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The Unstoppable Force that is Damien Highfield
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Season One, Episode Six: This month’s guest is Damien Highfield. Damien began dancing at the age of four in his hometown of Columbus, where he trained at Balletmet for ten years, then became a member of Balletmet/Jazzmet. He then went to Butler University in Indianapolis. From there Damien performed for Atlanta Ballet, Ohio Ballet and GroundWorks DanceTheater. Damien has performed as a guest artist with Indianapolis Opera, Columbus Opera, Alexandra Ballet, Fort Wayne Ballet and the Academy of Ballet Arts. Damien has danced the title role in Hamlet, Dracula, Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia, Cinderella, and the pas de deux in Alonzo King’s Heaven and Earth. He has been a featured choreographer for many professional and pre-professional companies. Damien created a full-length ballet, The Toymaker, for the Roots of Choreography project. Damien returns for his 16th season with Ballet Theatre of Ohio. He originated the role of Mars in BTO’s Beyond the Stars, performed with BTO during the Heinz Poll Summer Dance Festivals, has danced in principal roles in The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia, and Wizard of Oz for BTO. Mr. Highfield is set to retire from dance this season and will focus his attention on the management of Stage Center, a dance apparel store located in Akron. Mr. Highfield, who is married with three daughters, choreographs, and teaches throughout Ohio.
OhioDance A State of Dance is a six-part series coming out the fourth Friday of each month through November 2023.
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 2023 we have highlighted 33 individuals and institutions. The team has traveled over 5000 miles and interviewed 100 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 the State of Dance Podcast
00:00:07
Speaker
Welcome to a State of Dance, sponsored by Ohio Dance and hosted by independent choreographer and interdisciplinary artist Rodney Veal.
00:00:22
Speaker
Hi, my name is Rodney Veal, and I'm the host of State of Dance Podcasts for Ohio Dance. I'm president of the Board of Ohio Dance, also dancer, choreographer, and multidisciplinary artist.
Damian Highfield's Dance Journey
00:00:34
Speaker
And I am here today having a conversation with Damian Highfield, who is a dancer, choreographer, store owner, father, and vice president of Ohio Dance. We get the great, great, great joy of working together.
00:00:46
Speaker
Um, to further the cause of dance in the state of Ohio. And we're going to have a conversation about all things dance in the state of Iowa and Damien's life. So Damien, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for having me here today, Rodney. And so Damien, I learned something that you started dancing at four years old and that you were diagnosed with ADHD and your parents put you in as many activities and dance as they could. So can you talk about how all that, those different activities and dance kind of helped shape and form who you were like that beginning.
00:01:15
Speaker
So does fate. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Um, it was really hard for me to focus as a child and, um, my parents weren't sure what to do with me and it wasn't based on bad behavior. It was just, I was all over the place. So they put me in this little dance class, uh, started with disco and I was at the JCC in Columbus. And I remember dancing on the table and the teacher came in and she said, what are you guys doing? And.
00:01:41
Speaker
I was just like, oh, we're dancing. You want us to dance, right? So, and yeah, I loved that kind of like focus and that everything just kind of cleared up for me. And the next thing you know, they're putting me in ballet, jazz, tap, modern, you know, character Slavic ballroom dancing.
00:02:01
Speaker
So, and it just really hit, but I mean, it's not for lack of trying other things as well. They put me in drama. I played the violin for eight years. I was in show choir. I was in the boys' choir for, in Columbus, Ohio as well. And just lots of different things, but also every sport you could imagine, baseball, tennis, soccer. And after I graduated from high school, I had to figure out
00:02:28
Speaker
Is it going to be soccer or is it going to be dance? And, um, I danced with, uh, ballet met, jazz met there for a whole year after I graduated. That is absolutely amazing. So like, I love the fact that all of these other things, sports and, you know, drama, I know that you, you talked about, you even played the violin. So why do you think dance kind of stuck with you?
