Creation Chronicles: "Mine"

Did I ever mention how a dancer friend noticed and expressed that I haven't put out any personal work in a while? No? Well, yeah. That happened and it was true. The last piece I choreographed, not for the purpose of my student's recital or for a dance class, was years ago. Although I had always carried the desire to create and produce a personal piece of work, life kept coming at me fast! This year, I became faster and I not only created, but also produced "Mine" a few weeks ago. Look at me finally go!

The vision for "Mine" was birthed as soon as I heard this lovely song by Clark Keeng, Zawadi Mukami, and Chris Barr. The lyrics were a timely reminder of my personal journey, and the song had a melancholy feel with just the right amount of hope to balance it out. It was giving, there is light at the end of the tunnel, but only if you're in the right tunnel...a warmly cushioned reality check. My goal was to parallel the storyline of the song through movement and I knew just the perfect dancers to bring this vision to life. As soon as the choreography was ready to be taught, what initially was meant to be a trio turned into a duet...an obstacle I didn't anticipate. Life was, yet again, handing me lemons, and with the same energy, I purposed to squeeze every bit of lemonade out of them. With just a few hours to teach and rehearse the recreated choreography, my creativity was challenged in multiple ways. As a result, "Mine" ended up taking a whole different form, and thank God it was in my favor!

On the shoot day, I got to channel a different level of artistry as I put on my director's hat. It was such a treat to experience this as I observed "Mine" formulate before my eyes. I must admit that I did panic internally a little at the thought of everything backfiring on me, not because something was actually going wrong, but simply because a little voice asked "what if?"...the life of a creative. Before I spiraled all the way down due to hypothetical scenarios, I was reminded that the work that was already put in was worth celebrating, with or without evidence of a video. Fortunately, things continued to work in my favor and "Mine" turned out beautifully! So dancer friends, see that project you've been putting off? The one that holds a part of your story? The one that gives us a glimpse into your artistry? Yes, that one! Go ahead and start it...make progress on it...complete it. Here's permission to thrive in a way that only you can :)

PS: Huge thanks to Joy Waria, Director Shishi, and Anise Pictures for helping bring this vision to life.

Check out the Behind The Scenes footage here.

Keep creating & sharing!

~your dancer friend