Photo credit: Kate Enman
Hometown: Fort Hood, Texas + Long Branch, New Jersey
Current city: Brooklyn, New York
Age: 30
Attended an arts high school? Yes, I was a Westwood Player at Long Branch High School.
College and degree: Connecticut College, BA in English and Dance
Website: www.thefeath3rtheory.com
How you pay the bills: All arts related. Arts Admin. Company Manager and Personal Assistant to Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group. Choreography for Off Broadway, Commissions, and Teaching. I still work as a performer (currently with Reggie Wilson, Joanna Kotze, Kota Yamazaki, and Keely Garfield).
All of the dance hats you wear: Arts Administrator, Personal Assistant, Website Designer, Graphic Designer, Social Media Consultant, Teacher, Performer, Director, Choreographer
Non-dance work you have done in the past: I was a server in a restaurant for 1 year.
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Describe your dance life in your….
Teens: Early in my teens, I hated being a teenager. I had been hospitalized for mental health. I stayed away from home a lot, and my single-mother was very sick. I had a drug problem. I didn’t think I had a future. Late in my teens I found theatre and dance; I became a performer. I became a 2-time national qualifying competitive actor and dancer, and my entire life changed. I changed my name, and I changed my life.
20s: I essentially began living alone. My only goal was to get out of my hometown. I created a whole new persona, addicted to creativity and health and never letting anyone tell me "no." I lied about my age to everyone, in hopes to feel older and be more in control of my life. I read every self-help book I could get my hands on, while also learning as much as I could about pop-culture. I wanted to study sociology but didn’t feel smart enough. So I studied pop culture to learn about people. When I went to college, I studied dance to learn about myself and English to learn how to write and process it all. My 20s were about experience and process. Experience and process. Whatever I could get my hands on.
30s: I am in my first year of this decade, and it is very emotional. I am scared more than ever about what will happen to me. I have so many dreams and wishes, and desires. I need to learn patience, and always to be careful for what I wish for.
Mentors/someone who believed in you:
Vincent Borelli - high school drama teacher who took no drama from me and taught many of my most formative lessons on tenacity and never giving up. Megan Loguidice Ruland - high school dance teacher who just makes everything seem easy and possible. Kitty McNally - high school English teacher, one of the most thoughtful people, and maybe one of the first people who took me seriously. My Grandmother - who reminds me to be selfish. David Dorfman - who taught me that I have something to unleash. Reggie Wilson - for just being himself.
Major influences:
Andy Warhol
Anne Sexton
David Shields
James Hillman
Virginia Woolf
David Lynch
Vim Vandekeybus
Photo: Julieta Cervantes
What is on your calendar for this academic year (2017-18)?
I have a wild calendar. This year I was awarded the 2017 Princess Grace Award, and the first thing I will do is create a Ballet for the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company in Utah. The company nominated me, and the Princess Grace Foundation will support the work I make.
Other things on the calendar include:
Creating a new work for my company the feath3r theory - it’s called WEDNESDAY, and it inspired by the movie Dog Day Afternoon.
Choreography for Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' adaptation of The Bacchae, called GURLS.
Touring and performing with Reggie Wilson, Kota Yamazaki, Keely Garfield, and Joanna Kotze.
Teaching and creating work at Sarah Lawrence and Washington University in St. Louis.
Collaborations with Jim Findlay and Daaimah Mubashshir.
These days, how do you train and care for your body?
The best I can do is keep a strict diet. I am always traveling, I hit the gym when I can, and I dance all day, so keeping to a diet plan that gives me energy and keeps me firm and light is my option.
How do you find balance having your own company, dancing for others, making work, arts administration, and teaching? How do each of these tasks relate and support the other tasks?
I work to work. In some ways it is very simple. When you are a freelancer, the only other jobs you can do, it seems, are other freelance work. I find balance by scheduling in advance, knowing my objectives, and being the best communicator I know how. I spend my entire day working. I wake up and I administer for my company and other companies I work for. I know that my mind is the sharpest and the quickest in the morning so I get all business stuff out of the way early in the morning. During, while I am commuting, I send many many emails. I try to be present in the rooms I am working in, and it can be hard. I do NOT like to waste time, in fact, it hurts me to do so and it makes me very angry. I am not patient. But I work hard, so I have more time to work. I make money so I can create more opportunities to create more work. It’s not easy, it is not always fun, but it is a balancing act. I think some people look at me and think I have a lot of opportunities and that it is very fun and joyous. Some of that is true. Another perspective is that taking opportunities is the only thing I can do to pay the bills, net work, and make work. It’s not "the dream."
