Jacqueline Green is a beautiful dancer who is a principal dancer in the Alvin Ailey dance company since 2011.
“By dancing, we become capable of sharing something important.”
-What did you get fascinated by Alvin Ailey?
“I started dancing really late and in Baltimore where I am from, there weren’t many people like me who could get some knowledge about the professional dance world. When I auditioned for my high school, there was a woman from Alvin Ailey company who is also from my high school in Baltimore. While I took her class, I was fascinated by her dancing. And by watching her, I could realize that it is possible for me to be a dancer as a black woman. After she introduced Alvin Ailey, I did some research and realized that this man started the company and talked about the social climate in his art form which is dance. I loved this because he put all the historical thoughts and ideas during the time in his piece in a meaningful way so we can learn from his works. I love learning about black history and he was already doing it with dance so for me, dance and history together were the best works that I want to do. It was exactly what I want to do and where my obsession comes from.”
-Alvin Ailey shows diverse cultural aspects in dance such as jazz, African dance, and classical ballet with contemporary movements. As a dancer, what do you think about the relationship between culture and dance? And how did it affect you personally?
“Dance comes from people which is related to culture because we create dance styles based on what we see in a certain society. In some Africa, all storytelling, prayers developed to the dance what we see, West African dance and there are always meanings behind it. Even modern in this country, I think modern dance comes from America because Ballet comes from Europe so here, America, we created what modern dance is in the world. In history lesson, some historical dancers like Ted Shawn, Isadora Duncan didn’t fit in Ballet, but they still wanted to express themselves so they created modern styles of dance. I think it is really connected because they dance from people and dance comes from the culture. And I think all the dance techniques are vocabulary. You do step and turn which are all words. But you want to make sentences so you put those words together. However, you also want to put emotion behind so that is how you create a piece of art. It affects the audience and also the dancers. In the society right now, the world is crazy by Coronavirus, murder, and social issues. As a dancer, I am not going to do only pile or tendu, I need to do things that mean something. Because I have so much to say and as an artist, I can use my body to express it in a different way.”
-In Ailey training, you have done a lot of modern techniques like Graham, Horton, Paul Taylor techniques… How important for you to have strong technical skills as a dancer?
“I believe techniques are really important. In Alvin Ailey, we do everything because he wanted dancers to be able to do everything. He wanted us to do classical contemporary dance, switch to Hip-pop, Jazz, African dance, and modern techniques. It is really hard to do all different genres of dances, but I believe that most dances come from Ballet. We use certain Ballet words to understand the movements which show that we need to have the basic knowledge in order to understand movements and know how they work from your body. Also, when you understand the techniques for your body, techniques provide a long journey in your career. You have to know all your muscles movements and techniques help you to understand what your body is doing that day because your body changes every day. You can communicate with it which is really important.”
-What do you think importantly when you perform on stage as a dancer?
“Being honest in every moment on stage. If you don’t believe it, the audience will see that you don’t believe it so who is going to feel anything? In order to be honest on stage, we rehearse so that you can think about what you are doing and techniques. But, when you are on stage, you should have rehearsed enough so you can just go out and dance, be the character.”
-There are a lot of physical hard works and a lot of rehearsals which can be tiring and make you want to give up as a dancer. How can you keep your motivation?
“I always say go back to why you start dancing. It helps and it might have changed, but you just need to find why you keep doing it. We always go to the studio and put our body through something that may not feel good, but we know that if we continue working through, it will become something like pain that we will be used to. It becomes easier if you do it more. It is hard to go back to our first place and find the passion like the beginning because we used to hear that we need to fix, this is wrong… But we are here because we know that we are capable of sharing something important.”
-How can you define “dance”?
“I would say it is a language. It is an exaggerated form of language. You can talk to someone, and someone can receive what you say and feel something about it. It is the same thing in dance. It is just a different type of language. Someone can watch me dance and feel all kinds of emotions, and it is communication. And I think it is really important to keep this language through generations like other languages.”
-In society, there are so many social issues and happening about racism in the whole world right now, what do you think about it and what do you need to do as a dancer and a human being?
“I don’t like that it is the issue in the world. I think in order to change it as a dancer, using my voice and my platform. People who follow me or come to see my dance, I want them to know where I am standing on certain issues. I am a person who has color in it. Someone will respect me and admire me so you can see that my life matters. We have similar experiences even though we are far away. We are all together, we understand each other. When I saw the video of George Floyd, I felt something that so many people also felt, it is not even only black people but as human beings. We all felt that because this is the human being who doesn’t deserve it. And as a dancer, I can use my job to express that. I give people an opportunity to understand something that they don’t know about other cultures. Just to be open, and I think that is the time when we can start communicating to change. It is our responsibility to treat others as humans.”
-Can you describe yourself in three words?
“Hopeful, passionate, and proactive.”
-Can you give advice to young dancers?
“Don’t be disturbed if you heard NO. It is just not the place where you are supposed to be at the time. There is a place for everyone out there. Just educate yourself on the different places where you can dance, anywhere. If you don’t find the place, go creative.”
Thank you so much for this chance, Jacqueline! It was such an honor for us.
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