In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with with Philadelphia-based dancer, choreographer, musician, photographer, and writer, Raphael Xavier. Xavier’s extensive research in Hip Hop forms and culture, specifically Breaking, has led to the creation of Ground-Core, a Somatic dance technique. Originally from Wilmington, Delaware, Xavier is a 2013 Pew Fellowship Grantee and 2016 Guggenheim Fellow, and Princeton University professor.
In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with with Philadelphia-based dancer, choreographer, musician, photographer, and writer, Raphael Xavier. Xavier’s extensive research in Hip Hop forms and culture, specifically Breaking, has led to the creation of Ground-Core, a Somatic dance technique. Originally from Wilmington, Delaware, Xavier is a 2013 Pew Fellowship Grantee and 2016 Guggenheim Fellow, and Princeton University professor.
https://www.raphaelxavier.org/
INTRODUCTION: Thanks for joining us Inside The Dancer’s Studio, where we bring listeners like you closer to the creative process. Inside The Dancer’s Studio is a program of the National Center for Choreography at the University of Akron as part of our Ideas in Motion initiative. This episode was recorded in the presence of a live audience in 2023. Today we joined Christy Bolingbroke, our Executive/Artistic Director, in conversation with Philadelphia-based dancer, choreographer, musician, photographer, and writer, Raphael Xavier. Xavier’s extensive research in Hip Hop forms and culture, specifically Breaking, has led to the creation of Ground-Core, a Somatic dance technique. Originally from Wilmington, Delaware, Xavier is a 2013 Pew Fellowship Grantee and 2016 Guggenheim Fellow, and Princeton University professor.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: You're a man of many talents. So, I'd love to hear when was the first time that you started to own the title and role of choreographer?
RAPHAEL XAVIER: Oh, man, I don't know. I never considered myself to be a choreographer. It was just something I, I thought I saw how it worked [Bolingbroke: Hmmm]. And I started taking on the process of what I thought that was. And then I realized later that I wasn't actually a choreographer. I was just trying to figure out how things worked with the movement on stage. I only, I guess, maybe in the last 10 years, accepted the word or idea of choreographer based on someone else's idea of what it is that I was doing [Bolingbroke: Hmmm]. I never said I was a choreographer. Someone else said it [Bolingbroke: Mmh]. Another person said it and I'm gonna person said it. So eventually, I was like, okay, cool [Bolingbroke: Uh-huh]. I'll be a choreographer.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Okay. Okay. I mean, even accepting that only in the last 10 years, when, from our previous conversations, you've been doing this for over 20 years, at least in this medium, in addition to others. So where do you start? If it is about how to figure things out with movement, where do you start as far as inspiration or a creative idea?
RAPHAEL XAVIER: Hmm. I don't know. I'm inspired by a lot of things [Bolingbroke: Mmh] like just the smallest of things every day, whatever I see every day or someone says something, whether it's art, a car driving by and I hear a certain sound or rhythm in the road as the tire hits the pothole or something [Bolingbroke chuckles]. And I just start pulling from that. But back to the choreographer thing for a second [Bolingbroke: Mmh]. I understood, putting moves together as sets or routines [Bolingbroke: Mmm], as Hip-Hop dancers, or street dancers, or whatever [Bolingbroke: Mmh], it would just, just make up something together as a group, to dance against another group, or make up these patterns that I can pull from if I go into a jam or something. So, I wouldn't repeat the same thing because repeating is not, [Bolingbroke: Mmh], is not cool.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: We were talking about that with Minnesota Joe, and breaking yeah.
RAPHAEL XAVIER: So, every weekend, I would go to a jam or an event with 20 new 32nd sets [Bolingbroke: Mmh]. And so, when I started putting together choreography, I looked at those sets. So, to say, when I started putting together movements, I looked at those sets and started stringing them together [Bolingbroke: Mmh]. That's how I understood that. But it was coming from music that I heard or something weird in a sound, and I thought if I take that little piece out and loop it, or take a, the rain and loop a certain pattern [Bolingbroke: Mmm] of the rain and put on top of this thing and that thing, have these weird sounds that trigger me to think about what I don't know [Bolingbroke: Mmm]. Because when I hear the same music all the time, I'm not inspired. I, it's all, you go on autopilot [Bolingbroke: Mmh]. So, there's nothing in that. So, between those two things, the inspiration and choreography, or choreography and inspiration. They come out of little [Bolingbroke: Mmm], little things that I notice in the world.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Well and it sounds like a dialogue, a sort of [Xavier: Yeah] feedback or call and response that you're intuitively embodying throughout your process. And you also have a background as, as a rapper or, and so I'm curious how else you might talk about your relationship to music? Because this sounds that there isn't that like, great, I love this song. I'm going to make a dance to this [Xavier: Hmm] song, the dance is going to be just that long [Xavier: Yeah, yeah] [Laughs]. So how, can you talk to us a little bit about that? Because I think sometimes, especially for younger choreographers starting out, the idea of working in silence [Xavier: Hmm] is a little terrifying [Xavier: Ah]. And then it's so like, naturally, innately human to move. I can't sit still when there's a beat on [Xavier: laughs, yeah]. So how do you navigate that in your work?
RAPHAEL XAVIER: I love silence, by the way [Bolingbroke: Mmm]. Because it doesn't, you don't have a meter to chase. Like music becomes a meter and you start trying to keep up to the beat or you get to a certain point and you start thinking, wow, I got it, I got that much left, and you can wear yourself out. Like psychologically, you get more fatigued [Bolingbroke: Yeah], when there's nothing there. And so you create the timing, you create these patterns in silence that just happen. And I think that, for me, it's a strength because freestyle allows me to just go wherever I need to go. It's not improvisation, it's just freestyle. So if I hear, let's just say who I listen to a lot of different music. I mean, I can even, rock, house, rap, of course, alternative, grunge, garage, I just listen to music. And I'll hear something, it might be a break of a song, a little piece that the drummer might do, or the whatever instrumentation there is. And like I said, I'll pull that out, and I'll extend that whole, that whole, that little thing into a, I don't know how long it [Bolingbroke: Uh-huh] would be. I’d just, just make it longer. And, and I'll go from there, and I'll take the emotion or the feeling that it's given me and I'll start moving to that. And then I'll write it down and say, Okay, remember this feeling. Remember this song that's pulled this, this movement, when it comes time to build on that [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh]. It could be a month later, I hear something else, I'll make notes same way and put that together with that thing. And then I start going in that direction. But as a, as a, as a rapper, one of the things that [clears throat] excuse me, you learn is to make your own beats [Bolingbroke: Mmm]. At least I did in the 80s [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh]. And, and so you begin to sample [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh], right, but you don't want to sample and use the same thing everyone else is using because you’re called a biter, or it's a, it just gets boring, we heard that already [Bolingbroke: Mmm]. And you sound like this person, and you need your own style. And so I just started, you know, pulling from anything. And you learn how to find those little sounds that inspire you to write a song or which translated into me moving [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh]. And I build, I build everything around understanding how to approach sampling with dance [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh] or writing songs with dance. They go hand in hand. And you know, back in the day, you didn't do only one thing. You were a rapper, DJ, a graffiti writer, and a dancer [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh]. And I just took to all of it.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Yeah, and so if it's not a set length of song, and this idea, I also love the idea of sampling, pulling something out making it longer. Also, without a formula. Just make it longer, as long as it's interesting. How when you're making a dance, do you know that it's done?
RAPHAEL XAVIER: [Chuckles] It ain’t never done [Bolingbroke: It ain't never done]. Yeah, it’s never done. But I think immediately I can base things off of time [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh]. If, if a presenter wants to work this hour long, then I'll make an hour long [Bolingbroke chuckles], or I'll make 50 minutes [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh]. But it's always been hard for me to make anything over an hour [Bolingbroke: Mmm]. It's hard. It's difficult [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh, yeah], without being monotonous or boring. And you, you’re always going to have those moments I guess in a dance where they're like boring and people do this [Bolingbroke laughs]. And my problem is I see them [Bolingbroke:Yeah]. I can see..
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: …And they look at their watch.