00:02:46
Speaker
Well, actually my mother, little did I know that my mom was a costume kind of like person. She was like making costumes here and there. She was very creative in that way. And she took me backstage to one of the nutcrackers at Ballet Met and I got to see all the magic that was backstage. And I was hooked. Ever since I was there and I saw what she did and I saw the professional dancers, I saw the costumes, the lights and the music.
00:03:40
Speaker
I didn't want to be anywhere
00:03:46
Speaker
is actually being in a part of a professional dance company. So what was the first company? Was Atlanta Ballet the
Professional Career Beginnings at Ballet Met
00:03:52
Speaker
first? Believe it or not, I really feel like Ballet Met was home base for me when I first started. And I feel like I started dancing professionally at 15. Just because the experiences and the opportunities that they had there, the company was there. The school was there. We were all there together. And they just took us and they threw us in all the ballets.
00:04:13
Speaker
And then the next thing you know, I mean, you're performing every other weekend. You're performing all throughout the year. You're doing, you know, recitals, you're doing side performances. You're at a school doing outreach. There was just so many opportunities. And so, like I said,
00:04:31
Speaker
there was like a side jazz met to ballet met. And I was doing that. So I was doing all the jazz and all the ballroom. And then I was doing all the ballet. And then I had to figure out what was next in my life. And I had a nice conversation with John McFall there. And I said, well, maybe college is a way I should go. And so I ended up going to Butler University. And
00:04:55
Speaker
And so I was there for about four and a half, five years. It's supposed to be four, but, you know, changing that major a couple of times, trying to figure out what the best route to do. I actually danced with Atlanta Ballet while I was at university.
00:05:09
Speaker
And I also danced with Fort Wayne Ballet. And that was all before I even went down to Atlanta Ballet. I'm telling you, the opportunities were there. And another side note is I was doing operas. So I had worked with the Columbus Opera and with the Indianapolis Opera. And then when I moved up here to Ohio again, the Cleveland Opera. So every opportunity that I saw, I just kind of grasped and took a hold of.
00:05:38
Speaker
The fact that you were performing while you were in college at Butler, which is pretty, Butler's a really amazing program. I did not know this. I did not know that Ballymed had a jazz mat. Explain that. Because I did not know that, so I'm sure a lot of our listeners didn't know this either. So jazz mat. It was a quiet little thing.
00:06:00
Speaker
a bunch of us Stella Hyatt Kane that now is at Otterbein University and she runs their theater and dance department. She was there teaching classes and we were at the second location of Ballet Met on Jefferson and I just remembered one of those things my parents told me, go take jazz class.
00:06:18
Speaker
I'm in there with all these adults and these adults are just performing for each other. You know, it's just, it's hot, it's sweaty. Everybody's loving this. And the next thing you know, we're doing little performances. And it was never truly affiliated with Ballet Met, but it was a subdivision
00:06:37
Speaker
It was its own entity. And after I had graduated from high school, John McFall kind of took it over. So when he took it over, Stella kind of stepped away. And so he tried to run it and he tried to run ballet and what met as well. And lo and behold, no more jazz met, you know. So that's kind of how it works.
00:07:00
Speaker
I love that. OK, so that's wow. I mean, that's a little bit of a ballet history, dance history for Columbus. So you're at Butler. You're doing all this thing. You're performing in operas. You're dancing at the companies for Fort Wayne. I mean, that's I mean, you were kind of like you were you you just kind of were full throttle. So how did that pathway take you to Atlanta? Was Atlanta the first stop? I mean, I'm I'm drawing a map with my hands of like, oh, we go from Butler to Atlanta.
00:07:29
Speaker
So talk about getting to Atlanta. You performed with them already, but now you're there. So John McFaul was leaving Ballet Met, and so he had gone down to Atlanta. So he had to reestablish a home base of dancers that knew his Nutcracker. So of course I got that phone call.
