Sheer Creativity
Step into the chill vibes of Sheer Creativity, your go-to laid-back podcast about creatives for creatives! Immerse yourself in dynamic conversations, insightful interviews, and performances, all centered around the creative experience. With me, Laraya, as your guide, we'll blend special guests, personal development nuggets, and engaging creative content to inspire and motivate you on your artistic journey.
Sheer Creativity
Brittany Renee: The Graceful Dancer
This Sheer Creator is acquainted with multiple disciplines. Brittany Renee is a dancer, choreographer, poet, and content creator from Kentucky. In this conversation, Brittany and I talk about her choreography process, blending dance with poetry, pandemic woes, and her most notable creative projects.
Watch Brittany's poem Black Bouquets on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2z5EXoUP7I&t=35s
Listen to The Black Girl Project on Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/agents-of-change-volume-3-the-black-girl-project/1573932388
Listen to The Black Girl Project on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/2QP6KOv9vJFQA6x0xzh7C8?si=Y2j4Y40cSeSFq9YPzgXkhQ
SHEER CREATIVITY LINKS
Read Laraya's creative writing on Of Wisdom and Wander
Check out Laraya's website
Order Laraya's poetry collection
Welcome to the Sheer Creativity Podcast, the podcast about creatives for creatives. Our Sheer Creator on today's episode is Brittany Renee. Brittany is a poet, writer, choreographer, and content creator. Brittany, welcome to the show.
Brittany:Hi. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here.
Raya:Girl. You do a lot. I know.
Brittany:I do what I can a lil sumthing.
Raya:I was looking at your website to figure out what questions I wanted to ask you, and I have a lot like you. You're in a lot of disciplines, which I think is really interesting. So I'm excited to talk to you about it.
Brittany:Yeah, I'm excited to be here. Yeah. Yeah. ask away. Anything.
Raya:So let's start off with telling us more about you like your age, where you're from.
Brittany:Yeah, for sure. So I'm 22. I'm from Louisville, Kentucky. Uh, let's see, I think I started in the arts when I was like six, began with dance, started ballet, tap, jazz, and then I danced all the way up till I was 14. And then I started going to performing arts high school called the Youth Performing Arts School in Louisville. It was a magnet high school. You had to audition, you had majors, all that type of jazz. So it was a very like, It was hard to get into and it has a very comprehensive arts program and they have a lot of really awesome performers that come out of there. They go to Broadway, the professional. Oh wow. Yeah, all of that. Like really top tier shout out to Y Pass. It was great. And then I went to the University of Kentucky. Did not plan to do dance at all. After I majored in dance in high school, I kind of got burnt out a little bit and I was like, oh, I don't even wanna, I don't wanna dance. And a matter of fact, we had to do a thesis when we were in high school, and my senior thesis for dance was about how you could keep dance in your life not being a dance major. And then somehow I ended up, it's like I couldn't get away with from it, you know? Um, and you mentioned me doing a lot of things. I did a lot of theater when I was in high school.
Raya:Mm-hmm.
Brittany:And I would do the little musicals. So I actually started college as a theater major. Okay. That was not right for me. Picked up dance as a minor, picked up a different degree as family science, and then ended up picking the dance major A again, after all.
Raya:And here we are. So it's why wasn't theater right for you?
Brittany:Okay, here's the thing. I love theater. I don't think I loved it at the same level that I did for dance. Like dance really was like not just a hobby, it was like a way of being in the world. It was something I could not not do. I think theater, being around theater majors made me see that they were a lot more committed than I was to it, and I couldn't see myself putting all my energy into it, but I still miss it. So like if there was a community theater or maybe a role here, there something small, but it wasn't something I was prepared to like fully commit to, so,
Raya:oh yeah, that makes sense. I feel like college kind of opens your eyes to maybe I have to like dabble into something else because these people seem real committed to this and I don't know if I'm on that level.
