simpson (San Francisco, CA)

Tanya Chianese (Oakland, CA)

Liv Schaffer (Oakland, CA)

Mark Travis Rivera (Oakland, CA)

Raissa Simpson (San Francisco, CA)

Joan Lazarus (Greenbrae, CA)

——