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David Choate: A Revolution Comes Full Circle
6 Plays1 day ago
This month's guest is David A. Choate, Jr., Founder and Producing Artistic Director of Revolution Dance Theatre. David is an African American public speaker, dancer/choreographer, lighting designer, writer, director and theatrical producer. In his current role, he has written, choreographed and produced several original performances including the region's only African American Nutcracker experience, "Hot Chocolate". He has participated in several tours, had his work displayed on nationally syndicated television and is proud to be responsible for Emmy nominated choreography.
An alumnus of Cincinnati's School of Creative and Performing Arts, Mr. Choate later attended Union Institute and University, where he majored in Business Administration. Most recently, he graduated from the Executive Business Accelerator, of the Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky African American Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Choate considers himself passionate about two things, the arts and people, using a passion for one to fuel the other. The mission of his work remains to advance equity, tell marginalized stories and uplift African American culture and experiences.
OhioDance: A State of Dance is a six-part series coming out the fourth Friday of each month through November 2025. This podcast is driven by the OhioDance mission to secure the foothold of dance in Ohio through increasing visibility, firming viability, and elevating the position of dance in Ohio.
In 2016, a five-person team set out on a mission to capture the achievements of persons and institutions who have shaped the intricate diversity of dance history and practice within the state of Ohio and weave them together in an easily accessible digital format. This we call the OhioDance Virtual Dance Collection. As of 2025 we have highlighted 44 individuals and institutions. The team has traveled over 5000 miles and interviewed hundreds of individuals in all five regions of Ohio. vdc.ohiodance.org
If you like what you are listening to and are not a member of OhioDance, you can go to ohiodance.org and click the membership button to join and receive the many benefits that come with your membership. You can also donate through our purple donate button.
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Transcript
Introduction to A State of Dance
00:00:07
Speaker
Welcome to A State of Dance, sponsored by OhioDance and hosted by independent choreographer and interdisciplinary artist, Rodney Veal.
00:00:22
Speaker
Welcome to A State of Dance, sponsored by OhioDance and hosted by myself, Rodney Veal. The podcast is partially based on the OhioDance Virtual Dance Collection, an interactive website that documents and preserves the achievements of individuals and institutions who have shaped the diversity of dance history and practice in Ohio.
Meet David A. Choate Jr.
00:00:41
Speaker
Now, today, i would like to welcome our guest, David A. Choate Jr., founder and producing artistic director of Revolution Dance Theater in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the hardest working man in Cincinnati, I tell you. He is he is a multi-hyphenate. So, David, thank you for joining us today.
00:00:57
Speaker
Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be with you. All righty. This is super cool. Like I said, multi-hyphenate doing it all, and so putting us all to shame.
David's Artistic Beginnings
00:01:06
Speaker
You are an alum of Cincinnati School for Creative and Performing Arts.
00:01:11
Speaker
How do you think that that early training shaped your identity as an artist and changemaker? That's a rewrite into it. Yo, we dive in, don't we? We we dive right on and in. I am extremely grateful for my time at Cincinnati School for Creative for Performing Arts. Actually this year, it's like a full circle moment. We're going into our fifth year of doing hot chocolate at the Aerenhof Center. And that's been like our biggest project or the biggest project that I've worked on. And it's the first time that I get to have someone else direct.
00:01:41
Speaker
And the person that's directing is Gina Kleesadl. And she was the person who you you know, Gina. I love Gina. She's, you know, dear to my heart. And so she was really a very instrumental person when it came to my love of theater.
Discovering Ballet and Diverse Expressions
00:01:58
Speaker
Rodney, if you could believe it, when I first saw my first ballet, i hated it. I just didn't understand what was going on. It was like, you know, and this was at SCPA and I'm like, well, when are they going to talk? And where's the music that, you know, the singing and and how are we supposed to know what's going on? So it was really a foreign sort of concept to me. And what SCPA did was it really helped me see how all of this is real life. This is... our experience, this is our experience as people, and we're communicating through all of these various different ways. And some people, the way they can pick up a pen, the way that they can put a paintbrush to a canvas, the way that you can dance across the stage, the way that I'm like, oh, there's so many different ways to express us.
