Did you know I used to be a dancer?
I studied Congolese dancing for fifteen years. Did you just spit when you read that? Did you think I was going to say that in my younger lighter days I was a ballerina or a master of jazz hands? No, for fifteen years I went to an African dance class at least once a week, and most weeks I went to two or three or four classes. I also studied drumming for awhile, but for not nearly as long. I loved it almost as much as I loved painting.
I didn’t stop at studying Congolese dance. I also studied Senegalese, Haitian, and Zulu. Don’t laugh. I can beat you down in a gumboot.
That’s the beauty of living in a multi-cultural landscape like the Bay Area. I may have only gone to the dance studio one town over, but it took me all the way to Africa.
Exploring the cultures of home are just as important to a traveler as getting on a plane or train and exploring the world. When good things show up at your proverbial front door, it’s best not to ignore them. It may not be as exciting as traveling off to far-flung places, but it it’s just as mind blowing – if you allow it to be.
In this new version of artist-at-large I will still be exploring those far-flung places, but I’ll also be tripping the light fantastic in my own back yard, dancing through the alleyways of life.
I hope you enjoy this newer, slimmer, version of the site.