Balance. Collaborate. Push & pull, give & take. These are characteristics of a dance company that I did not understand I valued so highly…until I joined coEXIST. From other experiences I have learned that professional dance companies are demanding on schedules, mental energy, physical commitment, and loyalty. In coEXIST I learned that a company can also request that you’re committed artistically and genuinely. In accepting the position of company member, I also signed myself up for a new family and support system, somewhere I felt comfortable enough to allow my creative juices to flow. My ideas and contributions became important and heard. I began to grow in my dancing and in my real person life. The company’s dedication to the community has been especially rewarding. It’s a 2for1 deal: community&company! We all challenge each another in a multitude of different ways, and I think that’s what makes us so magnifique.
From being here I’ve solidified my own life’s philosophies and the more specific role I’d like dance to play in my life. I want dance to be energizing, enlivening, enlightening for everyone. I do wish to continue dancing professionally, wearing costumes and hairspray and lipstick and getting butterflies. When I am dancing I get a feeling that could never be put into words. On an equal level, though, I want others to have their own experiences with movement, finding those indescribable feelings in a personalized way. But that’s why I want to become a dance therapist, eh? And from engaging in the community with coEXIST through performance, workshops, intensives, eating lunch, I can be sure that I’ll do whatever it takes to get there.
But I know somewhere along the past something-over-a-year, I’ve also helped coEXIST to grow. And that’s what I mean by my opening words. We support and challenge each other, shining beacons in darkness and pushing forward.
Whitney