Influence of Gina Kleesadl and Mentorship
00:02:42
Speaker
And Gina was just like a really instrumental person in helping me see that and introducing me to so much. So it's just funny that you started with asking about SEPA because it's been such a full circle thing.
00:02:53
Speaker
I love that full circle. And you know, you gotta give a major love a shout out to Gina Cleese out because the thing is she helps you understand the history and the significance and just her depth of knowledge. And how else she freely gives it. Like when you talk about who inspires you to be a change maker, She never took her job as a teacher as I'm just coming here to clock in and this is what s stage management is. You know, no, this is what life is. Like, how can I help you, you know, through an experience? And the way that she or Daryl Pajosa are, you know, just so many other people along the journey did that for me. The way you did that for me at Dating contemporary dance company. It's just like when you get to meet these people along the journey, if I can be that for somebody else, that's just really gross. Oh, that's for kind of you. though Thank you for that shout out. I taught you at in the second company, DCDC. I loved your ballet classes. I try to make a fun. I try to make a fun because yeah I get it. I mean, there's a tendu is a tendu is a tendu, but you can make it entertaining. So that got you going with stage managing, understanding ballet. What was it transitioned to when it was like, this is what I'm
Art as a Personal Expression Journey
00:03:58
Speaker
going to do. I mean, I'm kind of curious about that You know, I was really curious about it because you don't sometimes know what you're doing until you've just been doing it. I love communicating. If I feel passionate about something, and the biggest thing I feel passionate about is people and the human experience and, you know, love and justice and what's going on in the world. So...
00:04:18
Speaker
As things would just happen to me, whether as a Black man, as a gay man, as a person trying to figure out the church, as an autistic person that really didn't know what that was, had no language for it, you know, until like well into your 30s, but you're just trying to like get it right. And how do we do this in the real, you know? Art was the way to process. And so...
00:04:42
Speaker
It was my only option because I don't feel like I was doing it the way other people were. But if I had something to say or if I felt something, it showed up in a dance or it showed up in a poem or it came to me as a play. And it was just all very natural to say, hey, can we do this or can I go down this path? Yeah, whichever way to help communicate, this is what I feel is going on, was really helpful.
00:05:06
Speaker
I love that. And so your career spans so many creative disciplines, dance, lighting design, which is all S&P, like yeah writing and producing. Now take us back to the
Church and Early Artistic Influences
00:05:18
Speaker
beginning. What was your first creative love and how did it spark this multidimensional path? I mean, you're kind of telling me that it's like, it's this journey of the coalescing, so to speak.
00:05:29
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. When I think about like how I became the church is definitely, I think more than SCPA was probably the first place to cultivate sort of like the artistic energy. If you want quality Black talent, You know, go to um ah a Baptist church, you know, and you get a free concert every week. I had access to people who spoke very well. Dr. Robert Smith, you know, was a pastor. He travels all over the world giving talks and writing books and teaching at universities. So this man was just who I saw every Sunday, right? You know? Teresa Terry Anderson, national recording artist, you know, that was our minister of music. So she's just singing. And the guy who's running our sound, Rodney Cook, you know, he was doing media for the news and, you know, all of this. For me, that was just church.
00:06:19
Speaker
Like this, these are just the people you see every week. And this is just what we do. So we dance and we write poems and, you know, we talk. And so to go from that environment into being an SCPA where you're surrounded by like, you think you're talented.
00:06:35
Speaker
but you're in a room full of talented people, and then down the hallway are some crazy talented people. you know, it it really just helps normalize. But to answer the question about the first, I would say talking, if you haven't figured that out. I started as a preacher. Really? Yes, I was a, but I guess still am a licensed pastor, but at New Mission Baptist Church, and I announced a calling to preach as a kid.
From Preaching to Choreography
00:07:00
Speaker
And then from there, I would like teach Sunday school. And so in doing lesson planning and like trying to figure out a way to make the Bible come alive for fourth and fifth graders, you know, something like that. That became really fun. And then in a writing, I took over our Sunday school plays. And that's when I started to write my own stories that would then go into these musical numbers that already existed just to like say, oh, I think like we could create a new story with this material. And then now that you've created that, then you have to have choreography. And so, you know, and it just all was very natural.