00:07:47
Speaker
And I went down for a nutcracker and I performed down there. And it was during the Olympics and I came back to Butler and I finished up there. And when I was graduating from Butler, I gave John a call and I said, Hey John, so I want to go out and audition. And I want to go out and find a job. I said, you can either give me a job or I'm going to go out and audition. And I guess I was bold and brash enough that he was said, all right, well, let's try and see what happens.
00:08:15
Speaker
So the next thing I know is I'm packing up everything from university and heading down to Atlanta Ballet. Wow, pretty brash. Not a lot of dancers would have that sort of gumption to kind of say, hire me or not hire me, make a decision. So you're down in Atlanta, and John McCall's there, and you're dancing in Atlanta. Was there a different appreciation for ballet in Atlanta versus Ohio? Because Ohio is pretty rich with the dance, but I just got to curious about other states. Like, what was Atlanta
Dance Cultures: Atlanta vs Ohio
00:08:43
Speaker
like? Oh, it was hot.
00:08:44
Speaker
I mean, that's why they call it hot lanta. I mean, they appreciate the arts down there. And I mean, it's, they have a way of being slow, doing it a little bit slower, having that Southern draw, you know, to get things done, but that does not account for the 16 lanes of bumper to bumper traffic to get into work.
00:09:08
Speaker
You know, so it's still a high paced kind of city. It's an enormous city, so it's diverse everywhere. Every walk of culture that you could imagine was down there.
00:09:21
Speaker
And I mean, I was introduced to so many different Southern dishes and foods. And that's what I remember being down there. And but also just the experience of working with the amazing people that John McFall was bringing in the choreographers.
00:09:39
Speaker
and the dancers. And I mean, I got to share the stage with Easton Stifle. I mean, imagine that and just watching him rehearse in the studio and working with like choreographers like Val Cannaparoli. But I mean, I was also like very fortunate because even at Butler, you know, they brought in Donald Byrd. You know, I'm just going to say that I was very fortunate to just have just a string of great choreographers, artistic directors, and just a lot of vision.
00:10:06
Speaker
That's amazing. Timing's everything. It was like the time of Damien in many ways. Absolutely. So you're in Atlanta and you come back up north. How does that translate to going to Ohio Ballet in Akron? So here's another connection. Cleveland Ballet used to work with Atlanta Ballet.
00:10:24
Speaker
And there was a merger there for a little bit and Bobby Barnett, who was the artistic director before John McFall down there, Atlanta, he had worked with Dennis Naha up here in Cleveland. And so there was that slight connection. And when I was auditioning around to find other avenues, Jeffrey Graham Hughes had just got back from overseas doing an artistic directorship over there.
00:10:46
Speaker
And he got to position for Ohio Ballet. And he saw me down there in an audition. He goes, you're amazing. I really like the way you move. How would you feel about coming up to Akron, Ohio and working with my prima ballerina social? And I said, well, that sounds nice. And I thought about it. And I thought, well, going home, you know, might be a good plan and kind of figure out what I want to do next with my life. And
00:11:11
Speaker
I don't know where Akron is at, but I packed everything up and moved back up to Ohio. Oh my God. Yeah. So you're in Akron and you're doing Ohio Ballet. And how many years was Ohio Ballet? So I moved back up to Ohio in 99, 2000. And that was my first year and it was kind of a duo kind of working relationship with Jeffrey and Heinz Pole.
00:11:34
Speaker
And so I got a good year of Heinz and I got a transition for Jeffrey. And that was in 99, 2000. And then Ohio Ballet closed its doors the summer of 2006. So throughout that transitional period, we had merged and done a couple projects with Dayton. And we also had done a merger with Toronto, Bank Jordan Ballet. So we had done a couple mergers. Dayton was first, Toronto was second.
