Elevé-ted Conversations--A Series of Culture-Driven Dance Journal Entries

F or most of my life as a dancer--honestly, in most spaces I occupy--I usually am the first or only of some demographic I belong to in a given space. Throughout college this was pretty common: I was the first male to ever join the Knox College Dance Squad, which led to me becoming the first black/male co-captain (interim) of the dance squad in its 16-year history. (To this day I am the only male that has been an active member of the dance squad for all four undergraduate years and the only male co-captain.) Alongside that during my senior year, I began living my life as an openly gay man, and for that I was the first openly gay undergraduate member in the history of my fraternity's chapter (which was the campus' predominantly white male fraternity comprised 98% of sports athletes; clearly, you-know-who represented the 2%). Hence, choreographing for and performing at the halftime presentations during football and basketball games were important acts for multiple reasons. Not ...