Meet Susan Banyas

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Susan Banyas. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Susan below.

Hi Susan, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?

Trust in oneself is a constant practice, so there is no past tense involved. As a child, I had freedom to roam, permission to ride and groom the pony in our neighborhood that belonged to the local vet. Feeling kinship with animals and nature has always been my anchor. Movement is my savior. I was expected to follow the script — top of the bell curve, studies, marriage, kids, continuity. But I tripped on the script, saw my first Fellini film, discovered the counterculture, moved to the west coast, then elsewhere and on and on. I guess I could say that my self-esteem and confidence was not necessarily from one source, but from the rollicking and beautiful times I grew up in. I was a chid of the Cold War, watched classmates go to Vietnam, woke up to my country’s imperial appetite and racism, became inspired by art and Buddhism and jazz as languages of the heart. All these forces asked me take responsibility for my life, for the happiness in my life. My purpose is to integrate art and expression and politics so that “integration” is an inside and outside job. The art life is not about being “right” or technically brilliant or anything other than coming home to, being at home in my body, listening to my soul dreams, moving into action in relationship to the times and challenges of life, to the beauty around me.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I am a multi-media storyteller. My work is a combination of dance, theatre, spoken word, photography, words, in service to memory and history. Creative practice is the backbone of all the stories. The stories are compositions that arise from my experiences and research, dreams and visions. To me, a story is a living expression of one’s memory, history, and imagination. I don’t see these dimensions as separate, and enjoy arranging the pieces of these life-forms into a message, a vision that is useful to society. I want my art to be in service to the commonwealth and to a peaceful world.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Flexibility
Purpose
Curiosity

This is what I teach and practice.
Dance with life. Learn the Everyday Dance. Tell the Soul Stories of your life. Memorize them. Only you know how to tell the stories you tell. Your stories have value. Your experiences from your own life have value. They hold the gold. But you need to mine the encounters for images that have resonance and vibrancy. You are not here to judge your experience. You are here to develop your curiosity and awareness, stay alive to what appears, open up to joy and happiness here and now. These are my mantras. I love research, am an avid detective and cultural investigator. Arranging the images that have been summoned is magical and sensory. A story–movement or words or both–is a recipe, casts a spell. I always wonder where a story is taking me.

Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?

“Charlotte’s Web” by EB White
“Real life is only one kind of life. There is also the life of the imagination.” — EB White
Charlotte the Spider is a weaver of words, a strategist, a good friend.
“But Charlotte, I’m not Terrific.”
“That doesn’t make a particle of difference, Wilbur, not a particle Does anyone here know how to spell Terrfic?”

The book was my favorite thing in the 3rd grade (1955). Outside the school window “Negro” women and children marched and carried signs. These two events–the book’s message and witnessing my first political protest led by Black mothers-guided my documentary art projects–theatre and my first book– “The Hillsboro Story/a kaleidoscope history of an integration battle in my hometown,” “No Strangers Here Today w. jazz composer David Ornette Cherry, and works in progress.

Like EB White, I continue to imagine a world of collaboration and peace. My art is a form of protest, a dance, a weaving to expand possibilities, offer fresh perspective. Making work generates love and connection. The stories and collaborators are my teachers. My dance is sometimes staged but more often off stage, where the sweetness and surprises live. Choreography is the score I write to put action into form.
“Everyday I awaken torn between the inclination to savor the world and the desire to save it.” –EB White

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.susanbanyas.com

Image Credits

photos by
Deborah Dombrowski
Jov Luke
Somoire Kimaki
Susan Banyas