Brittany:Yeah. It's like, oh wait, maybe what I had before. Like that was the rule. Like you ever been dating somebody? And then you like break up with them and then you date somebody else and you're like, oh wait, actually wait, I actually let me run that back. It was bad. Like I feel like I broke up with dance and then got back and I was like, ah, yeah, this was where I should have stayed in the first place.
Raya:Well, it sounds like you've always been kind of a creative person. You said you started at six dancing.
Brittany:Yep.
Raya:Was it something that just kind of started out of the blue or like your parents put you into it? How did you start dancing?
Brittany:I think it was more my mom. I think she was just like, we need to put her in something. And I think she just put me in dance and it stuck. It's lucky in a lot of ways since I feel like a lot of other people who I've talked to, they have to try a bunch of different things before they figure out like their thing. But when she put me in dance, it was very obvious that I had kind of a talent for it, and I progressed pretty, pretty quickly. So it was the right call. So mama knew something?
Raya:Yes. And dance chose you. Mm-hmm.
Brittany:Mm-hmm. Yeah. It really did. It really did.
Raya:How did you make the, the transition, I guess, from being a dancer to being a choreographer?
Brittany:Yeah, I dunno. I dunno that I identify, I guess I am a choreographer. I always get a bunch of imposter syndrome with that cause when I hear choreographer, it's like this big renowned, worldwide. But basically a choreographer is the one that is putting together the dances. They're pulling material to put together a dance work, kind of like the, the architect. The writing, the foundation type thing, and dancers bring it to life.
Raya:Well, I've seen some of the dances you had on your website, so has it been like a challenge learning how to be a choreographer or like how does, how does that look for you choreographing a dance?
Brittany:Oh God, I have a whole process. So I think the first thing I wanna start with, with choreography, I think a lot of people think, oh, like you just make up a dance. Like you just put a move here and you put a move there. But the more I delved into it, it really is an art. Like there is a, like you have stories beginning, middle, and end. There's a way to craft a piece where it takes you on a journey. So that's not all the same. there's contrast to big movement, small movement, quality. Are we gonna have like this really coarse tense quality? Are we gonna have the smooth quality? Um, visually? Are we gonna have a group of dancers moving together? Are we gonna have something happening in the corner? So I think for me, when I start a piece, I like to work conceptually, so there's usually an idea or like a story that I wanna bring to life. I know some people work with music, they wanna like match the movement with the music, which is fine, but for me, I find it more interesting if I have like an idea that I want to either like abstract or I want to kind of give on commentary. Let me try to give a example. Oh, so one of my degrees is in family science and basically that degree program is about relationships, um, the family, how different relationships form. The family and the patterns that, um, affect how you move in society. So there's this one theory called attachment theory, which is basically this idea that the relationship you have with your primary caregiver affects the way that you move in romantic relationships. And when I found out about this when I was a freshman and it just blew my mind, rock my world. Cause I thought it was so, it just explained a lot of things. So I wanted to make a dance about attachment theory. So like the key parts of attachment theory, there is an attachment style, um, called avoidant. So those are people who they want love, but they kind of run from it, or they might avoid intimacy. So to put this into a dance, I was working with, um, a duet. So I had two dancers who they would have the sequence of coming together and pulling apart. So different things like that, like taking aspects, how can I abstract it? And thinking about connection, I was like, okay, how can I put attachment theory, like individual way and not make it super obvious? So I came up with the metaphor of connection as a fire, because fire is something that's helpful, you know, it's, um, it can help you, but if you get too close to it, it can burn you. Like we need relationships but people have the ability to hurt you. So working with this fire image, I had this part of the dance where one person kind of symbolized the flame and they were doing all this stuff and the other person was kind of circling the flame, almost like a moth coming in and coming out and how that interacts. So different things like that. And then throughout the dance, I made sure there was this push and pull element to represent how we sometimes run towards things. And then we're pushed back towards things because we just have this. Back and forth of, oh, do we want to, oh, do we not? