JAMES STRECKER: What exactly do you like about the work you create, as originator or as interpreter, or as both if such is the case?
KIMBERLEY COOPER: I love what I do.
I guess the short answer would be the journey, the process, the collaborations, the groove, the research, the energy, the joy, the blues…
You raise an interesting point re: originator/interpreter, what am I exactly? I’m a jazz dance artist, I’ve been working in this form professionally for a long time. I love the music of jazz and its family; it’s why I dance and make dance. It’s like an invitation to me, it fills my body and mind with movement, images, stories and characters. I am a guest in jazz, which is a Black American artform with African American roots and I am a White Canadian. Though I am a guest, I am connected to a lineage of people, some I know personally, some I’ve read about or have seen film footage of, that I feel I am indebted to. I am an interpreter of traditions, cultures, histories and music and I strive to work with reverence and respect for them. My work is historically informed AND I am a jazz artist of this time, creating “original” works that come out of my experience and research and this time.
JS: Please tell us what you want the public to know about your work in the arts. For instance, how do you yourself describe it as a significant experience in your life and why exactly do you labour to make it exist?
KC: I believe the arts are essential. They connect us, identify us, make us feel and think. I know what it feels like to sit in an audience and see dance, to hear music, to stand beside someone and look at a piece of visual art, to read a novel. And I know what it’s like to dance with people, and for people, it’s deeply humanizing and kind of divine at the same time. So generally, working in art feels important to me and I am very passionate about it.
Then there is working in jazz…
Jazz dance and music were born in North America of African roots and the Black American experience. Jazz dance, authentic rooted jazz dance, is a rare in the world find. I happen to work for one of few companies globally with jazz as it’s raison d’être.
A short company bio: Decidedly Jazz Danceworks (DJD) was born in 1984 with a mandate which we have worded differently over the years but essentially is about preserving, promoting and evolving jazz through performance and education. In 2016 after a billion (ok, 11) years of planning, fundraising, etc., we opened the incredible DJD Dance Centre, a purpose-built space with seven studios, including a 230-seat studio theatre. It’s home for our full-time professional company, our professional training program, one of the largest recreational dance schools in Calgary, many resident companies and independent artists. I’m proud to say it has become the dance hub of Calgary.
Working responsibly in jazz, especially as guests requires a tonne of labour that has been part of our process since the company’s inception. And of course, you know what you know when you know it, so in the company’s history, and in my history, that depth of knowledge and reverence for the form and culture continues to grow as we continue to dig, and seek, and collaborate with like-minded artists, and try to help create new ones.
JS: Please give us a brief autobiography, some stuff about yourself that is relevant to the essence of your work in the arts.
KC: I’ve been dancing since I started walking. Dancing and making dance have always gone hand in hand for me. I fell in love with DJD when I saw their first performance as a teenager in 1984. I joined the company as an apprentice dancer straight out of high school, became Resident Choreographer and Artistic Associate in 2001, as well as continuing to dance with the company until I was appointed Artistic Director in 2013, second in the history of the company. That’s over 3 decades with one company that has supported my journey and growth as an artist within the company, as well as allowing independent projects and research that I still continue to do. I’m a very lucky artist.
JS: In what ways is your creative work fairly easy to do and in what ways is it difficult to realize? Why is it so?
KC: Hmmmmmmm… honestly the most difficult part of what I do is the administration part, the logistical part, the finding enough money part…
That being said, the creative part is hard work, and I love it. I’m so lucky that I work with artists who are passionate about what we do and trust me. We are vulnerable working together in a studio, we put our hearts and ideas and bodies on the line and if someone isn’t into it, or an ego gets in the way, or there is a lack of trust in the room, it can make things difficult… but truly, that is rare, almost every one I work with and have worked with has been down for the gig and the art, and then the “hard” things become “easier” because we are all in it together.
JS: How does doing the kind of work you do in the arts change you as a person – and as a creator?
KC: I think working in the arts makes a person more curious, compassionate, thoughtful, good at working with scarcity, nimble with change, inventive. It also gives you the possibility to connect with others, the world, and yourself, in deeply profound ways. I believe this is even more true in working in jazz. Working in jazz teaches us how to listen and collaborate because the work is communal and democratic. It teaches us empathy and humility because of its birth and history, which also gives us hope and inspiration. It helps us find ourselves through groove and rhythm which is an invaluable connection point- it is both elusive and concrete at the same time. These aren’t my ideas, many jazz folks have said these things way better than me.
