Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to A State of Dance, sponsored by Ohio Dance. and hosted by independent choreographer and interdisciplinary artist Rodney Veal.
Speaker: Welcome to A State of Dance, sponsored by Ohio Dance and hosted by Rodney Veal. The podcast is based on the Ohio Dance 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.
Speaker: Today, I would like to welcome our guests. Dominic? More Dunson. who is an award -winning choreographer, director, and educator based in Akron, Ohio. And I actually did see online where you were leading a class. So I know you were busy today. So I am super excited to have a conversation. Welcome to the podcast. topic Thank you. Thank you so much.
Speaker: We're gonna jump in. Akron is your home. You've named your choreographic voice Urban Midwest Storytelling. What does that mean in your body, not just conceptually, but physically?
Speaker: Yeah, so if I can take us back to when I came up with that idea. Take us back. That's great. Take you back to the good old year of 2020. Oh, the year. The year. year and stuck in the house my wife we're pregnant with our first child and i had got permission from christy bolingbroke who is the executive artistic director of the national choreography center at the University of Akron.
Speaker: to use their space because No one was at the university because we were all at home. But the building was still open sometimes. So I was just in there. Just... messing around, figuring out this world I was trying to create in my body.
Speaker: After spending years and years dancing for other people. And one of the things I came across was this feeling that being from Akron, one of the most economically downtrodden eras of Akron was in early 2000s when I was growing up. And so if you come to Akron, like we're always losing population. We're this really rust belt city. We're the little brother to Cleveland. Absolutely. But at the same time.
Speaker: As you're driving throughout the city and there's foreclosed homes everywhere and it feels like there's not economic viability here. When I started traveling around the country dancing, I started realizing. But my little city has more greenery everywhere.
Speaker: than most places I go to. So Akron is a part of the Emerald Necklace. that was created by the Rockefellers. Cuyahoga Valley National Park is... 25 minutes from my house, right? So there's this juxtaposition of... I'm in this city that's struggling economically and it's so urbanized, but also it's so naturally beautiful at the same time.
Speaker: Hmm. So kind of living inside that, I started to recognize that and decide how did that make me feel physically. and as i started to work on my own creative process i started to really find the space in the spectrum between like everyday pedestrian movement.
Speaker: and what I would call like full -bodied movement. And kind of the movement that I do is on that spectrum constantly. So in any given phrase.
Speaker: I'm moving in a way that you'd see someone move walking down the street to all of a sudden full body the way you would see a dancer all the way back to something pedestrian. And it goes in these unpredictable ways. And I use that as a way to tell stories. Wow. I love the fact that you're referencing this juxtaposition because it is really true about the Midwest, especially Ohio. We are really into this sort of dichotomy of urban and rural. And so you saw it as an entry point for creating work.
Speaker: Yeah, I think part of it was I was always thinking of what makes. Where I come from unique? What is my environment? What does that say about my work, right? in that time during 2020 because i had nothing else to do i was spending a lot of time studying a lot of different artists and i was on this tear of studying hip -hop artists from the 80s and the 90s and so much of their story is about being from the boroughs of new york city
Speaker: and what it meant to be in New York City, in the Bronx during the 80s and how, or 70s and 80s, how hip hop was birthed out of that. So I think it had me in that zeitgeist of thought, okay, I'm from Akron, Ohio. This is a big town, little city.
Speaker: What did that mean for me? I was just like, oh, this is what I know. And maybe it's not interesting to other people, but it's kind of interesting to me to think about that. Yeah. like i've I've always thought it was kind of beautiful, but also. I live in this place where it feels like everyone's always leaving. So how does that look physically? What is where's the beauty? Where's the sense of hopelessness? How are those things in conversation inside of the body at all times?
Speaker: Oh, I love that. I love that. And it's just, it's really interesting because you position hip hop in the sense of the 70s and 80s, because you're in Akron in the 2000s.
Speaker: This is the dawn of the digital age. This is where information and the ideas and realization that the barriers to seeing what's happening in New York and have access to it immediately. How's that playing it for you?
Speaker: It's interesting because growing up in the early 2000s, there was like this thing called the internet that we are suddenly into, right? was in sixth grade in 2001 9 11 happened that was a big pivotal moment in my growing up The first time I get a cell phone is in 2002. It's like a Motorola phone, right? Oh, yes. You know what I'm talking about? You know what I mean? You got the Motorola phone and you just, as I'm aging, by the time 2006 comes, I have Facebook.