RAPHAEL XAVIER: Yeah. And I'm like, dang, I'm not, I'm not doing what I'm supposed to [Bolingbroke: Hmm] do. But I just, I don't create work for a specific time [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh]. I just do it until I feel like okay, let me stop here and rework what I have and how ever it ends up ending at that moment, then that’s how it ends up.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: And another very practical consideration I think that a lot of dance makers face: How do you name a dance?
RAPHAEL XAVIER: [Chuckles] That’s the last thing I do [Bolingbroke: It is]. It has always been the last thing.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: And yet the works never done. And then [Xavier: Yeah] that's the like the last possible minute that you'll name it [Xavier: Yeah]. And, and it feels so short and truncated compared to this other relationship [Xavier: Yeah] to making things longer.
RAPHAEL XAVIER: Yeah. Jazz musicians, I listen to a lot of jazz too [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh]. But there's always have these, these titles of songs that don't make no sense because there's no words, so you don't hear anybody say “blueberry juice under the bed” [Bolingbroke laughs]. It's just, [Bolingbroke: the actual title?] Right? And he like, Well, where do they get the title from? So, I, I started naming songs that way. And dances the same way. One of the, one of my favorite names to a show is the Unofficial Guide to Audience Watching Performance. Whole title [Bolingbroke laughs and says: I love that]. I didn't know what to name it, and I wanted it to be kind of silly. And I was, I think I was, I don’t know, I might have been Barnes & Noble [laughs] and I walk in and I saw a whole list of The Guide to Riding Trolleys, The Guide to Changing Car Engines [Bolingbroke laughs] right?
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: The Unofficial Guide to Plumbing. I've seen those yellow and black books [Xavier laughs]. I know exactly what you're talking about.
RAPHAEL XAVIER:Yeah. Exactly, exactly. And so, I was like, Okay, let's call it the Unofficial Guide To. Then I saw the Unofficial Guide books next to the so and so for Dummies [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh]. Right? They were all like in this category. And I was like, wow, that's interesting. So, I I chose to name the show The Unofficial Guide to Audience Watching Performance.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Mmm-huh. Potholes and bookstores [Xavier laughs]. You never know when inspiration is gonna come from [Xavier: Exactly, exactly]. Raph, what do you look for in dancers then? Because you aren't just a solo artist, but you're, you're constantly relating to others too. But you don't also keep a more conventional company of dancers on payroll. So, I'm curious, what do you look for in, in movers, especially with your history in Breaking, that Breaking dancers don't come up through conventional conservancy, uhh, conservatories?
RAPHAEL XAVIER: Specifically, sorry [clears throat], [Bolingbroke: Yeah] specifically with Breaking [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh], I like to stay in that, in that space. So, I find guys that are very interesting movers [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh]. And some people frown upon them in the circle, and they, they be killing it. But it's like, you know, they're not, they're not, they don’t battle well. They don't have a particular circle energy [Bolingbroke: Hmm]. But I can see if I put that on stage, man, I think you have a space to shine. And one of my dancers, a good friend of mine named Jerry Valmae, he was always in the circle all the time battling, and people used to tell him, you're not ready to battle man, you got a lot to learn and you don't need to be battling yet. I'm like, what you every time you go out, you do something very different. And it reminded me of myself. All week, I would train to create these, these patterns and sets to go to a jam and dance one hour straight and never repeat anything [Bolingbroke: Hmm]. And I saw that in him. So, I asked him if he wanted to be part of, part of the work. And anyone who, who I think moves well. And I leave dance out because it's not about the dance itself [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh]. I think movement is the ultimate dance. Like if you can move well and know your body then you can, dance is not a problem [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh]. So, if people can move well, in any space, I'm curious to know how I can work with them and, and explore things that I've never explored as a, as a mover [Bolingbroke: Hmm]. And so, I want to work with them. And if they want to work with me, when we go in the studio, we start to play and then I'm, I'm familiar with what they do and how they do it. They become familiar with what I do and then I you know, invite them into the, into the work. So, anyone who wants to do something different or see dance and movement very different than everyone else. I'm, I'm open to that.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: And you still dance in your work too? [Xavier: Yeah] Yeah.
RAPHAEL XAVIER: Ego keeps me there.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: The ego [laughs] [Xavier: the ego]. Keeps you honest [laughs].
