"Trust that you have the ability to move in a way that is totally unique for you"
Cindy has been a proud member of Kidd Pivot since 2009.
She danced for Aszure Barton & Artists most memorably on tour with Mikhail Baryshnikov, assisted Andy Blankenbuehler in preproduction for Hamilton and other Broadway shows, and assisted and performed for Mia Michaels.
She is on faculty with New York City Dance Alliance and was Assistant Rehearsal Director for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. Cindy was a cofounder and teacher for Artists Striving To End Poverty. She co-started a multimedia dance theatre company called Shook Ones in 2014.
-You have a really amazing and various career so far, working for so many different projects. What is the key for all your successes?
"I have been super fortunate to work with brilliant and inspiring people throughout my career and I think my gratitude and appreciation plays an important role in getting to continue working with these special people. The more gratitude I feel, the harder I want to work to earn my place at the table and feel like I have something worthwhile to contribute. Whenever I feel I need to grow in a direction, I spend time studying the dancers who have the skills I need to acquire and I try to adapt. There are definitely times I can't keep up (I feel like that almost all of the time), but the desire to absorb new cultures and skills from multiple different movement masters has diversified what I have to offer. Privilege has played a big role in the training and opportunities that have come my way, and I'm becoming more aware of and more impressed with those who have a career like mine without the extra boosts of support I've been given."
-You have been working with Crystal Pite since 2009. How can you describe her work?
"It's hard to describe Crystal's work briefly because it's so layered and thoughtful. She strives to tell stories about humanity that don't come with answers but dive deeper into the important questions we all ask. Whether she's asking about who is really in control of our destinies or how we overcome our traumas or what role we play in the corruption of power, she tends towards stories that branch into philosophy and psychology. She then uses very rigurous dance to physically connect to the mental struggle and make it more visceral for her audiences. She strives to deliver the fullest talent she can access in her artists, which I've heard her describe as the most daunting part of her job. She likes to play with the balance of precision and destabilization. It has been a dream job because I feel like she never stops pushing herself to grow while treating her company with tons of respect, and she surrounds herself with artists who do the same. "
-How did her work influence and change your dance?
"It has made me stronger, more confident, and more articulate in my movement. I'm grateful to have had so much time to develop a shorthand with Crystal and the other dancers in Kidd Pivot. Getting to dive that deep into someone's work does not happen with one encounter. I'm completely different on so many levels because it's been 11 years of growing both inside and outside of the company. The last role I had with Revisor was a wild, drunken, manipulative, corrupt character I definitely could not have played 11 years ago! "
-What is the connection between dance and theatre? When does this become interesting?
"I am totally biased towards the kind of dance theatre that uses the theatrical side to tell a more complex story and the dance side to connect to visceral needs and emotions that can be felt "larger than life" when expressed with the whole body. That's not everyone's approach, but that's the kind of dance theatre that moves me the most. Sometimes the theatrical side doesn't need to be clear or even tell a story, but it does require a brilliant kind of artist (like Pina Bausch) to piece together the right elements to make you feel something powerful in the end. I honestly don't understand how that less direct approach works but I have been deeply moved in a mysterious way when it does. "
-How were you able to develop your artistry as a dancer?
"Slowly, over a long time, with a lot of amazing teachers. It's still in development. I'm eager to learn, to be immersed, and to keep following the artists who intimidate me. There are so many people who blow my mind in concert dance, house and hip hop, the social dances (Argentine tango, zouk, hustle, bachata, and salsa), contact improv, and musical theater that there's no end to the wisdom I still have to gain. Moving through choreography, improvisation, or leading or following are all such different skills to develop and there are endless languages to develop them in."
-You are cofounder and teacher for “Artists Striving To End Poverty”? Why did you start this beautiful project?
"My husband and I were starting our training at Juilliard in New York on September 11th when the towers were attacked. This completely shifted our thinking as to what we were there at this conservatory for. We started by teaching together on mission in the Dominican Republic that summer and realized our art forms could cross some communication and cultural barriers to lead to beautiful connections. A long with a team of like-minded artists, we started programming through my husband's family the following summer with the children of migrant farmer workers and started an outreach club at Juilliard. When we graduated, that programming came together with the vision of Mary-Mitchell Campbell and the organization is still sending out artist volunteers to their partner organizations in India, South Africa, and other more local programs. The lessons I learned teaching for and leading teams with ASTEP have had a HUGE impact on me, my community, and my artistry!"
-You have also been working in Broadway. What fascinated you the most about that world?