00:07:35
Speaker
I did this because I had to do that. Yeah. Yeah. And you just kind of just adapted it all. You said, okay, I've got all these skill sets. You got to watch people, Rodney. When you're surrounded by greatness, there's no reason to not be great. T.D. Jake said that once, was visiting in Dallas. That's so true, though.
00:07:53
Speaker
That is true. Yeah, I don't credit it to me. It would be incredible to have been that close to great orators, our musicians, our dancers, our teachers, and not pick up any of it. You know, I always think that this is what everyone is doing. I think they they set a really high standard and this is just how we do it. Well, it's really interesting, when yeah especially when you say that of being surrounded by greatness is the fact that you're in
Creative Collaboration and Community Impact
00:08:18
Speaker
Cincinnati. This is an external observation. It wasn't like you just burst on the scene. This is a lifelong process. And I think that people always misconstrue
00:08:28
Speaker
Someone who shoots right out of the gate, bam. You're energized, you're focused, you are creating, but also collaborating. yes See, that's the other aspect of this. You bring people in and it's a shock to the system, so to speak. Yeah. In the community that you live in. I live in that community as well, Southwest Ohio. It's really fascinating. I don't think people know what to do with that energy. I didn't know what to do with it. The very first time I attended IABD, the International Association of Blacks in Dance Conference, I got to meet Ronald K. Brown. And when I tell you that was a divine moment, because as a choreographer,
00:09:05
Speaker
I look up to him so bad, like I'm geeky. And so to have had the chance to meet him and he doesn't know me from Adam. And this beautiful man said these beautiful words to me. And he said, anytime I have tried to be the thing, I failed.
00:09:21
Speaker
But when I just am, everything flows.
Advice on Authenticity in Art
00:09:25
Speaker
And so I thought of that as you were talking because when people started telling me, oh, you're a dancer, you're a choreographer, you're a producer, you're a playwright, I tried to then be those things. And I feel like I was putting out really bad work. I put out really bad work. You know, a really interesting work. You know, I will say, oh, I'm so supposed to be really good at this.
00:09:45
Speaker
But when it was just collaborative, this is just me as a person trying to talk to another person and communicate. It just flows. And that's the stuff that people want to see. And it's really hard to describe because I believe in attention. i love business. You know, I think you just got to go for it. But you just kind of got to let it flow.
00:10:06
Speaker
Oh, that's super cool.
Creating Hot Chocolate: A Cultural Reinterpretation
00:10:07
Speaker
So when in talking about the flow, you mentioned it earlier, Hot Chocolate. What inspired you to reimagine such a classic through a culturally specific lens? And what does it mean to audiences, especially black families? It's no shade to what Nutcracker is and how this has been such a blessing to the dance industry and brought people together for years. Ronnie, I couldn't get into it. From a cohesive story standpoint, I was always confused as to like, where'd this come from? And who is this? And oh, now it's snowing. And you know, and now we're traveling the world, you know. From a personal level, when I decided to get into ballet, it was strictly because I wasn't seeing anybody who looked like me.
00:10:50
Speaker
to have gone to SCPA and see incredibly talented Black women in particular. Like these young women at SCPA are killing the game in ballet. But then you look at our colleges around here in town and you don't see very many Black people at all. I was just like, we need something. So for me, it was like the very first idea of hot chocolate was not that it would be what it was. This was coming out of 2020.
00:11:17
Speaker
This was our very first return to public performances. It was a very intimate thing. We only invited maybe 40 people could see the show at a time. It took place at Contemporary Dance Theater in College Hill here in Cincinnati. No big stage. I tried my best to put on a show. And we named it Hot Chocolate because I felt like the world was so divided. We were at each other's throats. Sounds familiar, right? And i felt like we could use something that was rich and creamy and sweet to pull us all together.
00:11:50
Speaker
ah like And if we could do this around the holiday season, like let's make it a holiday story. And of course, with it being Revolution Dance Theater, are like the bodies we saw up there were black.
