Q: How did you begin to dancing?

I was four when I started dancing, I say that loosely because those classes were more like you ran around to music. I really started dancing at 7 years old in a tap based studio in DC Tony Lombre was the teacher she took us to NYC to see broadway shows and we performed for everyone from street festivals to insane asylums and she taught us that dance is for everyone and everyone should be able to experience that.

Q: What has dance taught you that you have applied to your everyday life and how you engage in the world?

In terms of how I engage I would say joy. Dance is joy and healing and that is how I approach life with joy and a willingness to share. Also dance is very humbling, the best dancer in the world is practicing everyday, it is a never ending journey.

Q: Has dance helped you overcome any hardships in your life?

I think dance helped me overcome every single hardship. Growing up poor and dance being a safe haven. Dance gives you an outlet and teaches you humility, and tenacity. Dance literally saved my life.

Q: What other interests and passions do you have outside or inside of the performing arts that influence and inspire your artistry?

Film making, writing and stand up comedy. I also choreograph.

Q: How can dance be a platform for social justice issues?

I think dance is a platform for social justice because it gives a voice to the voiceless. Most popular art forms are created by people of color and it gives us a platform and authority in the platform because marginalized people are marginalized and I think you can also use art to uplift people even if you just make someone feel good. I think joy is something we don't talk about as social justice but it is. To be happy is a privilege and it is revoked from so many like the poor and anyone who is ignored or underserved. My best friend went to Guatemala every summer to work with kids in orphanages and he went and played with the kids and that is what he did. Just played with the kids.

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

We are starting a mini grant for tap dancers. I am starting the fundraising this week. There will be mini grants 100-500 dollars for people who can't pay the rent for COVID19.  All of my work has been cancelled or postponed. We produced the DC Tap Festival which is the biggest tap festival in the world. We moved it online. I'm pretty sure that we were the first dance event to go online during this pandemic. We did it as a buy 1 give 1 model. We work with kids all over the world in orphanages and low income so every package someone purchased we gave one for free for a child. All you had to do was ask for a package and we said yes.

Q: What were your initial reactions and emotions to the shutdown?

I was working on the DC Tap Festival. It was supposed to be March 23-29th and we cancelled the day the NBA cancelled. We were trying to wait and see if DC schools cancelled. Then we had a European travel ban happen and so many kids come from Europe. I am supposed to be in Brazil right now working. There is a tap dance festival there and my sister and I have a non-profit after school there and I was going to check on that and the kids. I am heartbroken I can't be there.

Q: What does a daily routine look like for you? What have you been working on during this time?

I am busier now than I was then. I am so busy in general. Creating the tap festival online we didn't sleep for a week, a friend from college helped us on the tech side. Just maintaining the program and we did instagram we had a scholarship incentive, we had partners across the world for scholarships. I also do merch fulfillment for my clothing line. We took everything out of storage so I do merch fulfillment everyday. I also write.  We also produce another event for national tap dance day for tapathons. I workout everyday. I apply for grants. Tomorrow is my birthday so I planned an online birthday extravaganza. We are doing a workout class, then I’m cooking a meal, and then a house party on Instagram live. We have a tour coming up in the fall with Syncopated Ladies, and I cook all the time.

Q: What do you think about productivity during this time?

I am sure you have seen both memes that say “this is a pandemic not a productivity competition”. I think it depends who you are and what kind of person you are and what you want out of your life. It is a reset and opportunity to think about what you want. The thing that is sad is for those who have mental health issues or are homeless there are so many things other people are dealing with. You need to be active during this time. Don’t make anyone feel bad that you are overachieving. It will serve you in the future. That is just life in general you have the overachievers and the coasters. You can choose the life you want. Also those who are struggling to reach out to people help one another. I see so much free virtual therapy. A lot of people are dying from COVID-19 and a lot will die from suicide. I know two families who have loved ones who have committed suicide becase of quarantine. We need to think about how to activate and allocate for ourselves especially as artists so when things open you can hit the ground running.

Q: What social changes and responsibilities have you seen the performing arts community make during the pandemic?

I see everyone trying to teach a dance class online. Everyone is like zoom, zoom, class, class. I will never knock anyone’s hustle. It is also incredible to see the inside of someone's home. You see the kid who is dancing in the corner of a studio apartment and a kid in a dance studio at home. I hope people realize how dance brings us all together. You have the poorest of the poor and the richest of the rich doing the same thing. Only in the arts does that intersection happen. Also through the online Tap Festival I was giving out scholarships all over the world and the 10 kids who got a scholarship I put them in a group chat with other kids from all over the world and now they're friends. I have also seen heartbreaking messages about dancers being vulnerable talking about closing dance studios. As a kid our dance studio closed because of gentrification. It feels like death. We need to remember as artists to not self medicate but really reach out and heal with others. I am always advocating not to drink because kids see too much messaging about drinking being a solution for things and artists often become substance abusers. I am always trying to be the other light if you don't need to self medicate. You don't need to drink to feel lost or smoke to be creative but how to tap into that naturally.

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 want the dance world to be, I still want the live events to thrive and hope the entire world places more value on what we do because during this time everyone is watching netflix, singing songs and doing things. I want people to realize the value of art during the pandemic. Art got us through, not watching the stock market go up and down. I hope dance and art events are more widely attended. I hope people get into the arts because it is so healing. I hope people make their programs more inclusive and affordable. For an online tap fest if we didn't get one, we would have 500 people wanting to dance who couldn't afford it. It is about creating access and equity in the arts as well.

Q: Can you talk a bit about your organization specifically the diversity aspects?

Chloe Maud foundation legally founded in 2014 but we have done community work forever. I graduated from Columbia in 2008. We started the company in 2009 and we always had a scholarship component. We grew up poor and wanted to make sure everyone was included in our program. We grew up in a one room studio. We believe dance is for everyone. We have a dance program in south central LA, in Favelas Brazil. Everything we produce has a need based scholarship component. Dance tends to be affluent and white. We want to change how that is. We have this initiative that we are too busy to start calling Dance into Diversity and it’s a call to action of dance studios to diversify their studio. For us it is about outreach. We don't like the excuse of people “trying”. People of color don't show up to events where they feel they will be uncomfortable and that is why outreach is so important. People show up so they can thrive, that is our mission. We also have a youth company that meets once a month that we moved virtually, the kids learn tap technique. Then we also have a conversation class about what the kids want to talk about. We have poor black kids from the hood and the rich white kids in one class and to have them in class and empathize with one another. The white kid in Minnesota doesn't know anyone who experienced police brutality and the black girl from Atlanta has a brother who experiences it everyday and that makes her feel empathy. We don't care if you become a professional dancer or not. We have so many friends who are doing other professions that attribute dance to how they work and what it taught them. Another work we do is in prisons. We are working to bring an after school program we do into prisons. I was just asked to do a zoom call for juvenile prison soon.