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 Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me, Derick. I’m very excited to get to learn more about your experiences and your work, and present this to JCE as well. So the first question I have for you is: according to the McKoy Dance Project website, your repertoire has been described as “important.” How do you choreograph “important” work?

When I actually got into choreographing concert dance a lot, my works were more performative. They were more dramatic. They always had the same technical standard or quality, but the works were more showy, in my opinion. People loved them; they were like, “Ooh this dramatic lighting!” The dancers did these really amazing things, these athletic things, very technical things. But the stories behind those works were not always relevant; they were more so showy. They were just more performative.

The murder of George Floyd was a real awakening for me racially, knowing my identity as a Black and queer person. The works that I had made were not speaking about my experience. They were not speaking about the experiences that I knew day-to-day, or the experiences that I was witnessing for other people.

After graduating from Fordham, I lived in an apartment in New York City with some of my friends from Fordham. When the city shut down due to the COVID pandemic, my roommates all went home. I went back to New York City for one month and lived alone in this apartment during that time. It was really small, and dark because it was facing the back corridor. One window. I was sitting there and I said, “I can no longer make work that is not saying something about something real.” From that day I vowed to myself that the works I create were going to be about the human experience. They were going to be about issues for Black and Brown bodies. They were going to be issues about queer people. They were going to be issues about humanity. That kind of shifted my trajectory to create works that were more important.

I made two works. One was a dance film. The first work that was performed live is actually the work that is being performed for Jazz Dance Project, Hush, and that was made in 2021. I was like, “I’m gonna make a really fierce women’s quartet called Hush Now While I Speak.” It is a piece that says, “Shut up! It’s our time to speak now!” I feel like women are often silenced or expected to be silent, and I wanted a piece allowing them to speak and cut up a little bit. Of course, the title got shortened. It moved from Hush Now While I Speak to just being called Hush. It premiered outside, on a burning hot stage. It was really hot that summer day. I made Hush in 25 hours of rehearsal time. A 16:30 minute ballet in 25 hours. I work pretty fast, but that was really the first time I made something that long that quickly.

Hush is built in two sections. The first section is the Historical Section. It’s memories from these four characters that we focus on: Rosa Parks, Ida B. Wells, Harriet Tubman, and Alice Paul. The audience sees glimpses of their stories. We did a lot of research about the traumas that they experienced, the discrimination, the struggles, the strife, the fight for freedom, the fight for the rights to vote, and we really dove deep into the characters. Each character dances flashes of these memories across the stage. Then the Women’s March takes place, and it builds this really strong protest section into the piece. Then we shift into the second section, Freedom Section, which is present day. The dancers come out with a whole new costume change. In the first section the costumes are dated, but they come out in the second section with these bright, colorful, lace-covered dresses. It’s jazzy, more fun, and the dancers are having fun and they’re smiling. I don’t want to call Hush a crowd-pleaser, but in my body of work it is definitely the audience favorite. It has become a signature for the company because it’s our most requested work.

In the final movement of Hush, is the joy these women experience more so in spite of the challenges they faced, or a direct resistance to them?

This is a response to the improvements that we have made. So they are allowed to be free. They are allowed to have their hair out. They are allowed to be boisterous, big, and have fun and smile and be flirty. Not to say that there’s not more work to do, but we are looking at the direct dichotomy between the first section and the second section. In the Historical Section, there are no rights, autonomy, or power held for these women. In the Freedom Section, it’s the present day, when women can actually smile and be joyful. That is really the whole purpose behind the second section. I didn’t want to make a sad work; that was also the thing too. I wanted to make a happy work, and I asked myself, how do I make it happy and make people feel good? It became women empowerment. I don’t know where that came from, but I think it feels good to see these strong bodies in their element, dancing. That’s why Hush has the structure that it has, from this very serious section to this very bright and happy section at the end.

You speak about “realistic storytelling” in McKoy Dance Project. Why is “realistic” storytelling important to you, and how do you achieve that?

My company’s values are authenticity, integrity, community, equity and fun. The authenticity part is first because yes, I can tell stories about a fairy princess that goes on magical adventures. She’s beautiful and dainty, and makes the audience feel good through fantasy. That doesn’t interest me anymore. It doesn’t interest me as a viewer, it doesn’t interest me as a dancer, and it doesn’t interest me as a choreographer. I want to create works for everyone, especially marginalized groups, to see themselves reflected, supported, and heard. In order to do that, I have to create authentic and realistic works. I cannot create a work about a queer body if I’m not queer, or if I’m not researching and receiving information from queer bodies to tell their stories, or collaborating with queer bodies to tell their stories. I can create a fictional story in choreography that is realistic. So when I say realistic, it doesn’t have to be a direct storytelling of a historical event, but the initiation, the intention, the detail, and the nuance of the work has to be authentic. The only way to do that is to pull in resources directly from those communities that are affected, their stories. I have the platform to amplify these stories. It doesn’t necessarily need to be my choreography. Let’s say Hush is an example where I used past examples to tell a current example about women. I have to use historical facts. I’m not a woman. I cannot speak for women, so I have to use women or female-presenting bodies who are comfortable telling those stories as dancers. One of the dancers who performs the work, Tyler Choquette, is trans-nonbinary, and their comfort is really important to me. I intentionally asked Tyler, “Are you okay with portraying this female character?” That’s really important to me, to make sure my dancers feel authentic and can show up for the work. It’s about making everyone seen. It’s about making everyone heard. These realistic stories are how we connect with the audience. If I can’t relate and I can’t see myself in your work onstage, how am I supposed to feel changed or heard or represented, or even pull something out of it that is meaningful, that is going to last with me?