Speaker: Right. Like so much happened in such a small part of my life, and an integral part of my life as a preteen to a teenager. and so it was like all of a sudden it was an explosion of knowing what was in the world and how to access those things all of a sudden we didn't have to buy cds anymore There's this thing called iTunes. You could buy stuff for 99 cents. And it was just like your access points, like at the time.
Speaker: We were on LimeWire and Napster. like burning illegal cds right to get even more music you never heard of otherwise right right right It was our version of the mixtape. You know what I'm saying? Right. I was going to Firestone High School at the time. And that dance department in that public high school, four -year department where it was about learning how to be a dance maker. which is really rare.
Speaker: So we didn't go taking class every day to learn how to be a better dancer. We were going through the intimate act of choreography day one, my freshman year when I was 14. but And by the time you left, you've choreographed. so many small movement exercises all the way to pieces for your spring concert, right? Right, right. So I think. being in that space at school but then out in the world like learning how to gather all this information digitally you just start to wonder
Speaker: Naturally, how can I make my own thing? I see people making stuff. How can I do that? The birth of the Southern hip hop movement happened right when I was in high school. So I was hearing different sounds and the way people were moving and talking. and So you just start to ask questions about yourself in a way. that I think it was just really unique to be a teenager during that time.
Speaker: I love it. It's so cool So. I love this description. Your work is described as family -centered, but not family -friendly in the traditional sense. Talk to us and as of the audience. What's the distinction? because I'm curious. I'm very curious about that.
Speaker: I went through this period in the last 12, 18 months where I'd be with colleagues or be with people. And because of some of the work that I've created in the last couple of years, I would get this like, your work's family friendly.
Speaker: It's like kids stuff. In. Great. I don't have a problem with kids stuff like that. Saying my work for kids stuff. isn't demeaning to me at all. But I was hearing it and something just wasn't sitting right with me when they said it.
Speaker: And so as I was thinking about it, I was like, no, it's not. family friendly because when i think of family friendly i think i i have a little kids i'm a five and a four -year -old right so it's like coco melon and bluey and like all these things right these things that like i'll take my kids to see because they love it right i was like but my work is intergenerational by nature because of who i'm targeting at all times I am generally always thinking about grandparents, hopefully sitting next to parents who are sitting next to kids.
Speaker: Now. When I say that, the kid in the scenario might be 25 years old. Kid doesn't always mean younger than 18, right? When I made In Cop Negro, this was a piece that was about asking the question, what does a Black community do?
Speaker: and how do they heal after police violence happens in their community And so the piece. The main relationship of the piece was between this black father and this black teenage son.
Speaker: and those two dancers and we had a saxophone player who played like the elder um statesman of the community and this hip -hop MC who played this Black police officer who was dealing with the question, am I Black, am I blue? And this was the community we created on stage.
Speaker: and so you have these four characters and because the real relationship this whole thing spun around was This male relationship between dad and son in the piece ended with. The dad having the talk with his son about police.
Speaker: I was like, oh, this is family centered. this whole thing is about family about how do you talk to your child about police. And that piece came from my own experience. My wife being pregnant in 2020, watching the world go crazy after George Floyd and being like, dang.
Speaker: I'm going to have to talk to my black son about police one day. So that project was my journey. figuring out over time what am i going to say to maverick when he's a teenager And I was like.
Speaker: it' It doesn't get more family than looking at that to me. So you move from that to like the remember balloons, which the source material is a children's book. And it's a children's book about this young man, this boy who has all these balloons. and in it the balloons are his memories.
Speaker: And so him and his grandfather spent a lot of time sharing stories and sharing their balloons together. Halfway through the book, you learn that grandpa is losing all his balloons. And you're watching this boy try to figure out how to capture his grandpa's balloons so he can save them. And eventually you learn that.
Speaker: Grandpa. forgets. the boy. And now this boy is trying to figure out what does it mean to love somebody and be loved by someone who doesn't even remember you. Again, super family -centered, but it's not Elmo.
Speaker: Right, because it just speaks to the question of family being the first community. Yes. community implies. multi -layers of conversation, investigation and interaction. Absolutely.
Speaker: That totally makes sense for being family -centered, not family -friendly. like Because I think when people... Say, oh, his works. family friendly and then they hear about incot negro and then they're shook they're like thrown off by the content, right? That's why I like to say family -centered, but I also think it's really important to note that.
Speaker: Family means something different to everybody. Some people... When they think of family, they think of these incredible experiences. Some people think of family and they don't think of that thing. And part of my work is to investigate all those nooks and crannies so that.
