Interview: Derion Loman
Q: What has been your dance journey? Or What is the most recent show you have been a part of and how did you come to be a part of it?
When I joined the Color Guard, I didn’t enjoy the dancing part as much as I loved being a part of it. I took my first dance class when I was 19 and I loved it. I attended the University of California, Santa Barbara for a BFA in Dance and a BA in Psychology. Then, I participated in the Hubbard Street Summer Intensive and decided to move to New York City with only $200. I first danced for the second company in Ballet Hispanico and eventually, a friend recommended auditioning for Pilobolus. A month later, I was hired and spent four years with them. Pilobolus creates their pieces through improvisation and thus, having creative input is very important. I was responsible for creating my own track within a piece and learned quickly to find my choreographic voice. I also love teaching and have flown various places, including Canada, Dallas, NYC, to share this passion.
Q: What have been some challenges in your pre-professional dance career?
One of my biggest challenges was not allowing myself to become discouraged. Many of the time, you will hear no’s to things you care a lot about and are spending money on. This makes it hard to not let that stop your momentum or drive.
Q: What are some other hobbies or interests you have?
I love to read novels and watch movies, especially fantasy movies. The stories I read and watch are similar to forming a world in my head. The details in a fictional story are the types of ideas one needs to have when creating a piece and more details means it is more accessible to others.
Q: Do you believe dance can be a platform for social justice topics? If so, how?
I believe it can be because art is subjective. You are allowed to tell a story referencing things that people know and seeing these things from another perspective allows people to make a connection they didn’t before.
Q: What inspires you and drives you forward as an artist and a person?
I am always interested in telling stories. The more human a story is, the more relatable it is for people and we tend to dive deep into the relatability aspect when we watch a piece. This inspires me to create art that reflects human moments so that people can identify with them.
Q: How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected you as a performing artist?
As a performer, things to me seemed like they could go on and my main concern was the thought of going in and out of airports. Then, things got cancelled. I watched as my calendar, previously booked out through October, was slowly cleared as everything was pushed off and cancelled. I was starting to gain my momentum professionally and all of that seemed to suddenly stop.
I have a dance partner from World of Dance who I currently work with. We choreographed a 15 minute piece that we were commissioned to create for the Dallas Black Dance Theater ll company. We planned to fly to Dallas to revise the work and teach a community class before the premiere. My dance partner and I initiated a series about household items that you can use to create. I’m really interested in storytelling, so we decided to share this passion by teaching the process and teaching the tools to be creative on your own.
The first cancellation was expected but that soon turned out to be a series of cancellations. You feel as though someone slammed the brakes on everything you have been working on. It is hard not to feel discouraged from how devastating it is to see your hard work go away so quickly. I have been pouring myself into my work so that I can hit the ground running as soon as this is over.
Q: What social changes and responsibilities have you seen people making during the pandemic?
There has been an increase in connecting with others. People are now using social media to be social and connecting deeper than the surface level.
Q: Do you think the pandemic will make us a more socially conscious society? If so, how?
I think the pandemic will make a more socially conscious community but it depends on how long it lasts. If the pandemic lasts for a long time, people will come out of this with a stronger sense of community because, as a world, we all went through something together. The longer the pandemic goes on, we have to continue to figure out how to band together and get through something enormous.
Q: Using the idea of “worldmaking” how do you imagine the performing arts world after the pandemic?
We, as artists, have the responsibility and capability to influence how the world moves forward after the pandemic. I believe it is our responsibility to shape the perspective to be one where we don’t need to live being heavily reliant on technology in our day to day lives. As performers, we are giving people the attention to and magnifying their personal relationships. Historically, the arts have flourished where there are major life events. For example, observing a Renaissance painting shows the observer an image of what is happening in the world and important events at the time. We are historians of our time and it is our job to scribe what is going on in the world at this time.
