Q: How did you begin dancing?

I always danced around in my house. My brother and I would put on concerts for my mom to Michael Jackson. When I was in first grade, my mom brought home a dance bag with my name embroidered on it and she said you are going to try tap. I said okay and then tapped for 12 years, rhythm tap. The town I grew up in was really small and I was one of the only black kids in my grade at school. My dance studio was in a neighboring town which had more black people, so I felt most welcome at dance because everyone looked like me. I was introduced to ballet there. I started dancing in a pre professional West African dance company “Usaama” which means “precious” in Swahili. The company was run by Karen Love. I danced with Usaama for three years and trained heavily in West African Dance. I went to New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s Youth Artist Institute for high school. I also studied Horton and ballet over the summers. The training led me to audition for Montclair State University where I earned my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance. I danced for Philadanco’s second company, D/2, for a year and then got into Graham II. I am now the first black person in about seven years to be in the Graham II company. My dear friend Ricardo was the only black boy in the company for about three years. From the beginning, Martha Graham always said you are welcome if you can dance. She has never been a company about race. It just happens from societal standards. Where are the brown people doing Graham? People of color don’t do that much Graham. I think it has to do with access in dance. In the community, there is respect for Martha but I hear some saying it's an outdated technique. The advanced Graham work is very strong and physical and getting in and out of the floor is one of the hardest things you can do. Ohad Naharin came from Martha and started the Gaga technique. I don't know why people don't use more Graham technique in schools. It is so relevant and has been for a long time. Unfortunately, they are taking Graham away from a lot of college classes. Graham makes you move with intention. The contemporary work is very abstract and Martha is very human, primal and everything comes from the pelvis so it can be very sexual which is true to the human spirit. I think Graham is the closest thing to theater because it is so direct.

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

You can always learn to be better. The way people think about learning a language, learning when you’re young and then constantly building on it, that’s how I think about dance. You can learn so much from a small correction. That is what I think about life too, how it can be true to my spirit and make the decision to always do better. To be present and make a choice, to have an urgency to get things done. Once you know it, just being able to act on that.

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

Yes. Just adolescence in general. I was the only black girl or one of two in my grade. My town was very suburban white and sentences like “black girls are not attractive” was a common thing I always heard. Just having that insecurity of not feeling beautiful as a brown woman growing up, just unsupported by my peers. But dance made me feel at home. I loved to dance and used it as a way of communicating. I danced with people who looked like me, or if they didn't look like me they spoke the same language as me. With dancers I could connect in a different way, I felt there was a deeper understanding between us that I didn’t feel with everyone else who I called “regular people.” That was a way to discover who I was away from the drama in my house or feeling just alone in the world. Dance made me feel not alone.

Q: What other interests and passions do you have outside of dance that influence and inspire your artistry?

The quarantine has really allowed me to think about these things. I’m passionate about spiritual things. I was raised Baptist and I grew up with this Christian narrative. I also believe in universal religion, like calling God “the universe.” I believe people are made out of love, but everyone has dark things within us that we have to accept as well because they also deserve to be there. It’s a balance. So my whole sense of spirituality allows me to understand what is ego and what is true love for myself. That is deep in Martha's work as well. Martha was inspired by Jungian philosophy, her father being a psychologist and knowing that the body always tells us what it is feeling and thinking, even though your words may not. She always said, “the body never lies.” Universal faith and tapping into what I can do inspires my dance. I really love words. I write my own poetry that I feel is the truth for myself. I love movies and acting as well.

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Q: What have been some challenges in your pre professional and professional career?

I feel like I didn't really start dancing until college. The training was great and my experiences were wonderful, but I felt like everyone who was good went to a performing arts school. I was at a school that I didn't get to do everything I wanted to do other than driving somewhere two days a week for class. I took class from Ronie D Carney who taught at Arts High on my spring break and I loved it. I felt like I would have been better and farther along in my career if I had started dancing at a performing arts high school. It still worked out though. I think another challenge is emotional trauma being placed on my shoulders as a physical distortion because I was so closed off at school and often felt unseen. That manifested in me by always having my shoulders up and people would always say put your shoulders down. My ballet teacher sat down and talked to me, got me to open up one day and I started crying. I am still working with this shoulder issue, but it is not as severe as before. Graham really expands your physical and emotional body as well. I really try to have an open frame now.

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

I think dance can be a platform for social justice issues by creating statements that aren't spoken. Sometimes you think you hear the other person and you feel like you know what they're talking about. However, until you see it said in a different language, it can be communicated through dance. Someone who is not used to seeing dance may see a show and realize that there is a message about something they experience every day. As people, artists tend to be liberal. We are the black and brown and LGBTQ community, the people who want to make social change happen. It directly affects our community because what we do is unconventional. We would dance for no money if we didn't need money to live in the world. Artists choose to put a monetary value on things because we have to live. We don't do things the same way as normal people. They live in a system, they think they have to do certain things because it's the norm. We do this work because it's what our hearts want to do, it’s our passion.

Q: How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected you as a performing artist? (community, financially, initial reactions, company shift, online class, emotions, initial cancellation reaction)

I definitely improvise more, try to create things and try to give life to a project I'm doing for myself. I'm also getting my certification to teach the Graham technique right now. We have to do every exercise in writing and I'm working on that to submit. I am also working on a dance film concept that I am really excited about. I think this has challenged me to dance for me and not because someone else is telling me to do it. It is coming from a place of desire, not a feeling of lack or insecurity.