Speaker: when you think about Family -centered work. It makes every individual think about their own. family situation whether that they're even creating right now or they've come from about tender conversations they need to have or maybe they wish they would have had or they're getting ready to have because i think there's so much of our experience centers around our families.
Speaker: But that is actually the one place often the least amount of conversations actually happen. Because you're used to your family, right? You're used to the way it is. You're like, I have all the difficult conversations out in the world. But when I come back home to my mom or my uncles, I'm going to just keep it what it's been as opposed to be like, no. Grandma, we need to talk about Alzheimer's. Let's talk about this, right?
Speaker: So to me, it's it's that thing. Let's explore all, investigate all these conversations that. We just try to avoid because it's harder talking to the people close to you. than it is to people who are close to you. I love how he's just speaking truth. I'm like, wow. knows Dominic, that was the ultimate mic drop moment. So we're going to take a little pause right there. And then when we come back, we're going to continue. following your incredible and fascinating journey.
Speaker: We want to remind you that if you like what you're listening to and are not a member of Ohio Dance, you can go to ohiodance .org and click the membership button to join and receive the many benefits that come with your membership.
Speaker: You can also donate through our purple donate button.
Speaker: And we're back from break. Dominic. You talked about in Cop Negro Trilogy, the Remember Bloons, but there's also another piece, The Block. And they all tackle memory, culture and identity in different ways.
Speaker: What's the distinction for you between those three things?
Speaker: Yeah, so The Black's interesting. It's the newest of everything. And it's actually, it's an essay series. So the block is my weekly sub stack that comes out on Wednesday mornings at 9 30 AM. And if you want to find it, you can find it on my website. www .dommoredumb .com. Wow. And so writing has become a part of my creative practice. Like a lot of times when I'm creating choreography, not always, but sometimes, especially when it's a little bit more narrative driven than usual, I'll actually write.
Speaker: an entire script for it as it follows a playwright. So I'll write blocking, I'll write ideas, I'll write moments. And then I'll take that script and I'll take them to the studio. And then we'll start to create a process and we'll let the process go wherever it goes, but it's like a jumping off point.
Speaker: And as the piece is starting to develop itself, I'll go back and update the script. It just ah allows me to start working on something much earlier in the process. um Just when you get in studio, it's a lot easier with two kids, five and four to sit down and write on my computer than it is to leave all the time and go to studio. So this writing process I started, I really liked it.
Speaker: And when I had your traditional e -blast happening that a lot of artists have once a month, this is what I'm doing. Check it out. I'm in the i'm in the process of making. Yeah. And it's because I'm. have always been more interested in building a community around the work I'm trying to do. and not just having audience members. So I was like, what if I created a space?
Speaker: We called it the block and the block being like, I grew up. in the on the block and on the block back in the 90s early 2000s people sat on the front porch and you could just walk down the street and talk to people and what if this space felt like that what if it felt like when i was writing to you we were on the front porch on a summer evening just chopping it up talking about Art.
Speaker: at the intersection of life and society. And it gives me an opportunity to write about the way I see the world. So then when I do make the next piece of work, You understand why I would do that.
Speaker: because you've been Listening and watching and we've been in conversation via email about these different things in writing about like today I dropped one about Bad Bunny's halftime show and how the cultural specificity of that show made America go crazy in these two very different ways.
Speaker: I use that to tell the story of being at Jacob's Pillow. in the choreography program in 2019. And they gave me the assignment of you have to go into the archives and spend 10 hours watching one choreographer's work. you don't enjoy. And mine is Merce Cunningham. They're like, great.
Speaker: Go watch 10 hours of it. and i was like oh this is awful and the whole point was you can't talk about why you don't like it, why it's bad to you, whatever. The question is, Why do people resonate with this?
Speaker: What's going on here that makes people love this thing so much? Why is it a part of the modern dance canon? So you had to dissect something you don't necessarily enjoy Do you understand? why people appreciate it. And then you can go to the like, this is why this doesn't resonate with me necessarily, but not. This is why you don't like it. This is why it doesn't resonate with me
Speaker: So I was writing about that experience in the context of Bad Bunny and our society about like, we have people missing the skill of being able to analyze why something doesn't resonate with them. That's the idea of like things I'll write about. the block.
Speaker: It's about identity. I talk a lot about being a Black artist. It's about memory. I spend a lot of time talking about what the world has been and where we're going. And so you have that, so I can connect with people every week. And then again, you have In Cop Negro, which is a trilogy. I worked on the first one here at home.
Speaker: I worked on a second. Part of it, which is called My Brother's Keeper in Minnesota, actually in the fall. Okay. That part two of it was about.
Speaker: two black boys they were best friends and you got to see them at different points of their life you got to see them when they were 10 and you got to see them when they were 14 and you got to see them when they're 21 and when they're 35 and then when they're old men and there are these two boys who are best friends and you realize as time goes one becomes an activist, one becomes a police officer.
Speaker: And you watch how the relationship changes over time in this hour -long duet. So that's part two. And we're embarking on part three in the next year or two, which is going to be called A Mother's Diary. And it's going to be about.
Speaker: all of these things from the perspective of a black mother who loses her son. Wow. So it's this trilogy that we've created that will one day become one long piece. But inside that piece, it's memory. It's remembering what it was like being best friends with somebody before your views of the world changed your relationship to them.
Speaker: It's about. identity, obviously, like being black and what it means to be black and what it means to be in community when things are harmful and how we deal with that. internally inside of our community.
Speaker: And then The Other Memorablooms, which is based off this children's book, is about dealing with multi -generations and what does it mean? to share stories across generations. Right. Like in our version of the story, it's very important to us that
Speaker: The family is a predominantly black family. In our version of the story, because. Alzheimer's actually runs very rampant in the Black community. Mm hmm. It does, yeah. percent Percentage -wise, it's higher than any other community, but it's not talked about in our community. Like in the Black community, we say stuff like, well, you know Grandma Crazy. You know, that's why she calls you Nathan and John and Paul, but it's because she didn't have so many kids in her life. She just can't remember who you are. Right. We say all these other things.
Speaker: But not actually what it is. Yeah, not actually what it is. And in a lot of times our community, we also don't trust the health care system. We're not going to go find out neither. So it was important to us that we showed a predominantly black family going through this struggle of grandpa has Alzheimer's. How do we deal with this internally as a family?
Speaker: Again, it's the culture of being black. It's about memory. It's about identity. And it's always trying to figure out a way to talk about those three things in a way that the entire family.
Speaker: can talk about it at the various access points. Right. So when they're driving home that night, when they go home. The grandmother, grandfather can talk to the youngest child and they can talk about the experience of seeing that show. And hopefully.
Speaker: Their experience transcends the show and they just start having their own conversations as a family. That's always the hope. let's get people talking about whatever the subject matter is yeah and we'll go ahead We'll go at it from different tones. In Cop Negro, it's not sunny and rainbows with that one, right? It's hard from the get -go, but it's important. Whereas like the Remember Balloons, we have a good time during that show. It is fun. And then we get to the hard stuff.
Speaker: and But then we bring you back out of the hard stuff to try to land you in a place that makes you feel hopeful. And oh, I can go to have this conversation now. Yeah, it's just the multiplicity of layers of your approach. And just knowing that writing is underpinning it just makes sense. It just makes total sense. This is not about the spontaneity of the creative process. This is about...
Speaker: making sure that your work has the multiplicity of layers because you got to keep track of those things yeah that's part of it that's a part of it so yeah i love it and so You are the hardest working person clearly. Thrive leadership and team development brings movement into leadership spaces.
Speaker: where did you Where do you see the biggest disconnect between how organizations function and how humans actually move through the world? I need you to answer this question for me because this is probably going to resonate with me as I move through my life.
Speaker: How did that all happen? yeah Thrive is a consulting company for professional development that me and my wife started years ago. So my wife is a leadership coach herself, and she was doing that work as a consultant.
Speaker: and When I started being off on my own, I was saying like, hey, I have all this movement stuff that works for anybody. it's all improvisationally based it's all pedestrian level exercises and games I was like, if you ever want me to come into your workshops to help you, I can come. I can teach you how to do them. So you don't even need me. So we just started doing them.
Speaker: And we did one and we're like, oh, this is kind of working. We did two and it felt more successful. And we kept getting feedback like we've never seen our people engaged on this level before. And it was simply because people were going to their PD days, right? The PD days that.
Speaker: All your employees don't want to go to you, but they have to because you told them they have to. So some people are coming in there with an attitude. Some people are tired. It's all this stuff, right? But something changes the moment you tell people. You're going to be here for the next hour and you're never going to sit down.
Speaker: You're not going to write on a piece of paper. You're not going to do some weird worksheet? We're going to be up. We're going to be moving. or We're going to be talking. And we all know as dance people, as soon as you get your body moving, it connects to a different part of your brain. You start connecting dots differently.