00:12:01
Speaker
Okay. So you were there for the close of Ohio Ballet. I mean, it's like a lot of people don't realize this precarious nature of funding for the arts. I'm sure that was a bittersweet experience. It was. You talk very fondly of the work that you did with Heinz and Jeffrey. And so I know that you loved your time there. So what was special about Ohio
Ohio Ballet Experiences and Reflections
00:12:20
Speaker
Ballet? The first year was a little hard because, you know, with any new transition of an artistic director and staff,
00:12:27
Speaker
There has to be good communication and it was hard to find that within the first couple of years. So the first year was a major transition. I mean, I remember came to Ohio Ballet. We did 18 outdoor summer performances, 18. And it wasn't just in Ohio. We were in Indiana. We were in Michigan. We were in New York.
00:12:50
Speaker
I remember we went to Brooklyn College, everybody was riding the subways and some of the dancers bumped into Donald Byrd on the street.
00:12:58
Speaker
We went to South Dakota and we did a tour there for four weeks. We came back. I just remember performing. I remember Alonzo King came in. I remember Cynthia Gregory came in. Donald Byrd came back in again. Just the amount of people that I got to work with. Anne-Marie Savoie came in and she set a piece on me and a young lady
00:13:22
Speaker
called Ghost Town and we took that to the transition for dancers and we performed in New York. I remember Freddie Franklin that used to dance with Diaghilev's Ballet Roos came out and introduced me and that honestly sent shivers up and down my spine and to perform and have him introduce me. These were the times of Ohio Ballet, just the opportunities. I mean, Ohio Ballet didn't do a nutcracker.
00:13:48
Speaker
So for us male dancers, we got to go out into the community. We got to perform with all the small schools that were around. So at that time I was in Warren, I was in Youngstown, Toledo, Findlay, Cambridge, Sainsville. And on top of that, I was still teaching. I was still dancing. I paid for our entire wedding. I remember that first year working three jobs starting at 4 a.m. and not getting done until midnight. So talk about funding.
00:14:16
Speaker
That's the stuff that you have to find, you know, especially for a wedding. I mean, that's a big deal, but it was working project to project and never allowing yourself to have any like layoff time. And I didn't even know what unemployment truly was because I never allowed myself not to be working and now working for, you know, Ohio dance and working in that kind of field of finding money and development. I know how hard it is.
00:14:45
Speaker
And it's really, truly about keeping those connections alive within the community and engaging with our audience. That's what I love about working with you at Ohio Dance. And so we're going to take a little bit of a break, but as we come back from the break, we're going to kind of deep dive into the transition from Ohio Ballet to Groundworks and what's going on with your life right now.
00:15:15
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 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.
00:15:40
Speaker
Okay, we are back. And after the Ohio Ballet, you then ventured into Groundworks Dance Theater in Cleveland, which you danced until retirement in 2018.
Continuing Career at Groundworks
00:15:51
Speaker
You had a partner who was notorious, Felice Bagley. I celebrated partnership with Collaboration KI Model Groundworks. But how, what led you to Groundworks? What did you think Groundworks was the next step in the evolution of your dance career?
00:16:05
Speaker
So while I was there and I joined Ohio Ballet, like I said, I had worked several jobs and I had already started freelancing with David my first year when I came. He saw me taking class and Amy Miller, Amy Hayes, she was there and he said, would you like to do a duet with Amy? And so like I said, I would work at 4 a.m. flipping bagels.
00:16:29
Speaker
Then I'd go take ballet class and then I'd work for Ohio Ballet until about nine o'clock at night and then from nine o'clock until about 1130. David Shimotaka Hara is the one that runs Groundworks. He's the one that he came in and he saw me and he was like, all right, well, the next thing I know I'm starting to do side projects. So I'm working with him since 99, 2000 and right at about
00:16:56
Speaker
2004, you know, I'm doing a side project with them. I have a little time off from Ohio Ballet. And we had worked with this great choreographer, Jacques Heim. He runs Diavolo, and that's out in LA. And he brought a piece called Capture to Ohio Ballet. He said, you did that so well, how would you like to go to Japan for two and a half months and perform? And I said, well, that sounds wonderful.