I’ve been lucky to be on this particular path as an artist and a human, and during my career the kind of work I do encompasses a lot of things and continues to change, and I change with it. Each person I work with, each project I work on, changes me and how I think about and approach what I do in dance, but also in life. And not just the people I “work” with, the people I meet, the conversations I have, the life I lead, all of this contributes to my constantly evolving self. Art making is not formulaic, it’s process based, and that process for me is rooted in many things, but there is a kind of plasticity to it, and it’s jazz- improvisation is essential.
JS: What kind of audience does your work in the arts interest? What new audience are you also seeking? Why to both questions?
KC: Humans for sure. I guess aliens also are welcome if they are friendly. Once a dog came to my show, it was training to be a service dog, it barked at a really inopportune moment which was not cool…
In all seriousness, I hope my work interests lots of different kinds of people. People who like jazz music, people who like seeing dance and music together… Someone once said to me that they found dancing to music to be redundant, “music for the eyes” is something that people say about my work and the work of DJD artists in general – so if that isn’t your jam- this work isn’t for you.
JS: What are the most important parts of yourself that you put into your work in the arts?
KC: My identity is very much wrapped up in my work. I’m not sure if that is healthy…
JS: What are your biggest challenges as a creative person in the arts?
KC: You are asking me these questions in the fall of 2022; the last 2.5 years have been a real trip. What wakes me up at night the most of late is the big picture, how are the arts going to get through this? How are we- as a civilization, as a sector, as a company, me as an artist, going to survive? And to leave those worries at the door when I’ve just come from a budgeting or planning meeting, or from watching the news, and it’s time to make the show- that has been tricky.
JS: Please describe at least one major turning point in your life that brought you to this point as a creative person in the arts.
KC: Seeing that inaugural DJD show, Body and Sole in 1984, changed everything for me. I was only 13 and before that I danced and knew I wanted to be a dancer, but that show… I was gone- head over heels. And somehow it worked out.
It feels like another monumental moment to be performing in Toronto this Sept/Oct at Fall for Dance North, the same weekend the founders of DJD – Vicki Adams Willis, Michèle Moss and Hannah Stilwell – are being inducted into Canada’s Dance Hall of Fame.
JS: What are the hardest things for an outsider to understand about your life as a person in the arts?
KC: I think dance is a hard career to understand, it’s kind of abstract, people wonder what our “real” job is or even just how we make money, what we do all day, how we remember all the steps…When I tell people I am a choreographer they generally think I teach dance to kids, or they tell me about a Broadway show they love. And being a jazz dance artist is equally baffling because it is such a misunderstood artform.
JS: If you could re-live your life in the arts, how would you change it and why?
KC: Shoulda coulda woulda is a dangerous game- haven’t you seen all those movies where characters go back in time to change things and something even worse happens? We only have from this moment forward to change our lives.
JS: Let’s talk about the state of the arts in today’s culture, including the forms in which you work. What specifically gives you hope and what specifically do you find depressing?
KC: I hope the arts can thrive in this new world. Wars, climate change, pestilence, what role does art play? How is it important when you can’t grow food?
And when I get down, I listen or dance to some blues and feel a little better.
JS: What exactly has the impact of the COVID pandemic been on your creative work and your life in the arts?
KC: At DJD we were so lucky because we were still sort of able to work in the last two years. We hired our full dance company for 2 full seasons even though a lot of the time we couldn’t work, and/or the restrictions kept changing how we could work. We were able to invest in some different creative endeavours, we shot a dance film that we are still editing, we were able to do a couple of drive-in dance performances which were pretty cool. We did what we could. And we are not through it, we are in the midst of it, so we are still learning. In the last 2.5 years the company dancers and the work we did and continue to do has been my sanctuary.
JS: How has the pandemic changed you as a person?
KC: I’m learning to embrace the moment more. I’m learning to listen harder. I sense that people are generally more tender, emotions are amplified. I’m learning to be more receptive to this in others and myself. The journey continues, I’m changing all the time.
JS: What’s next in the coming few years of your life in the arts
KC: I’m just concentrating on the next couple of weeks! Hoping we can get through our Toronto performances without anyone going down, touch wood!
The 2022/23 season is exciting, DJD’s first live season since 2020. I’m working with a new composer on a new full-length piece for DJD that premieres in April ’23. I also have a couple of cool residencies in the US this season. AND I’m hoping to finish editing and release the film we shot last fall in ’23 as well. Of course, things are in the works for beyond that but really, I’m trying to stay in the moment, everything feels very uncertain and precarious. I saw a United Nations talk about climate change the other day, and the thing that really resonated with me was the discussion on how polarised we are becoming and how that division, of wealth, beliefs, resources is really what is messing us up. We need to figure out how to come together, maybe the arts can help play a role in that.