00:12:01
Speaker
I fell in love with that. It was an interesting show. We tried to like stream it. We had video going for the first time. I tried to run cameras and lights and oh there was a lot going on. And so everything was not working. And so Jazzman McMullen, he was hired to be the house manager for the experience. Make sure we were following COVID protocol And then I was like, I need you to go do a curtain speech to buy me some time to fix something, a video. And he's like, OK, sure.
00:12:28
Speaker
And then that became I need you to do a song. And so what he did was he told me to pull up the YouTube to this Christmas, Donny Hathaway. He sung it.
00:12:38
Speaker
There is an interlude in that. He did the curtain speech in that interlude, went right back into singing. And the audience loved it. And ever since he has been what is now called the Uncle Dre character in Hot Chocolate, which is really written resembles the Uncle Drosselmeyer from Nutcracker. This magical man that shows up and saves the day every single time. Like he literally saved the first show. And i built that entire experience off of what he did that day.
National Impact of Hot Chocolate
00:13:09
Speaker
And he's been Uncle Dre ever since and audiences love him. I love it. I love that. I didn't realize that you had started it in 2020. Yeah. do not Like, oh my gosh, that's the height of COVID. It feels like it was 20 years ago. It does. It really does. It really does. So now it's expanded. It's obviously gone from where it started. That story is really similar to my personal story. It's that it was a natural progression. The DNA of hot chocolate was designed to bring people together when everybody was saying we should be divided. It was designed to make you feel warm when everything around you tells you to be cold.
00:13:47
Speaker
It was designed to say that we can show up for each other, and it was built off of that It warms my heart that we get to do this now in our fifth year at the Aeronomy Center. if People have made this their holiday tradition.
00:14:00
Speaker
There are people who look forward to these roles now. You know, it made national news, Rodney, the very first time in Cincinnati there was a Black Clara. Like, I remember that.
00:14:12
Speaker
It was a huge deal, not just local TV and coverage, but you know national media coverage. And so to think that in the legacy of all of these organizations and how long that they have been here, that it makes national news in the 2000 whatever,
00:14:28
Speaker
that a black person is doing a role. To now have five years in a row at the Aronoff Center stage where you see a black Sugar Plum Fairy, you see a black Clara, you see a black Cavalier, you see it. It's amazing. So I love it. That's super cool. So David, we're going to take a little bit of a break and then I have a couple more questions for you. So stay tuned.
Collaborating on an Emmy-Nominated Project
00:14:55
Speaker
We want to remind you that if you like what you're listening to and are not a member of OhioDance, you can go ohiodance.org and click the membership button to join and receive the many benefits that come with your membership.
00:15:08
Speaker
You can also donate through our purple donate button.
00:15:20
Speaker
Hello, everybody. We are back. I'm talking to David Choate. And this has been such a great conversation. And this conversation is now about your Emmy-nominated work and touring nationally. Can you share a moment when you realized your work was having a bigger impact? You kind of mentioned that, you know, you got national coverage on Hot Chocolate, but you did Emmy-nominated work, brother. I'm just saying. oh You know, we we love the Emmy Award, but it's, you know, getting to work with Kathy Waite and learning through art. um Having to be on a project where you have Mr. Alfonso Wesson himself as the director of photography. And those are the moments where I remember it was me and Jeremy Griffin at the time working, and we just kind of look at each other and we're like, what we doing? You know, ah who are these people that trust us to be on this project?
00:16:10
Speaker
You know, like, they got budget for real people and they chose us. This is great. You have to know... and trust your gift when it's just you in your kitchen or you sitting by the window and writing in your journal. But it is really nice when it's confirmed in the reflection of other people you respect and who you know take their art very seriously. And when they so tap you and say, I'm working on this film, can you do the choreography for it? When other directors and producers, with all of the resources and the this and the that, when they can say,
00:16:46
Speaker
hey, how do you do this? We are coming to the Aeronaut Center and how did you sell it out? When those questions start coming, it it does make you go, wait, what are we doing here?
00:16:57
Speaker
yeah And oh, people notice. So it's hard because I try not to find that validation externally, but I have to say that it was those moments that made me go, oh yeah, it may start here, like just for you, but there are eyes that are watching.
00:17:15
Speaker
Oh yeah, absolutely. I was there at the Emmy Awards show yeah when the work won and it was exciting times. And it was amazing that even though the choreography portion wasn't the winner, the project still won, which was amazing. The thing is, it it was the film itself. You were part of a really
Film vs. Stage Choreography
00:17:32
Speaker
great team. What was the filming process like? Was it just a week? It was not a full week, at least for our component. I'm sure that there was lots went on. But, you know, Kathy Wade is, I say, one of the best arts administrators to ever do it. No, she really is. And her team, the schedule that they put together, the way that they coordinate and work, we made a very efficient use. So i have a operator warehouse space here. We were able to film in our own location. So we actually provided the location. I did some lighting design on that project. And then I choreographed on Garrett Stiegel. What I always loved working with him is when we don't have really long runways for a project. You know, Garrett Stegall was who I called and I'm like, this is yours, like to do.
00:18:18
Speaker
I choreographed the work, he performed it, and that Emmy nomination really truly belongs to him. The way he brought all of that to life, they were really able to just point and shoot. and You could tell the crew, Kathy, Alfonso, so, you know, everybody was just in heaven like, oh, this is rich material. Like, let's just take another angle of that.
00:18:41
Speaker
There are multiple takes, which is a very different process. for choreography when you have multiple takes and different camera angles. And it made me think different. So now I enjoy like watching like a Beyonce video or even how she is at her concerts because it is live choreography and it has to work for the people in the room or at this point in the stadium. But it does make you think about how does this work for film too? And What works on stage does not always translate to works for all of them or for this angle. And there are things that I still don't understand about like mounting a full classical ballet or this or that. But what I am grateful for is that I came up in this era of video and understanding how to do both because it's positioned Revolution Dance Theater to now and go and to do work like this.
Guidance for Young Artists
00:19:32
Speaker
I love that. I mean, this leads into our last question, because i because this is something for folks who are out there listening, especially young people. I feel like sometimes you being who you are, it's like this is the kind of advice you can give to others. What's the one message you hope people walk away with after experiencing your art? And then I have a follow-up question to that.
00:19:54
Speaker
What would you tell people about the journey and the process of becoming? You have to see it. Revolution Dance Theater started because of the lack of representation and access for Black people in ballet. Like, that was the thought. Like I said, Hot Chocolate started because what I wanted to see was a room where Black and White came together and had a good time.
00:20:17
Speaker
What theater does is it takes what we feel and it allows you to see it, to understand it. I think more people are maybe visual learners than would like to think or don't know how to pull that off.
00:20:29
Speaker
When people experience my work, I want them to experience their story in a way that they have not seen before. And when it comes to what I want people to understand about becoming is every good story has a beginning, a middle,
00:20:45
Speaker
and an in. And that's been the hardest part for me to realize. Now that people go, oh, David, and he's supposed to be like this choreographer and this and that. And then I might still do something today where there's a lot I don't know.
00:20:58
Speaker
You know, like you have to become, you have to just start and you have to make mistakes and you have to say, I don't know. And you have to get it wrong. Every good story has that juicy plot where you just don't know it's going to make it. You know, everybody is quite sure that we're going to count him out and we're going to walk away.
00:21:16
Speaker
But the best stories are the ones where you come back from that and you you prove to yourself who you know you've always been. And so that's what I would leave with people is know who you are first, because you're going to be the constant throughout this entire thing.
00:21:30
Speaker
See, that's why you became a minister at such a young age. That's the reason why. and so, David, this has been such a delightful conversation. I'm so glad I get to share a little bit of you. Yeah, and this was great. Go check out Revolution Dance and then go also check out David. You you see his name attached to a project. You really need to see that this is a a young man on the rise. I can say a young man because I'm 60. I can get away with Two young men here. That's how that works. There you go. David, thank you so much. Thank you, Rodney.
Podcast Credits
00:22:01
Speaker
A State of Dance is produced by OhioDance and hosted by Rodney Veal, Executive Producer Jane D'Angelo, Editor and Audio Technician Jessica Cavender, Music Composition Matthew Peyton Dixon.
00:22:15
Speaker
OhioDance would like to thank our funders, the Ohio Arts Council, the Ohio State University Dance Preservation Fund, the Greater Columbus Arts Council, the Columbus Foundation, and the Akron Community Fund.