00:17:20
Speaker
But I'm working with David. So I had to call Shimo and I said, I'm so please don't hate me. I really have to. This is a once in a lifetime gig. And he he gave me the disapproving scowl on the phone, you know, and he said, but I understand. So I went and did that. And then the whole time that I knew that Ohio Ballet was starting to slow down, we had less weeks, we had less dancers. You know, I knew it was inevitable and I had to make a decision. Do I stay in?
00:17:50
Speaker
accurate? Or do I move away and try to find another company? So from 06 to 07, I had freelanced with David and did almost every single one of his projects.
00:18:01
Speaker
but I also freelanced with verb ballets as well. And Hernando Cortez was there at the time. Maggie Carlson has taken over now. And so I freelanced with them, but I realized David had the most to offer and he gave his dancers 52 weeks of work with two weeks off
00:18:21
Speaker
paid vacation. And I said to myself, how can I beat this? Well, when we sat down to negotiate my contract, I said, well, what you're asking me to do is a lot. We're going to do outreach in the morning. I'm going to be dancing with you all day long. We'll be doing lots of performances, but the pay is still very minimal for the 52 weeks. Is there any way that you would allow me to continue doing my nutcrackers? And
00:18:42
Speaker
And we negotiated that into the contract and he said, yes, we had a very healthy working relationship where we had conversations and we continued. So David at the Groundworks Damien, he was really open to this negotiation process because nutcrackers are lucrative for male dancers, ballet dancers. That was about a third of my salary, you know, truly as a dancer at that time. And it wasn't just the nutcrackers.
00:19:11
Speaker
you know midwinter performances or you know doing the cleveland opera it was finding extra work and as long as it didn't interfere with anything i was doing with groundwork's dance theater david would allow it but i had to be very cautious of any injuries i might incur so that was the big conversation always
00:19:33
Speaker
Always, always. Because you love to work, evidently. I mean, I'm just in awe of someone who gets up at four in the morning to make bagels and then go dance and then go dance some more. I mean, that's pretty impressive, Damien. I was a paper boy when I was a kid, too.
00:19:48
Speaker
Okay, so this is just in your DNA. You know, people want to be around hard workers. And I talked about it earlier about your partnership with Felice Bagley. And this is how she describes you. We have a language and a way of communicating that needs no words. He is one of the best partners I've ever danced with. Generous, kind human being.
00:20:06
Speaker
and he's patient. Wow. That's high praise. What was that partnership with Felice Lake? I mean, the fact that you've done all these things, you've got a Japan, Diablo, you're working hard. I mean, you never turned on a job, you're worse than me. What is it? What is it about that partnership? We always have the one special partnership, but this one seems really special. So when I was at Ohio Ballet,
00:20:29
Speaker
uh fleece was there my first year but she didn't come back the second year and that's when she would she went with david shimo to groundworks but she always intimidated me i was always deathly afraid of her because she was so professional she was there before everybody she warmed up she did her class she did her job and then she stayed and she
00:20:52
Speaker
cooled down and I respected that so much and like she had this ethic about her just her care of her body, her mentality, everything and it was just to be around that and to be around that level of intelligence and commitment to her art form was just beyond anything that I had seen before. I mean I had
00:21:15
Speaker
dance with a lot of amazing people. And I mean, you never know. Like I said, you get a call and you go down to Florida, South Beach, and you're sharing the stage with Carlos Acosta. But those people don't even compare to Felice and her ethics and just her focus. It was just you would get on the stage with her or even in the studios and you would work and then you would see her just politely leave on her break, eat her sacred jelly sandwich, and then come right back to work.
00:21:43
Speaker
and it would she was present she was available and she did everything that was asked of her and when we dance together exactly what she said it was a form of communication that we never had to have with each other now granted she did take liberties with her musicality that was the patience
00:22:00
Speaker
I had to figure out how to get us back on the music if she wanted to elongate something or if she wasn't like right there and we zipped through it a little bit too quickly. So David Shimo, he rehearsed us. It was about the process. We were there. We were present and we did it over and over again to that perfection that you knew one beat and you were going to be late.
