Jimmy Crowell ||
How does dance help you connect your mind, body, and soul?
It helps me by giving me an outlet to explore. One of the most important quotes in my life is by Socrates, and he states, “The unexamined life is not worth living” As I change everyday, so does how I dance. It’s the willingness to explore that I am ever-changing in my mind, body, and soul; and, that in examining myself I am led to more knowledge of who I am. There’s so much to learn about oneself and I am proud to meet myself then when I do.
When did you discover dance?
I’d like to think I discovered dance from my mom and dad dancing while I was still just in the womb, or my sister dancing with me around the house as a baby. Truly, I come from a family that loves music and dancing, so it was with them that I first discovered dance. My family dancing in the living room on Friday nights to Teena Marie is where it all started for me.
How does dance help you connect to yourself?
I have this thought that our life lives in our bones. That everything we experience is upheld in our bodies. So it helps me know where I come from everyday. To stay current with where I am and where I’m coming from in the moment.
What is it about the art form of dance that you connect to the most?
It’s the expression. The allowance that I give myself to express is what I connect to the most because I feel like this really was my first form of my own healthy communication. I can say anything I want with my body, and that’s my power.
How does dance renew or heal you?
It heals me by letting out what I need to or want to. My own form of therapy or a journal, which are things I also do, but it just proves to me there is more than one way to heal. Music is a huge component here. Telling my own version of a story through something I already connect with.
What do you want to portray about yourself through your performances?
I want to portray truth in my performances. I am enough. We are enough. So in sharing my truth, I hope that people find themselves within it or find their own truths.
How do you use symbolism from your life in dance?
Honestly, in every way possible. If it’s real to me, I try to make it real to my art. Mimesis: life imitating art, art imitating life. To me my life and dance are one in the same.
What does it mean for you to connect to your mind, body and soul?
Connecting to my mind, body, and soul means reconnecting with myself. A harmony, if you will. Something that is very important to me is enlightening myself/learning more. And in having this harmony much more gets revealed for myself or continues in affirmation of who I am.
How does your experience as a black man influence your dancing?
Being a black man is fully my experience as a dancer. I am also a gay black man. I grew up in the South. Born and raised in El Paso, TX before moving to Dallas, TX. I always felt like it wasn’t “normal” in the black community as a man to explore emotion, as it’s seen as weakness. And when it came to dance, not only did I find space for my emotion, but then also found my sexuality. I find that my textures are much like that today because of my experiences as a gay black man. Strong, as we are told when we’re young black men that we already have the world against us so we must hold strong. And much like my sexuality and my emotional core, fluid and soft.
What advice would you give to a little black boy who is discovering the dancer in themself?
My advice is to find dance wherever and however you can. Keep showing up for yourself, in any capacity you would like or need for yourself. Exploration is your best friend. You have a right to dance to the music in the grocery store, to the sound of a car alarm, in a gym, in your front yard, off of youtube videos, and of course dance classes. Keep learning who you are, everything you do is big. There are no small moves in life.
How do you define wellness and health in your life?
I put it into two of the main categories: mental/emotional and physical. And of course as an artist two very important things separately that merge to create art. For my mental/emotional aspect I see it as: creating space for yourself, healthy communication and conversations, reading, good vibes, journaling, therapy, and . For my physical aspect: taking time to literally just breathe, meditating, working out (I love dance cardio), dance/freestyling without judgement just to let out tension, sleep/naps, walks in the park for fresh air, and creating a better living space which means for me cooking and cleaning.