Q: What has been your professional dance journey?

Devin: I grew up as a competition dancer in Southern California. In college (at Cal State Fullerton) I was introduced to concert dance. Then a back injury led me to want to pursue more of this field rather than commercial work in Los Angeles. At the time, it felt like New York City had more opportunities than LA.  After college I took a risk in moving to New York and felt very fortunate that I got a dance performance with Edisa Weeks/Delirious Dances from my first audition in the city. Then I continued to work as a freelance dancer with different companies and projects. About five years ago, Gibney started their full time dance company model and I joined them for two seasons and then transitioned into my current role. Gibney offers dancers 52-week salaried contracts. This position entails performance opportunities, community work and developing a fellowship in conjunction with advocacy in the arts. Through community work I developed a deeper interest in wanting to build more bridges between arts and social justice.

Jake: I started dancing around 7 or 8 years old with tap and jazz at a recreational studio. I went to the University of North Texas where I received a BFA in Dance. In college, I was exposed to different dance intensives outside of the collegiate setting like American Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival and Doug Varone and Dancers. This is where I got to meet more dancers, see companies from around the world perform and take classes from teaching artists in the field. After I graduated from college, I moved to New York City and was a freelance artist for almost three years working with different choreographers. Actually, Devin and I met at Doug’s intensive and then danced together for BARE Dance Company with Mike Esperanza. I also danced with Gibney Dance Company for a year and a half and then transitioned to Doug Varone and Dancers. To give more backstory with Doug, after attending his summer workshop, he asked me to be an understudy for Les Troyen at the Metropolitan Opera. I stayed in contact with Doug over the years. After a few dancers transitioned out of the company, I received an email from him asking if I wanted to join. I’ve been a company member for five years now.

Q: What have been some challenges in your pre-professional or professional dance career?

Devin: I think a challenge many artists face, including myself is around sustainability as an artist. We are faced with various issues, like how to make supplemental income to support our artistic endeavors, how to support our own business (dance company or managing your own career), and sometimes face the challenges of basic necessities like housing, health insurance, and well-being. As a company member with Gibney, my fellowship project is called “Dancers Economic Empowerment Program,” or DEEP for short. DEEP offers professional development workshops and courses around the different conversations on sustainability for dancers. Although this program does not have all the answers, it is a step towards building support for others and continuing the conversation in hopes of building a more sustainable future for artists.

Jake: Personally, it's been the financial highs and lows of piecing together my income — depending on touring and performing seasons and when the company receives work. For Doug we don't work a full 52 week year, it's more like 30 to 33, so we have gaps of time off. And in that time off it is hard to find time-sensitive work where you can pick something up and then leave it to go back to working for the company. So really it's been the financial aspect of - how I can support myself throughout the whole year when I might have two months off at a time?

Q: Do you believe dance can be a platform for social justice topics? If so, how? and/or Have you used your art form to make a difference?

Devin: We have a training program at Gibney called Institute For Community Action Training (ICAT). It brings in a variety of folx and we ask them this same question, and it's funny for me to answer it now. I believe in the power of movement and that movement can be healing, expressive and a communication tool that goes beyond words. I get the privilege to see this when we do our Hands are for Holding assemblies in schools and we use dance to talk about healthy relationships. The kids get to do activities that involve practicing the things we’re talking about, like trying a partnering activity that involves ulitizing healthy relationships skills such as trusting someone else and communicating effectively. We use dance and movement as a framework for students, and we get to see the revelation of, “Oh wow, we just did this together.” It’s the lightbulb moment of making something possible with another human being. I cherish being able to see the power of movement and what movement can do, and this is only one aspect of how dance can be used for social justice.

I’ve been talking a lot about work and programs within institutions, and I also want to acknowledge that the work goes beyond the programming, and can be experienced in something like taking a dance class. It can be a process of discovery in class where you can see and feel change, whether that’s a physical, mental, emotional, spiritual change in your body. It's in the everyday that we have a choice and have a sense of power to do something.

Jake: I also believe in the power of movement for social change. One example that comes to mind is a choreographic device of Doug’s called “mapping.” It is an evening-long activity to simply learn more about the other people in the room. He asks questions that range from where you're from and where your parents are from and what your favorite book and movie are. Sometimes he might ask you to choose between different words, colors or abstract/literal concepts. Then he directs each dancer to reflect on that cue, what it means to them and then create a movement that embodies it. It’s exciting to witness each dancer take ownership over their unique movement choices based on these directives. Everyone has the same directive but we all have a different interpretation or response to these directives, which is beautiful. We get to celebrate the individual as well as grow in community together by learning more about each other on a deeper level. This new respect for our peers can potentially lend itself to see the change we want to happen by working together from a place of honoring each backstory and voice as a person and mover.  