00:22:26
Speaker
But as a device fix volumes about the partnership though, I mean that unspoken in order to not speak, you have to be able to connect. So that connection, was it palpable from the first moment?
Partnership with Felice Bagley
00:22:37
Speaker
Or did you not know that or were you afraid of her still? What's really funny is she confided in me many things. We had great conversations.
00:22:45
Speaker
But she said that she respected me from like when I joined Ohio Ballet because we were doing a Laura Dean piece. It's called Earth and I was doing a movement and my partner at the time, she was counting under her breath as we were doing the steps and I said, I got it. I got it and she kept counting and my blood pressure just kept rising.
00:23:09
Speaker
And I did something I've never done in my entire career. I had her above my head. I put her down and I said, one, two, one, two, up yours. But not that polite. And I said it right in front of her, right in front of the artistic director and in front of the entire group. And everything went dead silent. And I'm telling you, Felice looked at me and she goes, no one has ever stood up to this girl ever.
00:23:35
Speaker
And you gained so much respect on that one day from the entire staff. Wow. Me and that young lady, we went to Jeffrey's office. We had to have a conversation about Damien's outburst and we had to figure out if we were going to continue together. And we did, but Felice, she told me I had a respect for you after that day.
00:23:56
Speaker
Wow. See that mutual respect though goes a long way and it just creates magic. And that's kind of what I gathered. It was like you guys had many magical moments on stage together. Was there one performance with Felice that really stands out to you?
00:24:11
Speaker
I mean, truly our last performance that we had done with David, it was just our farewell performance and it was just, it couldn't be more special. We were just together. We were there and present the entire time. It was just, David Shimo really gave us so many opportunities and we traveled a lot and we got to work with amazing choreographers. We really did. And I remember performing in New York. I remember performing in Boston.
00:24:38
Speaker
I remember going to St. Louis and it's just every opportunity that he gave us was just, it just built the company and me and Felice stuck it out. And that's what it was. It was that partnership. And she looked at me and she said, you will not retire until I retire. And she made me promise her. And I mean, when you do dance, you get injuries. And I did incur
00:25:01
Speaker
you know, broken foot, you know, some meniscus tear and my left knee, but I stuck it out for her and she stuck it out for me. Wow. That is, that's special. Did you have a thought because clearly you're a workaholic. What was your thought process once you knew that you both were retiring? What was your game plan for the next step
Transition to Retail Dance Business
00:25:20
Speaker
in your life? Well, it's funny because like I said, I had done the transition for dancers in New York, so I didn't see it as retirement. I saw it as a transition.
00:25:28
Speaker
Ah, better language. I like that. So I was trying to figure out what was next and also throughout all that time period, you know, I had taken so many jobs. I had so many opportunities to work with people. I figured what's next.
00:25:43
Speaker
And so I continued taking small side jobs here and there to continue keeping myself in shape. As I was retiring, I live in Akron, there was a retail store for dance. And every time I would walk in, the old owners would say, Damien, are you ready to purchase our store? And I said, no, no, Debbie and Ken, I'm not ready. And that went on for about four years. And then when Felice and I retired, I said, okay, I'm ready to buy the store.
00:26:12
Speaker
So at that time I found a business partner. Toby George is his name and he's an alumnus from Canton Ballet. And he danced with Roya Winnipeg and that other company, Bank Jorgen that I mentioned before in Toronto. And he had retired 12 years previous to me and he went into medical coding and billing. His job was being filtered out
00:26:37
Speaker
And through his filter, it was timing exactly. Like you said, we got together, we bought the store together and we had about a good six months, seven, eight months before COVID hit. And we had to figure out very quickly what we were going to do. You know, I mean, we were already nervous about a brick and mortar with Amazon and with all these online sales. What do we do next? So as soon as COVID hit, we got our online store going.