RAPHAEL XAVIER: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I have to be in the work. I just, I refuse not to be [Bolingbroke: Hmm]. And it's not, it's not like an egotistical thing. It's just that I, there's something I won't even say prove. But there's something I feel I must continue to do [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh], so the young generation or just people in general can see that this dance is, it has a life beyond what they assume it to be about you, you know [Bolingbroke: Hmmm] Because its young [Bolingbroke: It's still a very young form] Yeah, yeah, yeah [Bolingbroke: Yeah]. So, this is the first time that, that you have dancers over 50, who can still break, you know. And I'm young, I'm 52. But there's, there's guys that are 55 years old, who can still pull up some stuff. 56 who are you really like amazing to watch. But they're, they're kind of not accepted, totally accepted as. If you're, if you're 56, and you're still in the circle, you're battling, you need to give it up [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh]. Right? You can't compete against a 20-year old, 8-year old now. But that doesn't mean you have to stop. There's, there's other avenues for you to play. And it's not, it's not out there yet. So, I have to continue to do that, so people can see oh, wow, we can continue to move this way.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Mm-huh. And in some ways, you're also exploring uncharted territory [Xavier: Yeah] for the forum at this age as well.
RAPHAEL XAVIER: Yeah, yeah. Everything doesn't have to be spinning, doesn't have to be, you know, this dynamic idea what people expect Breaking to be or Hip-Hop dance is to be [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh]. I can stand still, and the audience will clap or I can just sit in the freeze, and they will clap. And that's, not saying I'm like some great dancer. But I've learned to harness the idea of stillness [Bolingbroke: Hmmm, mm-huh], and make that as dynamic as possible, right? Because when you see, you see Breaking, it's this wow thing. But can you do that, if you're just in a freeze? Can you get that same reaction from an audience? [Bolingbroke: Hmm] And that's the stuff I like to play with.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: And how you're putting things together so that it's not trick after trick after trick [Xavier: Yeah] after trick, which I think is the sort of snapshot misnomer that people tend to assume about Breaking [Xavier: Yeah] Like, oh, it's those five moves [Xavier laughs and says: Yeah] We're talking about the five moves.
RAPHAEL XAVIER: Yeah, windmills, swipe flares, air flares, head spins, tracks, floats, anything that makes the audience go: Wowww! you know.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Right. Yeah, well you know, you do have to touch the ground at some point [laughs] [Xavier laughs and says: Yeah, yeah] Just be in the air the entire time [Xavier: Yeah] or just be kicking your leg as high as possible.
RAPHAEL XAVIER: And you can’t sustain that, man. You can't [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh], that's, that's good for like, maybe 10 minutes, and you suck and win. But, you know, works that are an hour long [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh], if you're lucky to work with me, because they're pushing 70-80 minutes with an intermission. And now you got to go up, drink some water, come back and do that again? No.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: And sustain that energy. [Yeah, yeah, it’s not possible] And self-modulation, too [Xavier: It's not possible]. And I, just to understand, because you said, you know, when looking for dancers, you're looking for guys that do this: are we Colloquially speaking about guys? Or is this still a male-dominated form? How does gender also play a role or a consideration in your work?