Speaker: And you start to let go of some things to allow to be present and to take in new information. Because somebody will realize, you sink the two, you're open. You're moving for business. And a lot of what we focus on is leadership, obviously, but the big thing for us in leadership is communication. Because we believe communication is the breakdown of any organization when it comes to leadership stuff. like nine times out of ten if you start asking folks like what's the problem here it's going to lead itself to communication.
Speaker: and people's expert expectations versus the realities. And we try to talk about all these different models that we have, but we try to do it physically in the space. So you're walking around, you're doing.
Speaker: basic movement patterns like getting people in a large space having everybody walk around in indirect ways right choreography class like direct versus indirect pathways so we got people working in indirect pathways and you get them to freeze and then you say hey Next time you freeze, close your eyes and they close your eyes and you ask them a question.
Speaker: Think about the person that's closest to you. What are the color of their eyes? and then they have to guess and they're like oh snap i'm not paying attention So all of a sudden you're walking around and now everyone's like staring at each other's eyes really intensely.
Speaker: and you get them to stop again you tell them to close their eyes and you're like okay the person closest to you What's the color of their shoes? And all of a sudden, like... you start talking about what it means to notice things. Because as artists, as dance makers, noticing is a lot of the process.
Speaker: Right. Your ability to notice what's happening in the space, to be able to mold what's happening in the space. So a lot of it is we're just taking basic things that dance makers do, dancers do every single day and putting it into a corporate space and saying, hey. Noticing is important.
Speaker: Communicating is important. We're going to talk about communicating in a nonverbal way and let you connect the dots to what it means. to do that when you're actually talking to each other. Right. Again, these are basic stuff we all know. Anyone who's listening to this podcast knows the mirror game.
Speaker: Right. We're doing that stuff with people who've never done it a day in their life. And it's revolutionary. Yes. Right. Yes. And so We just realized that. People want to be moving their body, whether they realize it or not. And they want a different way to look at the world inside of their context at work to help them better reach their goals.
Speaker: And so me and my wife, yeah, we just we do it when people call and when people want to move their bodies and have a PD day. And it's just another way to use my practice. in a way that really helps people. and In the last time, I keep the same stuff. the memory, the identity, culture.
Speaker: all those things all those things stay intact and we end up having really deep what we would call artful conversations in the studio. in the middle of a Fortune 500 company. Because those are human conversations. Yes. And a lot of times the corporate entity doesn't allow for the humanity to seep in. Right. So you're doing great work with that. You and your wife. That's same i do it's pretty cool. I love it. Thank you. So you've been named. The Lloyd Richards New Futures Fellow.
Speaker: And a Dance Magazine 25 to watch. which brings visibility. And we know how that is. What responsibility do you feel as an artist whose work is increasingly seen on national platforms? You are...
Speaker: You're doing it you don't say it. What does that mean to you? It's funny. I think when it first happened. I put a lot of pressure on myself to be something. Right. And I think some of it comes from In the Black community, we talk about like the Black tax.
Speaker: like being the one who made it and feeling like you have to put everybody on your back, right? And I think that feeling has been so strong in my life in general that I started to take that feeling and. make that same tax as a dance maker from Akron, Ohio.
Speaker: so it felt okay i've done this thing now i'm representing this entire city this entire region Now I have to really pay attention and I noticed it started to change my natural choices in the studio because I was worried about something I shouldn't have been worried about. They started changing my thoughts around what projects I should and shouldn't be doing. It was about like a good six months right after the 25 to watch.
Speaker: that like i was struggling in a lot of ways and when i talked to my wife and I got kind of over that hump and I realized, oh, my responsibility. is the be the same Dominic I was before there was visibility.
Speaker: That's my responsibility. It's to. care about my community the same way. It's to make the same kind of projects that resonate across families. And it's just taking the thing I've been doing. and now just doing it on a different platform.
Speaker: So there's more visibility. cool and it's awesome and it gives me more resources to do things. but My job isn't to suddenly change up because they're more. disability it's stay true have integrity the essence yeah the principles that the principles that guide you Yes, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of that is like from like the actual work to also like I'm a big believer in the culture of a dance studio is huge to me. I probably spend as much time.
Speaker: strategizing how to build the culture of the studio as I do on the work itself. I'm talking, we come into the room and before we do anything else, we have agreements and values. on that we on the board and we read them every single day before rehearsal And we talk about why they're important.