"I've primarily worked on preproduction for some memorable shows with Andy Blankenbuehler. I'm not much of a singer, so I would probably not end up dancing on Broadway, but I love being a part of the creative process. It's way faster than the concert dance creations I do with Crystal and there are a TON of moving parts, so the pressure can feel a bit overwhelming. I appreciate the highly productive/driven artists involved in that world and the speed at which they learn to collaborate. I think that often can lead to dysfunction (so I don't recommend it as the ideal approach), but when artists manage to get on the same page with a vision, it's really invigorating and impressive!"
-You are also an amazing teacher. What would you like to teach to your students?
"I've loved teaching since I started dancing professionally in the 11th grade. I'm lucky I've always had opportunities to teach because I learn so much from my students and from having to articulate the things I'm learning. Recently I have gravitated towards teaching partnering tools that increase empathy. I think spending as much time in the mirror as many of us do in our training can get in the way of the skills we gain from dancing in cyphers or socially with a partner in the club. There's a communication through the body that has fascinated me and a sensitivity to listening and supporting one another that I love to share with my students. That feels kind of impossible right now during COVID social distancing, so I'm putting partnering on hold until we can be sharing space again with that kind of trust."
-What does “personality” means in dance? And how important is it?
"I'm not sure. I think it's allowing your inner light to spill out on stage (or whatever space you're performing in). When dancers just focus on their technique and don't allow something vulnerable or personal to come through, I think I feel as an audience member that my mirror neurons stop firing or there's a bit of a wall between the dancer's body and their humanity. I easily disengage in those moments, but that doesn't matter to everyone. There are audience members who find the technique alone to be interesting enough. There are also audience members who get turned off by a dancer being "too expressive", so it really depends on the audience you're interested in reaching."
-What is the role of improvisation and research in personal growth as a dancer?
"Dancers who have their own practice of research or exploring what their bodies are capable of increase their ability to be self-sufficient in a rehearsal process. For a company like Kidd Pivot where the choreographer gives a lot of room for improvisation throughout the creation process, this can be super helpful to make more unique movement for each person in the show. If you spend time in the battle or cyphering cultures of street dance, you gain a very strong appreciation for what dancers can do when they're fully present in the moment and reacting to the music and their partners or opponents with ease. It's powerful to see that kind of quick listening and adaptibility and it needs to be practiced in order to make choreography feel just as exciting and present."
-How important is technique instead? And how can you define “technique”?
"I like to think of technique like the building blocks of language. The more words you have and the clearer you can articulate your vocabulary, the more you're able to say and be understood as a speaker. When it's important for people to understand us as dancers, technique helps to make us more legible. In Argentine tango for instance, the follower's technique helps them receive signals faster to be able to react smoothly and instantly without the hesitation that comes from questioning if they're receiving the information all the way from their chest to their toes. The leader's technique is what frees them up to give the clearest direction. Over time, instinct develops through the technique where the dancers find a flow similar to finishing each other's sentences."
-You are also a choreographer. How can you define your work?
"I mainly choreograph when I feel like there's something unique I want to say and that's usually in collaboration with other artists whose voices I want to lift up. My strongest work has been to spoken word poetry that I find so important and moving that I want to amplify it with movement. I'm driven by social justice issues but I really only engage in a creation process when there's something nagging me from the inside or I have a partner or team I'm eager to explore with. I like to play with the crossover between styles of dance that don't often get mixed like contemporary, hustle, and bboying or contact improv, house, and Argentine tango. It's the main way I can feel like I'm putting something that's unique to me and my collaborators out there."
-What catches your attention in another dancer?
"Passion, abandon, creativity, musicality, unique movement quality, clarity, adaptability, and sincerity. Any one of those qualities can impress me in themselves, but the combination of all of them is what turns me into a super fan."
-What makes a dance piece valuable?
"I don't think I can answer this one because there are just too many different definitions of valuable in terms of art. I can find a recital piece with 5 year olds trying to remember the steps as valuable as a professional company's performance at City Center depending on what I need to experience as an audience member that day. There are too many factors for me."
-Why is dance important in society?
"I find the tendency for people to detach their minds from their bodies in relationship to cultural priorities disturbing. Our bodies hold our mental traumas as well as our greatest joys. As dancers we have the power to help people reconnect to their bodies and recognize how they feel the things that really matter deep down in their bones. If we lived more from an embodied sense of how to interact with others, I believe we could start to heal some of the rifts that come from a lack of proximity and assumption in our societies. Also, the opposite of destruction is creation, so creation alone is a powerful and necessary practice."
-Can you give some advice to young dancers?
"Trust that you have the ability to move in a way that is totally unique to you. If you find you're stuck in a mentality where there's one clear idea of what's perfect, push up against that. Search for all the ways you can grow in your expression and artistry, but never at the expense of your humanity. Spend some time in the dance cultures that embrace individuality as well as those where a team learns to work together in unified harmony. We need that balance to be more whole as performers and citizens."
Thank you so much Cindy, it was such an honor for us
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