Q: Can you talk about the Initial cancellations?

We had a lecture demonstration the day we got cancelled. I woke up feeling so anxious that day. It was Thursday, March 12th and I was running late to the lecture demonstration. Everywhere I heard and looked was COVID-19 and cancellations. We heard The Ailey School closed and we figured we would close soon too, but for how long? We were preparing for our season, we were going to do Night Chant and I was cast as one of the leads for the season along with another dancer. I had done the photo shoot and was excited to perform it. Our rehearsal was supposed to be three hours that day. It was only one hour. We ran through the ballet for the first time and Virginia said, “I think that's it for today, you will probably get an email soon.” I was crying as I was leaving the studio. It was so surreal. The AIDS epidemic hit our community hard and when I was hearing about the death toll of COVID-19 that is all I could think about. That was the only thing I could compare it to, even though I didn’t live through it. For us to go through this in my lifetime was like what? How are we going to come back from this? I was in denial. Now I am in a place where I don't know anything. I don't know if any companies will hire any time soon, when we will be back or what the summer will look like. We were supposed to perform at New York City Center with the University Partners Showcase where a bunch of colleges come in and do Graham repertory. I was possibly going to be able to perform the lead at the New York City Center show. There haven’t been many black women to do that role. The role was made on Denice Vail and it was created on her by Martha. This woman, she is my only female mentor, even if she doesn't know it. She is just such a force. She is so poetic and crazy and I love her. So to be walking in her footsteps to do this was a very big deal. To have an opportunity to do that on such a beautiful stage and then have it taken away for me was hard. Graham II is a two year contract and this is my final year with them. It just ended so suddenly. I didn't get to have my final season. I didn't know how much I wanted to fly until they said I couldn't. Those are the words in my heart. I really want to do this and I am crushed that it isn’t happening any more. I don't even know when I will be in a formal dance class again.

Q: Have you kept in contact with the company?

The Graham School is still going on Zoom. Graham II meets every Friday and we are in the middle of making a dance film project. We see each other maybe 3-5 times a week on Zoom for ballet and Graham.  We have extra classes like anatomy, music and pedagogy class. We have to record ourselves teaching on Zoom and send it in for corrections. Now we are teaching level 1 Graham classes while being observed because that is what we would have done. Our teachers still give us corrections over Zoom in dance classes for the technique. Each day one of the company members teaches live on YouTube or Instagram. We are really hoping to have the summer intensive, it hasn't been cancelled yet.  

Q: What is a message you would like to say to health workers on the front lines if you could?

It is so so much deeper than saying thank you. I know just because you are qualified, it does not make you impermeable to this horror. You are in it and we are just trying to energetically support you, give you courage to keep going, being God's hands and saving as many people as you can. Because YOU are supported! We support you even though you are going through so much loss. I want you to know you are being energetically supported, whether you can hear it at 7pm or you can just feel it. You are in our prayers all over the world and we are right there with you as much as we can be.

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

I have seen more people create things online.  Also I think for me it's an example, in myself, and I am sure so many other people feel it too, just to really step back from the ego. In the beginning people were still going on spring break and I was watching this and staying in the house because I didn’t want to be a person to spread it. But it took a lot in the beginning for some people to realize this is really real. Even though we may not get it personally, we all need to be conscious and do things that help others. It's not just about me, it’s not just a personal problem. I have been in New York City and the mindset often is like “that is your own personal issue” and people do whatever they want. So this whole thing has taken that egotistic expression and made everyone focus more on doing things for the greater good. Also, realizing that even if this isn’t currently affecting me personally, I still understand and want to help. People are starting to focus on supporting other people that may be affected instead of being so selfish and standoffish.

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 government to see our industry as a big and important industry, especially in New York City. I hope that the people in Hollywood are going to help the community they started from. This is a side story. My best friend had his Broadway debut in West Side Story. On the night of the premiere, Alec Baldwin, John Leguizamo, Spike Lee and so many important people came to see Broadway. My best friend met Bradley Cooper and Hugh Jackman when they came backstage to tell everyone that they were really beautiful and it was a great show. The fact that Hollywood stars come to support Broadway is a big deal. They get to stay home now and they have money. Now to know our industry is so crippled by this pandemic, to know we don't have money in general and know we are all being laid off even more. With even more uncertain futures, you know, I want these stars to reach back and support us, even a little bit. To see us! We are not alone and you came from us. Concert dance is different, but like we all love Misty Copeland, I bet you do! We are all important entertainers. Broadway actors, singers, dancers, musicians, concert dancers, all these theaters, we are so important and integral to how you got there. So I want you to support us! The government needs to realize a lot of people work but also a lot of people play and we are the reason people do anything! We are a large part of how the economy works. It's all about entertainment. People love watching television and going to the theater to see shows. We are the reason people come together. We don't get paid that much, but we make the whole economy work well, especially in New York City. We have the products that people pay to see. There is a large faction of people not being supported because you don't see us well enough to know we are important. You probably see these shows but don’t think about how much we as artists need to be supported to do our jobs. I want the government to support our industries and art systems like it’s a “real job,” like Wall Street. We are a real part of New York that could die. New York City would have no life without us, none. We make up the streets. I just want you to support us. The virtual community is great for people who don't go to performing arts high schools, people who don’t have easy access to arts training. I think we could do a lot more if we did have the funding we need. We are not well funded enough to be giving free classes away online all the time, so I understand why people don’t normally do that. It would be amazing to see these online classes stay, we just need the money to make that happen.