Speaker: and then the way we warm up i'm literally strategizing how we're building the work to give the dancers a type of experience that makes them feel like life has been given to them and not taken from them. And so to me, like that's another the one of the responsibilities. is It's like, how are you treating people? How are you creating a space where they can be their most creative and feel their safest at all times? Because I'm often asking people to do really risky things emotionally because of the content of the work.
Speaker: So I have to provide a space that really takes care of people.
Speaker: So I really focus on that. And I really focus on the kind of those guiding principles have gotten me to this point. And saying, okay, these are my principles. Now I just have more access to resources that give me more visibility. But as long as I can stay strong in them. And yeah, some things will evolve over time, but like. Kind of the grounding of why I do this thing called dance has to stay the same. Because otherwise, then all of a sudden you start mission drifting. You start getting lost in the sauce. And now all of a sudden. You're so far removed from the original and principle and intentionality of who you are. Yeah. and then And you just go, oh, what is this? And you see it happening. Our situation in dance is different than like musicians who like make it big and become big pop stars.
Speaker: But you see it happen, right? You see the difference between like when someone just starts out and you become a fan of theirs and then they get really big and they have pressures that they never had before. And you watch that mission drift change, right? And it's like, and those are tales of warning. that we can take to be like, hey, when you start getting visibility. Your job isn't to try to change everything to fit some kind of mold that you think dance wants from you.
Speaker: just keep doing what you're doing and let the resources give you a bigger platform to do that yes This is why we're having this conversation, which is so important and necessary. You are such an inspiration.
Speaker: Appreciate it. You've inspired me. This has been. what i needed today And my last question is for everyone else out there. What do you hope people will carry with them after experiencing your work?
Speaker: Because you never know, but what do you hope they're going to carry away? I think the phrase my work is interesting in my context because my work is the weekly essays on the block. My work is the dances that I make. My work is the way I set up the studio. My work is in corporate spaces. And every every single one is a little bit different, really.
Speaker: But I think at the core of it, It's... I'm... Hoping that people would be able to open themselves up. take in the information, take in the experience and walk away and ask the hard questions that they didn't even know they should be asking of themselves.
Speaker: And I think that's really important to me because I think. In our context today, change doesn't happen because someone's on a small screen yelling at you that you should think differently about the world.
Speaker: Change happens. When you experience something and you get that really quiet voice that goes. I never thought about that. I wonder if I should. Blink blink. And I always want, I wonder if I should blink blink to creep up in someone's mind when they go to sleep at night.
Speaker: I wonder if I should talk to my mom. I wonder if I should think about having that conversation. I wonder if I should go into work tomorrow and ask my leader if we could have a 15 minute sit down and talk about communication. I'm wondering if.
Speaker: I should spend more time. analyzing why things don't resonate with me. as opposed to just having knee -jerk reactions. And I know that my hope... is that people...
Speaker: used. my work as and as a catalyst for themselves. to grow themselves in a way that they want to grow. And there were ways that challenged them to grow differently and be a person tomorrow that they are today. And I think that's, yeah, it's really important to me. And I think that my other hope with my work, there's the actual work, but then there's also seeing me do the work is that.
Speaker: It inspires, to your point, it inspires people, especially from the state of Ohio, right? People don't necessarily see us as the dance hub of America, right? But we are. We're the Ohio state of dance. Just saying. Throwing it down. ah To realize that you can do all this work.
Speaker: and be here. Like. If you want to go to New York City. Awesome. LA. Awesome. Elena. Cool. But the... Reality is you don't have to. In order to figure it out
Speaker: I'm from one of the smaller cities in um much the like the big five, right? We're under 200 ,000. you know, figured out a way to gain visibility. I've built relationship. I've learned how to raise tons of money for my work and it's possible. to do it right here in our beautiful state of Ohio. And so I hope people are inspired to be like, man, Yakima, New York City, but look at him doing this right here. He also owns a home. He also has a family, right? There's these things that he has acquired through his life that he's wanted and he's been able to. support that through this thing that he loves called dance which is thing i love too
Speaker: I love it. So Dominique, that's the best description. of what it means to just be Awesome, amazing, talented. not just driven but results producing results and so kudos to you thank you thank you so much thanks for being on the podcast yeah thanks for having me
Speaker: A State of Dance is produced by Ohio Dance. and hosted by Rodney Veal. Executive Producer, Jane D 'Angelo. Editor and audio technician, Jessica Cavender. Musical composition by Matthew Payton Dixon. Ohio Dance would like to thank our funders. the Ohio Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ohio State University Dance Preservation Fund, the Greater Columbus Arts Council, the Columbus Foundation, and the Akron Community Fund.
