We were lucky to catch up with Nancy Dobbs Owen recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Nancy Dobbs, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
I get my resilience from a plethora of sources, but it often feels simply like necessity. This industry, this city, this era–all are challenging at every turn. I believe that longevity and relevance are often simply a result of being able to pivot. 2020 was a defining moment for all of us. I was lucky in that zoom and Instagram live provided me the opportunity to continue to teach and reach out, to make art in community even while quarantined. I am currently going through another transition and believe that my grit and resilience will enable me to transform a deeply painful loss into the seed of something extraordinary. I do not know what that is, but simply being open to the idea has led me to new projects; a developmental musical project and choreographing a feature film. So, even though I often feel like hiding under a pillow, I make sure that I am open to seeing opportunities at every moment.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I dance. It is as essential as food and water. I find my life force in the connection between music, spirit, and movement. The intersection of art and activism is where I land, finding immense pleasure and value in both. Dance is a visceral and beautiful art form. It lives and breathes as a purely aesthetic practice. It exists as a form of entertainment, providing simple joy and serves as a mode of personal expression and exaltation, both physical and spiritual. Yet, when combined with a social and moral quest, it has the power to change both the individual and the world. Transcending language, education, and circumstance, dance speaks directly to the soul, inviting action and transformation.
I am an interdisciplinary artist and activist, working primarily as a choreographer, writer, nascent poet, and dance educator. Additional work includes stage and film direction, performance roles, and design work; both as a stylist or costumer, which includes jewelry design. In both my solo and collaborative work, I seek to answer the following question: How does exploring the creative and emotional elements of seemingly unfixable problems create pathways to solutions and enlightenment? With a combination of rigorous academic research and a deeply personal emotional practice, I explore where the trauma of individual experiences, both personal and institutional, reside in the body and how they manifest in the world.
My current work focuses on sexual grooming and assault in dance and the ramifications of growing up in a world where this type of mistreatment is normalized. Though the effects of toxic training environments have been studied in relation to the individuals harmed, I currently focus on the triad of abuser, victim and witness and seek to illuminate these intersecting relationships. I explore possible connections between the lack of diverse representation within dance leadership and the normalization of abuse, both sexual and emotional, that occurs both in and out of the studio during an artist’s formative (and professional) years as a factor in that leadership imbalance. I further explore how such abuse creates an ongoing cycle with collateral damage to the witnesses, victims, dance community and, by extension, society as a whole. I do so in both academic and artistic settings, writing and creating dance.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
First, I think it absolutely essential to find mentors who are both ahead of you in expertise and experience and coming up behind you. I learn just as much from the younger dancers and artists that I work with as I do from the brilliant mentors and teachers that I have been lucky enough to be guided by.
Next, I believe that once again, resilience and grit are essential. We may feel devastated by projects that fall through, but we have to find a thread to hold on to and not let our personal worth be affected. This is much easier said than done and I often rely on those very mentors listed above to help me through tougher periods.
Curiosity is the final quality that I believe is absolutely essential to live as an artist. Read, watch, investigate. Be curious about the world, the people and the trends both inside and outside of your industry and art.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I love collaboration. I am always looking to create with passionate and inspired folx who are dedicated to creating social and societal change through art. Please reach out! I work in theatre, dance, film, video, and through event creation. Let’s make magic! I can easily be contacted through my website or the socials!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.nancydobbsowen.com
- Instagram: @nancydobbsowen
- Facebook: @nancydobbbsowen
- Linkedin: @nancydobbsowen
- Twitter: @nancydobbsowen
Image Credits
Personal Shot: Micheal Higgins Carousel: Courtesy of AMDA War Bride: Heidi Hostetler Skeleton Stories: Theatre of Note Zombie Lullaby: Jarrett Sleeper