I don’t want to be a dancer when I’m sitting in the audience. That has also informed my work. I don’t want people to be dancers when they’re watching my work. I want them to be people watching people in a work by Derick McKoy Jr., not dancers watching a dance work by Derick McKoy Jr.

I love that. I think that’s most important when you’re communicating work to the audience, is that you’re not just connecting with the few dancers in the audience. It’s really about connecting with everybody. That’s incredible.

I have another question, given that you have recently joined Dallas Black Dance Theatre. According to the Dallas Black Dance Theatre website, its mission is to produce dance “at the highest level of artistic excellence.” What is the “highest level of artistic excellence” to you?

This is a good question, and the company is in a very authentic place to say that in their mission statement. The recognition that Dallas Black has been getting in the last five years has been booming. It has been bewildering, the level of attention and eyes that are coming to the company.

Artistic excellence for me is showing up, awareness of self, and humility to the point that you’re able to give to something bigger than yourself unconditionally. I sort of hesitate to say unconditionally because we know we’re not paid a million dollars to be dancers. It gets very difficult to make this career work. But everyone shows up every day. They push themselves to the maximum. It’s not in competition; we’re very supportive of each other. It’s a good family, close-knit, and I think that’s also part of artistic excellence. It’s community. It is execution of art. It is dedication to art. It is creating meaningful moments through the art, and it is being unapologetic with the quality and standard of what you’re presenting. Excellence is giving your all and doing it well. And doing it well out of the desire to share and love and create something magical, and not the desire to get on top, or to get more, or to be the best. Of course we all want to be the best, but it’s not about that. We get to our best by creating connection, creating magic, creating moments that are meaningful for us and for the people around us.

So you graduated from the Ailey/Fordham BFA Program. I’m currently in the program, and one of the other dancers presenting work at Jazz Dance Project is also currently in the Ailey/Fordham BFA Program, using dancers from the program in her piece. So there are a lot of connections here, which is pretty cool. I’m curious, how did your training in the Ailey/Fordham BFA Program prepare you for your career with McKoy Dance Project and Dallas Black Dance Theatre?

I think the training foundation that I received at Ailey really shows up now in the way that I show up at auditions, and the way that I am at Dallas Black Dance Theatre. We do the same techniques: we do ballet, Horton, contemporary, jazz, and we’ve had Graham last summer. It’s all the same training. It’s all the things that we’re familiar with from the Ailey School. It really gave me my introduction to supporting myself through dance, I think, because it forced me to grow up really quickly. I also made a lot of deep connections via Ailey and the proximity to the rest of the dance community that Ailey has. Sometimes I don’t think about it until that person is in front of me and I’m like, “Oh wait, I’m talking to this person that’s been a legend in the field for 50 years, and they know me. They know my name.” It’s kind of crazy. I’m definitely blessed, and I’m very grateful.

I am excited to continue building a legacy with my company and I’m excited to continue sharing works that are important to me and my dancers. My focus has never been about art production. It has been about the connections in the studio, the performer to audience connection, the director to dancer connection, the director to choreographer connection. Those are really important to me, so I always tell people my company is people first. I make sure everyone is paid before I am paid, and I make sure they are paid well. A lot of times I will forgo getting paid because I make sure that everybody else is paid. That is important to me, that I am mentoring the people that I am around, and that I am interested in them as people first. I ask them, “What are you up to? What are you interested in? What help do you need to get to where you need to go?” It’s less about the idea that we have to make this really impressive dance to impress the audience.

I stopped saying dance is my passion a couple years ago. I say mentorship is my passion, and I use dance as the vehicle to do that. Dance allows me to mentor dancers, choreographers, and the audience through the works I create. Those relationships matter to me. I like talking about dance. I like talking about how people feel. Even outside of dance, I like talking about, “What do you think your purpose is? What are you passionate about?” I can get really deep with people through those conversations, and just encourage them. I like for people to feel empowered and feel good about themselves. That’s really my mission. My personal mission, and my low-key company mission.

I feel very grateful for all of the wonderful things I heard from you Derick, so thank you so much. I’m very excited to see your work at Jazz Dance Project!

Mia Mellican

Mia Mellican

Mia Mellican is a current student in the Ailey/Fordham BFA program. Mia was on Season 17 of So You Think You Can Dance and performed in Dance Against Cancer at Lincoln Center in 2023. Mia has trained with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Gallim, and has taught and choreographed performances across the United States and Mexico.

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