00:27:03
Speaker
We took out a second business loan and we got a little hungry and we bought three other locations. And we decided we'll keep one other location open and we'll liquidate the other two into the other two locations. And I would ask Toby, is it okay if I still perform? He said, sure, why not?
00:27:21
Speaker
And throughout all of this, here I am, you know, my first opportunity to choreograph was with Ohio Ballet. I did something called the Toy Maker and I got to work with the Dance Institute children and I set a piece there.
00:27:37
Speaker
And then here I am going to Columbus and working. I'm working for a small company here in town. And, you know, I'm just setting small pieces here and there doing some choreography.
Choreography and Ongoing Dance Contributions
00:27:49
Speaker
Well, maybe I'll be a choreographer. If I have small gigs like this, have a store, and everything works out, I'll just continue doing what I'm doing. Wow. I mean, are you still choreographing now? I still, yes, I do. I try to hang up the dance belt every other day.
00:28:07
Speaker
I'd go through a series where I buy a bunch and I throw them away and say I'm not doing this again and then I go and buy more. That's the beauty of having a retail store.
00:28:17
Speaker
But one of the guys here in town got appendicitis at nutcracker time and there was nobody else to do the nutcracker and I had a week to get in the shape. Rodney, that was the hardest week of my life because I was ready to be done. And then I got back into it and I did the nutcracker and then I did the spring performance after that. And you know, as long as there's work available and I am needed, I will teach, I will choreograph and I will dance.
00:28:45
Speaker
You just can't stop, can you? You truly are worse than me. That's why we get along so well. So you're at this moment. It's like this inflection. Looking back, it all led to this in many ways. There's nothing on the journey that did not lead to this. There was nothing extraneous. So what would you say to someone who's thinking about, because I love how you said, not a retirement, but a transition.
Advice on Career Transitioning
00:29:10
Speaker
What would you say to them about transition? What was a key lesson you learned from this transition?
00:29:15
Speaker
it's never easy you always have the mentality of being young you always think that you're 18 and that you can always do it but you can't and when you finally come to that realization that your body will no longer allow you to do that you have
00:29:31
Speaker
have that awakening. That's when you know. Sometimes it takes longer. Sometimes it's very quick. Sometimes it's an injury that just takes you out. Sometimes it's, you know, an injury that's slow going. Sometimes it's just old age. You know, I was always impressed by the European dancers that would be dancing into their 50s and 60s. And I kept saying to myself, I can do that too. I said something once to somebody and they said, I want to do this project. I want to do this project.
00:30:01
Speaker
And I said, well, what is your plan? They said, well, I've got lots of plans. And I said, well, guess what? If you're not doing it, it's not getting done. So that was always my mentality is you have to be in it. You have to be doing it. And that's how you keep it alive.
00:30:17
Speaker
Wow. Yep. And you do live that philosophy. You really do. That's what makes you so amazing. Damien, thank you so much for sharing some really great stories about your journey, this transition into this different kind of workplace as a store owner, but still staying alive within the realm of dance. And this has been great. So thank you so much.
00:30:39
Speaker
Oh, I love it. And I'll tell you what, buying the retail store actually I think was one of the best decisions because as a dancer, you have to go everywhere to find the work. Now everybody comes to me and I get to see them and I get to work with Cleveland Ballet. I get to work with Verb.
00:30:56
Speaker
I get to work with David Shimo at Groundworks. I get to work with North Point Ballet, Canton Ballet. I still get to work with them. And the teacher comes out inside of me. The dancer comes out inside of me. But because I've lived all those lives, I always have to just humble myself to remember where they're at and their journey that they're taking. And I'm helping them with that. Well spoken. Thank you, Damian. This has been fantastic. It's my pleasure.
00:31:29
Speaker
A State of Dance is produced by Ohio Dance and hosted by Rodney Veal, executive producer Jane DiAngelo, editor and audio technician Jessica Cavender, musical composition by Matthew Peyton 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.