Q: How did you begin your performing arts training?

I am from St. Louis and there is a black studio called Pelagie Green Wren Academy of Dance and it was one of two black studios here. The artistic director made headlines because she has a prominent black studio and one of the first black actors they allowed on the Muni stage. I was about 6 and I started with ballet and tap. I loved it and I was definitely mentored by Pelagie the artistic director and I told her I wanted to be a ballerina. I don't know if she said this because of the opportunities of black ballet dancers or she saw my gift as modern and she said, “You will be more of an Alvin Ailey dancer.” Around 10 years old I started studying the Ailey technique and when I came to St Louis I saw their dance performances and I continued to dance with various companies in St Louis. I didn't know that I wanted to do it professionally. I just knew I loved it.

I went to Hampton University which is an HBCU and I was in the Dance Department there. We didn't have a program but a company called the Terpsichorean Dance Company under the direction of Nina Butts. She was instrumental in showing me the world of black dance. Dance for me became more extensive in college and I learned about Ulysses Dove, and all these black choreographers. I went to a summer program that is associated with the International Association of Blacks in Dance. That's where I found Philadanco and that was my first professional dance company. I was with Philadanco for 7-8 years and then got into musical theater. I did shows off Broadway, national tours, and 4 years ago I started to work with Camille A. Brown and Dancers and become a company member. I work very closely with Camille as an assistant and associate choreographer for her theater ventures as well as in her company.

Q: How did you become an associate choreographer?

There is a huge difference between theater and concert dance, but then there also isn't. I was always the rehearsal director in a dance company setting. The rehearsal director goes in and maintains the choreography that has been given. If you have a repertory company many choreographers come in and so the rehearsal director has to maintain that repertory. There is always that instrumental position of the rehearsal director as well. To also coach the dancer and actors to be able to bring the best essence to the work. As the associate choreographer you do a similar thing. In the creative process of the work you are working directly with the choreographer and creating. Sometimes there are choreographers who kind of depend on you for your artistic feedback, and some that know what they want and they give you the movement. Then they want you to give that to the dancers.

Camille knows exactly what she wants and she does it so well. She confides in you what you think and you give suggestions because you know her language. I met her in 2009 and worked with her constantly for 4 years and there is such an evolution to her language. She creates work and picks it up so that she can see it. Camille works fast, efficient, and has brilliant minds to get the movement and put our nuance in it. Camille embodies social movement black dance. Black social dance embodies what we naturally do as culture coded in her narrative and storytelling. As the associate with Camille she creates it, I capture it, she sees what it is and we put it on their bodies. I am the intermediary tool so Camille doesn't slow down. I can give the instructions to the artist to understand it. That is the work in the creative space.  When it's up and moving a lot of times the choreographer in the theater world as the associate.  It's my job to maintain the integrity of the work. Camille won't be coming to re-mount the work that's my job. She comes in to make sure everything is ok and tweaked but for the most part it's my job to maintain the integrity of the work whether it is in another theater or revisit in broadway.

I'm passionate about being a canvas to be painted on and I think I communicate and teach well. There is a sense of patience and clarity that are skills an associate choreographer needs, so the choreography feels safe and confident to transmit it to the bodies that it needs to be transmitted to.

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

I think the most direct answer to that is not necessarily what it taught me but it has given me a tool to create, communicate, and imagine so it's not necessarily what it taught me but what it has given me. The agency and access to be creative and passionate and artistic.

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

Absolutely. Dance is one platform but the whole idea is being artistic. You are moving imagining and creating and loving all of these things in the same way because you are able to have the liberties to feel express and be present in a moment when there are times of hardship with personally or a large scale the art of movement and storytelling has allowed me that expression and freedom to express myself to feel heard whether or not people are looking at me. It is a way I can communicate. I guess it is just a tool that gives me access to interpersonal communication, creativity and exploration.

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

I really enjoy directing a vision and I also really enjoy taking material and teaching it to others. I enjoy being a canvas for someone to create. With those things I feel like there are positions I have excelled at especially being an associate choreographer. I enjoy working on a creative team and assisting someone to create what they imagine and help and influence that in addition to taking that information and giving it to the actors or the dancers. I like being that intermediate tool for the choreographer and actors and dancers.

I myself enjoy visualizing things. I like artistic direction. I like being an artistic director for a particular project or helping friends with the vision for them. I enjoy storytelling. That's one of my favorite things whether through movement or music or voice or just acting in general. That is an aspect I am very passionate about that I continue to do.

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

The biggest challenge is time and patience. People have different journeys of how they are able to come to the success they desire within the industry. I feel that many of us can relate to the whole idea of waiting for that YES. The YES that opens the door for you to come in. However during the time before the YES there is a lot of pushing to be the best you can be. When you audition and you don't get that door to open there are times when you are frightened and have anxiety. One may think they will never be enough. These are things that happen particularly with me and my beginning when I was pre-professional and even when I was professional. It took me a year of being an apprentice to eventually being in Philidenco. When I transitioned into musical theater it took another year of auditioning. During that time like I said that time before the YES you go through so much and it's very stressful. If you have fortitude and determination then it will happen. During these times people fall off and don’t push for the dream during the hardship and that is the time to breathe into it and know it's part of the journey. Without the challenge we won't have the tools to be successful when the opportunity does arise.