RAPHAEL XAVIER: It can be guy or girl. I've had females work in my work before. And competitively they're better than me are some of the guys that were on stage with us. And they always got the most claps and the most energy from the [Bolingbroke: Hmm] audience because it's rarely seen [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh], and especially when they can hold their, their ground [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh]. Right now, there are a lot of females who are coming up [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh], and they're really, really good. And I think I think it started mostly in Europe where those women were just around that. that, that energy of the Breaker [Bolingbroke: Hmm]. How can I say that? The concept of Breaker was this Aaah [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh] you know what I mean? And so, when you're around that you take that on [Bolingbroke: Yeah]. So, you had a lot of women who had the caps pulled down over their eyes, the, the, the jeans and the shirts, you look like a boy until you take your hat off and it's oh, there's a girl in there. No earrings, nothing like that. And then in America, you had a couple of women who were, they entered the space as: women earrings like this big [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh], nice blouse. Just look really beautiful. And so, it started to change the, the dynamic of how women looked in the circle. And I mean, it's incredible when they go in there as them [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh] and do their thing is something very fresh to look at. But I choose to again work with people who can really move well [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh], and respect the space and the approach to the dance. And, and I'm all for it [Bolingbroke: Yeah]. I don't want to, I don't want to work with people who try to be something else [Bolingbroke: Hmm] to fit in [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh]. Just be yourself, you know.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Mm-huh, mm-huh. Well and my own reflection in seeing your work, relative to other dance forms that, you know, some dance forms have very gendered, this is the male part, [Xavier: Yeah] this is the female part. And it also feels very unisex in that regard [Xavier: Yeah]. It is the people that are on stage [Xavier: Yeah]. And, and oftentimes too, your, what we were talking about, your Point of Interest, the work that you performed in Cleveland a couple of years ago, and it was really about you pitting yourself and demonstrating the relationship of age over time [Xavier: Yeah]. And I know that you've played with that as well [Xavier: Yeah], in terms of the casting and the context that these moves are being seen in [Xavier: Mm-huh, mm-huh]. So that it's not about trying to a face age, like oh, no, we're all pretending that we're 20 something [Xavier laughs and says: Right] and flipping up off the ground. And it's like, No, this is different for each of us too.
RAPHAEL XAVIER: Yeah, yeah. In that show, there was a young lady named Macca Malik. And if you put all of us up against each other, and watch us move, she seem, she just fit right in [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh]. She wasn't weaker. She was just as strong. Honestly, she was stronger. But there was some things that she was killing us in [Bolingbroke: Mmmm]. And it's what that person brings to the table. But what Point of Interest, I wanted to not only highlight the age difference, but the, the ability of, you know, you have a young person, say, a young lady, and you have an old man, an older man. And we all, you can see the lineage [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh], you know. People are doing the same things. Mine is very minimal, but it's still strong [Bolingbroke: Mmmm]. Jerry was, was very hard. And it looked mine looked just as comparable. Or mine, my movements look just as comparable [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh, mm-huh]. And Chris comes in with his whole modern background. It just looks like the stuff we're doing on the floor. He's doing standing up [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh]. So there's all these things to play with. But the lineage, the maturity, the longevity of the form, all played a part in me trying to find those things to keep the audience near point, points of interest [Bolingbroke: Yeah] in that work, you know [a couple of unclear phrases] you're gonna like Macca. If you don't like Macca, you're gonna like Jerry, but at the end, you're gonna like all of them.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: You could see it more often than once and have a completely different experience [Xavier: Yeah, yeah]. Talk about The Unofficial Guide of Audience Watching. It's all related.
RAPHAEL XAVIER: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Did you see that by any chance?
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: I didn't see that one yet [Xavier: Okay, okay ] Yeah, yeah, yeah. But no, I appreciate the homework [Xavier laughs]. I'm also curious, you mean, you have had a career already, often, right, as a dancer and a DJ and rapper at the end of the 20th century. You started as a company or making your own work at the beginning of this century. So as a sort of bridge artist, you know, as someone who has the training, but was just getting started at the start of the 21st century, how would you define 21st century dance practices? [Xavier] Good, Googa Maga. I don’t know Googa Maga? [Both laugh]
RAPHAEL XAVIER: I don't know. I,I…
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: You accepted the invitation to teach under that banner. So thank you [Both laugh]. And how would you make some sense out of that?
RAPHAEL XAVIER: I don't know. I really don't know. When I got into this, I stepped into a framework [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh] that was already existent, like, I mean, 20-30 years before me.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Yeah. Not just Breaking but in the dance and performance [Xavier: Yeah, yeah, yeah] framework.
