Just found this on the internet. I wrote it back when I was at MMC. Wow, the internet really does keep everything. creepy.
Moving to NYC: A Dancer's story
A light breeze fills the air as on-the-go, stressed coffee lovers pour into Starbucks to escape the hustle and bustle of Manhattan during rush hour. Relaxing jazz music attempts to soothe their racing minds but is unsuccessful as the noise of frappuccinos and juice teas being blended interjects every two minutes. Amidst these oxymoron’s sits Jessica Chen, a California-native turned New York dancer and emerging choreographer. It would appear that Jessica would have a hard time finding peace in her chaotic life like her fellow New Yorkers, but she remains calm and collected as she balances surviving in New York, dancing, booking workshops, and choreographing. This, she credits, is the key to success.
“For dancers, if you don’t think about it and take life as it goes, you can be successful. Whatever comes out of the experience comes out of it.”
Jessica’s perspective on balancing her career was a result of the constant changes she has been exposed to; thanks in part to several mentors and teachers. From a last minute decision to attend the Alvin Ailey Summer Intensive upon her college graduation in 2006, to her most recent choice to restart a piece she had been working on for several months, Jessica has a life long history of learning to go with the flow.
Jessica began her dance career in a Chinese Folk Dance company in California, her native state. She performed with this company for eight years dancing in parades and filming videos on Folk dance. Jessica states, “Most of my training has been group oriented as well. In both junior high and high school I was on the All-Star cheer and dance team.” Aside from dance, Jessica had other interests and went on to major in global studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Although she did not major in dance, Jessica was still able to enroll in the university’s dance classes. It was during her college years that Jessica’s knowledge of dance greatly expanded.
“I saw a documentary on the Ailey Company and after that, decided to get into modern dance.” Helping her explore modern dance was one of Jessica’s teacher’s, Tonia Shimin who previously danced with both The Martha Graham Company and José Limón Company. When Jessica started choreographing at age 19, Shimin worked as her mentor and challenged Jessica to, “think about where the movement was coming from and why.” Jessica believes Shimin allowed her to find a deeper meaning in the movement she was creating. After continuing with modern dance for the next few years by senior year, with the advice of another mentor Nancy Colahan, Jessica applied to the Alvin Ailey Summer Intensive and was accepted.
Colahan’s advice for Jessica was, “Put yourself in a place where the dance community is really strong because it gets hard and when it gets hard you want to fall back on your community.” With this in mind, Jessica relocated to New York without knowing that her two month stay would eventually evolve into 3+ years.
At The Ailey School, Jessica trained in Horton with Earl Mosley who became the gatekeeper of her future successes as both a dancer and choreographer. “He reached out to me right in the beginning,” she comments. The following summer, July 2007, Jessica attended Earl Mosley Institute of the Arts, Earl Mosley’s summer intensive, and was given the chance to work with choreographers such as Juan Rodriguez and Darcy Naganuma. Both experiences led her to future successes including performing in Rodriguez’s piece at a gala event for the summer intensive and joining Naganuma’s company in the fall of 2007.
Jessica’s unpredictable successes continued in November of 2007 when, after a performance in Atlantic City, she was told about workshop with Live Co, a street jazz/hip hop dance company. After impressing the choreographer, she joined the company and still remains with them to this day. One of her biggest opportunities with this company came from an unexpected text message.
“You got picked to go to Japan. What’s your passport number?” This was the message Jessica received when her choreographer Torey Nelson told her that she had been picked to tour in Japan with urban artist, Lil Mama. Falling in line with her ever-changing life, Jessica left New York to perform in Japan after only one week of rehearsals.
According to Jessica, her choreography began to take off after her second experience at Earl Mosley’s Institute of the Arts. One choreographer that helped Jessica mold her choreography was Julian Barnett. “When I worked with him there was this guidance that really helped me. It was his intention and I got to go with it. This got my mind thinking about how my process is.” During EMIA, Jessica created two pieces, one of which she continued to work on and began auditioning for festivals and concerts in New York.
With influence from past mentors and choreographers, Jessica credits choreography as both an exploration of herself and her dancers. “I understand my body better. I feel more comfortable dancing and can project the movement better. I am also allowing my dancers to find their own voices.”
Although she has been choreographing steadily, Jessica’s future plans will still include performing. To balance being a choreographer and dancer, Jessica concludes, “I will choose whether to take a gig for myself and postpone a project or vice versa. At this point I want to do small projects (under the name, The J.Chen Project) rather than have a company. I want to be able to pay my dancers and take care of them which are things that I am still working on. Dancers don’t know their value because some choreographer’s don’t show them. I want my dancer’s to know how much they are worth. I’m not going to bring someone into my process if I can’t help them.” April 3 2009