Q: What inspires you and drives you forward as an artist and a person?

Jake: I can be more reserved in my outward or projected demeanor and personality. But internally the concept of risk inspires me. I like thrill seeking activities like skydiving and bungee jumping and want to try more. What inspires me as a mover, creator and also as a viewer is witnessing how other people take risks within generating and executing movement. Those “grab your attention” moments where it makes you question how it's even possible. When I am asked as a mover to try something that may feel uncomfortable or unfamiliar, it’s exciting for me to embrace the risk and allow myself to fail, learn and grow from these moments.  

Devin: I am really drawn to the components of healing and connection. I have a history of chronic lower back pain and have navigated shifts in my physical body from my early twenties to now. This also led me to expand my wellness practice by getting Pilates certified. I am interested in the healing power of dance, and what that can offer to people. I get excited about the possibility of how my story of dance and healing can help someone else. Art and movement is done better together, so having connections in the community is beautiful. I can only do so much by myself but when we come together we are even more powerful.

Q: How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected you as a performing artist?

Jake: With Doug we had a tour to West Virginia canceled, a new premiere at SUNY Purchase and also a benefit honoring Baryshnikov postponed until further notice. I’ve lost the income from these engagements. As of now, we aren’t scheduled to return back to work until mid-May but it may extend further. We might have to cancel our choreographic intensive in May and summer workshop in June. The company also teaches at Purchase College and company members are on rotation when we teach and we have had to transition our movement based classes to Zoom. We are still in the process of figuring out what works and doesn't work via remote teaching and learning.

Personally for Devin and I, we were supposed to get married in April but our wedding had to be postponed. We had to cancel our honeymoon and also postpone finding an apartment together. We moved all of her belongings into my room, which is basically a storage unit right now, and came back to Texas to stay at my mom’s house.

Devin: I work part-time administratively at Gibney and I do quite a few teaching workshops and school assemblies outside of those hours. Each of those workshops are paid separately, and all were cancelled for the foreseeable future. I feel fortunate that Gibney still paid me for the cancelled workshops in March and is able to continue to offer me employment as we shift to virtual programming. Things are unknown, and everything feels like an experiment right now. I had a performance for Summation Dance Company, scheduled for the end of May and that got postponed as well.

Q: What social changes and responsibilities have you seen people making during the pandemic?

Devin: In some regards, we are seeing more intentionality. For example, in order to connect with others, we need to be more intentional about taking time, creating connections and maintaining relationships with one another. It is amazing we have technology to do so, but at the same time, we’re all forced to be okay with this version of connecting. Everyone is processing change and loss, and as a result it is creating the space to pause, reevaluate our priorities, and reset the systems at play and what our roles as citizens are. This can translate into how we align ourselves to organizations/institutions or communities that we are currently a part of. We are analyzing who has power and who is powerless, which ultimately reveals hidden agendas.

Jake: I would echo intentionality. In the busyness of our schedules and working many jobs, we sometimes lose the intentionality to reach out to people we love and care for deeply. My dad passed away in November and this life event changed my way of thinking. You never know the last time you will get to speak to someone and that has been weighing heavily on my heart recently. I have been trying to be more mindful and intentional about carving out time to speak to family and friends and also see them if I can. It's hard because we are limited to virtual connection right now, but I know this is temporary and when we do get to be face to face with people again, that physical touch, their presence and those deep conversations are what I long for.

Q: Using the idea of “worldmaking” how do you imagine the performing arts world after the pandemic? (Worldmaking: How you can re-imagine the world in your own terms, the way you want it to be. Using this tool one can construct new worlds and write themselves into narratives that have excluded them and systems that have disabled them.)

Devin: I imagine the performing arts being considered as a sustainable career and deeply appreciated (and compensated) by culture and society. I dream of this field being able to operate out of abundance, rather than scarcity. There is a larger community supporting one another, rather than competing over the same resources.

Jake: I think parents’ eyes are opening in this circumstance of basically having to become a teacher at home. I have read and seen so many different memes and videos of how appreciative parents are of teachers and saying, “I don't know how you do this every single day.” We should have more value for teachers and what they are asked to do daily. Teachers are meditators, mentors, counselors and beyond.

We need to create some type of a security net or buffer moving forward so if this does happen again, arts organizations can be protected and they can have a surplus (instead of a deficit) to use or fall back on in these circumstances. Some type of guaranteed government funding or backing would be monumental. When the pandemic happened, the government was focusing more of their attention on big corporations and how to support them for the economy. But the economy is made of people. I feel that the arts were neglected by the government, but it was so powerful to see how the arts community came together to create all of these different resources and emergency funds specifically for artists. We were heard and seen. I think in this question of worldmaking, how can the arts community also be at the forefront so that we are not an afterthought?