RAPHAEL XAVIER: Yeah, So, I came in as a performer in something completely [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh] new and different. And so, when I got in to this thing, I watched. I just paid attention to what was going on. And I would hear names. I can't even remember all the other names. but I would hear Ralph Lemon [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh], Ron Brown [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh, Bill T. Jones] obviously…I didn't hear Bill T yet [Bolingbroke: Okay, okay]. And, and [unclear name] [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh], Duncan, like I was hearing all these names because I wasn't not a dancer [Bolingbroke: Right]. I wasn’t interested in dance at all. I would just Breaking. It was my thing [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh]. There was nothing better than that. So, when I got into this space, I start hearing these people talk names, and I didn't pay any mind until I got in, I started getting to Q and A's, and I'm like, I can't answer these questions [Bolingbroke: Hmm]. I don't even know what to say, I don't know how to respond [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh]. So then, I started slowly getting into the space of learning more about these people. And I felt like I have to if, if and when I step into this thing completely, I have to know who they are and what they've done before me [Bolingbroke: Mmm]. So, I don't repeat what I [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh, mm-huh], what I thought I knew or what it felt like, I just found this glass of water, Oh, my god, and people go, they'll [Bolingbroke: We’ve been drinking this water for years]. Yeah, exactly. So, I used all of those things to inform how I was going to move [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh] forward, forward with something fresh [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh]. And so, it was like really taking the tools that have already existed and been there and rework them [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh], that works on something completely foreign to me and the viewer [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh]. Does that make sense? [Bolingbroke: Yeah] So I just played, I just played that game, I just played what I thought was a game to play to fit into this [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh] into this world.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Mm-huh. Yeah, and sort of honoring what came before you [Xavier: Yeah], in the spirit of not repeating [Xavier: Yeah]. I love that just as a regular mantra. When you're gonna get stuck, you know, when, when things aren't happening [Xavier: mm-huh], and how to continue to move forward [Xavier: Mm-huh]. My last question, if you have another mantra or great piece of advice that was shared with you, that you'd like to pass on and share with our dancers and interested listeners? Yeah, how do you navigate this creative career and keep going?
RAPHAEL XAVIER: I will say my own quote.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Okay, quote yourself. You've earned the right [Both laugh].
RAPHAEL XAVIER: And I, I, this has come from organically experiencing what my students or what people I come in contact with experience [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh]. And it is, wherever you end up is exactly where you're supposed to be. Just get to where you want to go [Bolingbroke: Mmm]. So doesn't matter. And you've heard this, you've heard a similar thing [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh], wherever you are, that's where you're supposed to be. But get to where you want to go. When I would watch them in moves or something. I'm showing them how to, they get stuck: Oh, where do I go now? Well where do you want to go? [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh] And they just let go of something and stand up. That's all it is [Bolingbroke: Mmm]. When you're working in a playing field that's even, it's common sense [Bolingbroke: Mmm]. If you're not, it's not common sense [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh, So barriers]. Yeah. You can't say to someone with anything, you can't say to someone who doesn't play in the same field, Oh, man, it's common sense. Come on, you should know that. It's not. And it's almost offensive to say that to someone [Bolingbroke: Yeah]. [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh]. You know it: A through Z [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh]. Go wherever you want to go within that framework [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh] and you end up in the perfect spot. You just work with what you what you know. And that's all I've done. All my life. I just worked with what I knew and I've learned something new [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh]. And then I've worked with what I have learned and then I take on something else. But learning all of those things, allow me to have a large vocabulary to pull from and, and include in anything else that I do in life. So, I go where I want to go [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh] anytime I want [Bolingbroke: Mm-huh].
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: What I heard inside of that too, it's not only going where you want to go, but that it isn't a linear accumulation [Xavier: Right, mm-mm] that you can also let go to get there [Xavier: Right. Yes. [Xavier: Right, right] I love it.
OUTRODUCTION: Inside The Dancer’s Studio Live Series is supported by NCCAkron, the University of Akron, the University of Akron Foundation and the Mary Schiller Myers Lecture Series in the Arts. Our podcast program is produced by Jennifer Edwards. James Sleeman is our editor. Theme music by Floco Torres, cover art by Micah Kraus. Special thanks to the team on the ground in Akron, Ohio. To learn more about NCCAkron, please visit us online at NCCakron.org. And follow us on Instagram or Facebook at NCCAkron. We hope you enjoyed this episode, and we encourage you to subscribe on your favorite podcast streaming platform by searching for Inside The Dancer’s Studio. Please share with your friends and if you’d like to help get the word out rate us, and leave a review on Apple podcasts. Thanks for listening and stay curious.