What do you love and enjoy about arts administration?
I enjoy that there are yeses and nos and right and wrongs. It seems to me to be the opposite of creativity. It’s direct, there are equations, and the results are quick. It is a part of the balancing for the brain. Right brain work. I love organizing, I love researching, I love being depended on. It comes natural to me, and there is a demand for it. However, while I am a wiz at it and love administrating for other people, I am a terrible administrator for myself. Go figure.
Advice to dancers who are interested in arts administration, but have little experience in it….where and how to begin….
I was a self-taught arts administrator. I started in college on the student government executive board. I was the public relations director. I had no idea what I was doing, but I knew what needed to be done, and I knew the information was out there to help me do it. I would say find a small company that is just starting out; there are plenty. And offer them a year. Figure out what they need and how to help them. Before you know it, you have gained so many skills, and the experience you need, learning on your own time. Then try another company. Then take all the free workshops that are offered, because they do exist. Before you know it, you have built an incredible portfolio, and you’re ready to proposition yourself for a nice healthy paying gig!
Please pose 3 questions for choreographers to consider:
When does the performance start?
Is it what or is it how?
When, why and how is the audience necessary?
Can you share a little about your latest choreographic project (and a bit about your passion for Andy Warhol)?
The last work I created was called “Another F&*king Warhol Production." In a lot of ways it can be easy to say my work asks the same question over and over, but each work tackles a different answer. I am deeply interested in Popular Culture; it helps me to understand the majority of the people around me. Andy Warhol says, “It’s the movies that have really been running things in America ever since they were invented. They show you what to do, how to do it, when to do it, how to feel about it, and how to look how you feel about it.” I wonder if this is true. In the show we took the topic of LOVE and researched how it exists in every facet of Popular Culture. We recreated over 100 scenes from television, radio, magazines, social media and other popular culture and smashed them together into a television show called the Love Episode. It was theatre and dance at its finest and most confusing. We were playing the archetypes of ourselves; we had to scientifically study behavior of TV and movies and dance it like post-modern structures of the architecture of the body. It was intense. It was 3 hours of the past 30 years of LOVE in music, and dance, and theatre on stage, in morphsuits.
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.
Financial advice you want to pass onto dancers just forming a company:
You work for your company; you don’t work for you. Pay your dancers; happy dancers create a healthy company. Dancers first. Pay your dancers. Find a financial planner. Keep your company money separate from your money, or taxes will be a nightmare. Save. Keep track of every dollar --- in-kind, donated, and spent.
What are the skills a modern dancer needs in 2017?
The skills I think modern dancers need in 2017 are determination, the willingness to stick up for themselves, and the ability to process information. I believe a relationship or career in the arts is one of perseverance. While I don't believe that everyone is an artist, I do think that creativity and artistry take integrity - and for me that means record an interrogation. Not giving up when it's not easy and always asking questions. You can only rely on yourself to be inspired. That being said, it also requires you to know how to say no. To use language to your advantage and to not be bullied. Too often I am in conversations with artists younger than me, my age, or even older who are being run over by police in the field who don't respect them. I don't take them seriously, who don't value what they offer or bring to a process or project. I say, do not be undervalued, and to not be taken advantage of. There is also a lot of information out there; fake news exists everywhere. Dancers need to know how to process and discern the information that they are receiving. Just because things sound good doesn't mean they are what they seem.
Advice to dancers moving to NYC:
Always have three friends that you can rely on. Never settle for a place to live - fight until you find your perfect apartment, get on the lease, and never give it up. In order of importance when you're looking for opportunities think of process first, then money, then people you are going to work with, and lastly, exposure. I think the best jobs have at least three out of the four.
Final thoughts - Hope/belief/love of the profession:
The other thing about Andy Warhol that was inspiring to me was that, not only did he create new and unimaginable works of art, but in doing so he challenged the way that art was seen and defined. I share this mission. Not only do I want to promote empathy and courage in my work but I also want to make sure that my work is a contribution to the communities which I'm a part of, the histories and lineage I come from, and that they really want all of this to somehow help change the world.
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Related posts:
My Dance Week: Daniel Charon of Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company
Blog Series: Becoming an Arts Administrator
Blog Series: Building a Dance Company
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