Q: What has been your professional dance journey, and how did you come to dance with Martha Graham Dance Company?

I grew up in Miami, Florida. I started dancing there very late, I think, at 10 years old. I went back and forth into dance — I stopped in high school and then picked it back up senior year and decided to take it seriously. I got into New World School of the Arts in downtown Miami. There is an alumni, a past principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company, named Peter London and he trained us in the Graham technique and I really gravitated towards it. Senior year of college, I flew to New York and I auditioned for [Martha Graham Dance Company] and I got it.

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Q: Do you have any mentors or important people in your life that have shaped the way you dance and or think about dance?

For sure Peter London, he has the background in Graham and he trained me, so he knows me and the industry really well. [When looking for advice], I speak to whoever I feel at that moment can give me the right information. There are so many great artists in New York. Let's say I have a question about Graham — there are so many past artists that are so wonderful. Someone may pop into my head and I'll just reach out to that particular person. I love talking to all people from all different dance forms, from tango to ballet friends.

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

Pre-professionally, growing up in Miami it was difficult getting the dancing under control. When I say ‘under control’, I mean dance training, because there are only so many studios located there and it's hard to get around in Miami — the train system is not like NYC, so trying to find the right studio and scholarships [wasn’t easy]. I have a single mom and I was in school with not a lot of money. Thank god I got into New World, but on top of that I was late in the game because I had a gap in my technique and I was playing catch up, and the first two years were really hard. It was such a mixed bag [of levels] — it was me who was in a middle ground, and then very advanced people who had already been in companies, and then people who were just starting to dance. That aspect was hard for me, and it was a conservatory so they were very tough. My first year I was on probation at New World and they sat me down and said ‘why are you here?’ They told me I needed to be more hungry and work harder after school because they just weren't seeing that I really wanted to dance. It was a real fight. But along the four years you find yourself, and my personality really came more together. I did summer intensives in NYC which helped out a lot, that gave me the extra push into the next levels that I needed. Once I got into Graham, that was the next level on my journey, because then I  was moving to New York by myself and getting into this well-established company. I was the youngest one there at the time, with people who had been there for over 20 years and I was finding my own voice. I thought I had all this great Graham training— which I did, but going into the company I had to kind of adapt to a new way of learning and working. I remember my first show, it was my first tour and it was in Colombia and the first city was Bogota. Peter London came on the tour as rehearsal director and associate artistic director, and I remember getting ready for the show and I did my makeup the way I thought I should do my makeup — the way I always did — and I saw him at about 30 minutes to curtain and he was like ‘when are you putting on your makeup?’ He was like, ‘oh no no no, this is the Graham Company — fix it.’ He grabbed everyone's pencils and my face and went to work. Even that was a perfect example of just getting used to the professional world. At one point he finished and the other guys in the company saw my face and they were like ‘woah’. I love Peter. He is a very animated, big, tall Trinidadian guy and he is like, ‘this is the Graham company and every show is like you're at the Met Theater.’ The respect he has for the company and the history is amazing. 

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?

For sure. I feel like it always had those moments for it. For example, there is a piece called the Green Table and Deep Song by Martha Graham. Martha was invited to see Hitler at the olympics and she turned down the invitation because she had all these races in her company and she said, ‘with this regime I don't see this working for what is happening’. I do think it has its place and it will continue to have its place. I think dancers especially are very sensitive and a lot of things affect us, so people will always want to speak on those topics and have a voice.

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

The power of dance. It sounds a little cheesy, and a lot of us say it, but the passion to move and perform — there’s nothing like it. I have been self-isolating and quarantining for the past two weeks and at first I wasn't really giving myself class, maybe a few stretches, but I wasn't moving as much. And my mood was changing and I knew it was because I wasn't taking class or dancing. Once I started giving myself class and teaching class online, it totally changed everything. Dance inspires me and inspires others as well. I have been reading a lot of comments online and seeing people respond to all the online classes and some people have been giving mini shows online. It brings hope — dance is a message of hope and it is a true inspiration for people that want to really get their art out there after all this craziness is done. There are a lot of dancers, especially in Italy, that have been in their houses for over a month now, and they have all this passion in them and they just want to let it out. 

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

I am out of work now. I was supposed to be in rehearsal right now and creating and getting ready for tours. We had a really big City Center season scheduled for April and that has been postponed. It makes me really sad because I am not doing what I love. Yes, I am in my apartment and I’m taking class and trying to move as much as possible, but it is not the same as being in the studio with my friends and breathing together and dancing the great dances that we love to do. We were in the middle of a big creation with Andrea Miller and that was something I really enjoyed and that is not happening right now. It has halted life in general. I can't hug a person, I can't hug my friends and family — you can't get close to people. I used to walk a lot outside and I am so used to being all over the city which I really enjoy — there is something great about NYC. Not taking the subway and only taking one walk a day is wild to me. 

Q: What was the last show or project you were working on when this hit?

We were in Washington, DC for a week and had just finished performing at the Kennedy Center. It was a great tour and the audiences were amazing — it was so beautiful. Right after that we came back to NYC and we did a deconstructed lecture demonstration of Martha Graham’s Night Journey in Tanglewood. A few of us were there and started to get word of Corona. I kept hearing things getting cancelled and on the way back to the city from Tanglewood I read that the Met cancelled their season and Broadway was closing and I then realized it was getting real. I knew it was about to get crazy.

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Q: How do you think we can continue to create and share art during this time?

A lot of people have been teaching online and that is the only way to keep this going right now. Realistically, that is one of the only options, because people are online in their homes. I think that is a great way [to create and share] right now. I started teaching these classes, and sometimes I go back and I will read the comments and questions people have left me after I teach and I'll see the number of people that watch the class — I would never be able to teach over 1,000 people at one time in person, so that is really beautiful. You can reach out to a huge span of people and share in the arts. For example, a lot of musicians have been giving free concerts online. Especially right now, people need to know that people care and we are all on the same page.

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

Definitely social distancing. We understand the need for it, so this virus doesn't spread. So we’re staying away from one another, and as hard as it is, not going out and really staying home as much as you can. For example, the dancers in the Graham Company, we have not hung out or seen one another. We see each other on Zoom and online and that's it. We always say to one another, ‘oh, I can't wait to see you and hug you and have you in the same room.’ Hopefully this is only for a short time so we can return to giving each other hugs and a handshake.

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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.)

I have always felt this anyway, but I feel like there would be more of a mixture of all the arts together. So, in one show you might see multiple dance companies and musicians and artists. That would be something I would like to see in the performing arts. I have always enjoyed when there are dance festivals that bring in five to six different companies on the same bill in one night. It’s beautiful because you’re sharing with one another. You get to meet other company dancers that you only know from videos or social media, and they are right there with you, and you get to see how they move and what their style is. That would be my world — a mixture of all of us sharing in the same space and creating a harmonious environment. 

Q: How have people’s priorities shifted during the pandemic?

I would say the superficialness of life is going away. We’re now focused on stuff like do people have enough food, how can they survive during this, checking in, making sure family members are ok and making sure people have a place to stay. The real ‘needs’ for life are being questioned right now. At least in my circle, no one is concerned about clothing stores and bars being closed — we are concerned about one another and how we are able to survive what is happening right now. We have a time period that we think we will have to be off for this, but we really don't know when this will be done. We have to ask one another ‘will we be ok?’ during this.