Q: How can performing arts be a platform for social justice work?

I feel like it has always been. For instance, I did Porgy and Bess at the MET Opera this past season and this was the second time in the MET history that it had this many actors, dancers and singers of color on stage. There was a time when the MET did not allow blacks in their stage for example the 1950s and then a small growth in the 60s. One time before 2019 they had a large number of black people in the 1980s and they didn't see it again until 2019 and so it is interesting the question about social justice. Me as a black artist everytime I step on the stage that is me changing for the good of being visible and saying I am not just an artist of color I’m a women of color and I am driven and passionate and talented and creating art you enjoy so why weren't these opportunities given to my ancestors and still not given to me? When it comes from my narrative I feel like everytime we perform (people of color) it makes a statement.

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

I am currently in St Louis but I live in New York City. I have been in St Louis for a month now. I was the assistant choreographer for a show about a worship musical that is coming to tour on Broadway and we were brought into a creative meeting and the producers came in and said this is the last day. The workshop was to continue but the emergency was COVID-19 and we had to stop March 12th. Later that evening Broadway announced it was closing. It happened immediately. It wasn't something that happened out of the blue but it was like it stopped and that's what my life has been like. It is like you are in a good part of the movie and you are like it stops and you ask, “What the heck happened?” So you ask yourself, “How do I cope?”

A couple of days later I am still deciding what to do. This is when Broadway said they won't come back until April. I then said to myself I'll go to St Louis and I got a text from my roommate and she said she got word NYC was shutting down. So then Sunday I was on the last flight to St Louis. It has been an adjustment. There is beauty and ugliness in this situation. The beauty is I've been home for a month and I haven't been home this long in 15 years. For me to be here with uninterrupted time spending time with my family is priceless. I appreciate that. When you are a working artist you want to be busy. That's how you make money. I have also been blessed because in the past few years the momentum of my career has really gone up and that's great but that doesn't give me a lot of time to connect with my parents. Now the nightmare is the fact I am an artist and how I do my work is when I have an audience and when I am working towards having the audience. Whether in rehearsal or in creating, on the next project, and I am now unable to do that. There is uncertainty when an audience will be available. We can't have more than 5-10 people in a socially distant space at a time, so that is a nightmare to me and what I do. It gives me anxiety and stress. The unknown of when I will be able to do what my passion is. There is beauty to it as well and I think I'm pushing for my sanity, I am pushing more towards the beauty of connection and helping my parents in ways I couldn't do before. Also just having that interpersonal time with myself for reflection and being so grateful for the opportunities I received and just reminding myself this is not forever. But when the time comes, and we get back, what will it look like? Will Broadway open June 7th? It is uncertain.

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

I am with my parents and we have been deep cleaning. I want to stay active. I run every other day. I'm constantly connected to what is happening in my industry. There have been great things happening. I was an associate choreographer “For Colored Girls”, and Camille has been nominated for some amazing awards and that is really exciting. Just writing and creating in that aspect. I do feel like my life is groundhog day on repeat. But I do feel good. I'm now able to be with my parents. I say this affirmation, “I am healthy. Im loved. Im safe. I'm protected.” And then I say “we” so I can include the world. If we affirm that I believe the universe will listen.

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

I feel like I agree with what the media has been saying. You know they have a lot on their hands and they are the heroes right now. They are fearless and caring for our loved ones. They are leaving their loved ones behind so they are unselfish and protecting. The affirmation I was saying is; healthy. Loved. Saved. They are making sure we are loved, protected. And safe. I am very humbled for the work they are doing. I will never take it for granted.

Q: How do you see people continuing to create and build community during this time?

Social media is everyone's best friend, I do enjoy how artists are going to social media platforms and allowing art to still live through this technology. I love what artists are doing. I like to see the classes during this time to keep everyone fit those who want to join in. I enjoy how musicians are sharing their work through Facebook and instagram live. It is keeping everyone alive. It has also proven a valuable point that it's needed (art.) The arts culture is needed. I think that I am not technically savvy in that way and I have to understand this may be a transition. I am someone who needs tangibility of things, I have the opportunity myself to teach an instagram live class. It was different but fun. When you teach enough you know what the students need. At the end of the day we want to share, teach and inspire and whatever platform we use to do that lets us continue to do that.

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.)

Change is really hard for me. I like when someone says you have the ability to create whatever you want, think outside the box. Why limit yourself? I don't know if I necessarily say what I envision but I know I want: creativity to flourish. I want sustainability, I want both financial and motivational support and recognize that arts and culture is needed. I want it to be vibrant and explosive. I want it to be diverse. I don't want to say let's go back to what it was. I believe in the essence of audiences and tangibility. There is something ravishing about having an audience and feeling their presence that is what we connect with. You are on stage but we receive what the audience is giving. I don't ever want that taken away or decreased, I think that's the thing that I hold onto.

I think of my first curtain call when I performed at the MET Opera house and it was sold out and it was the opening night of the MET season and every seat was filled and when people stand and applaud that is our reward as artists. Yes sometimes we make money and yes sometimes we don't but we do it because it is our passion, talent and gift. As long as I'm able to see that again in all different theaters across the world than I am happy. But if that is taken away I don't know how I feel about that.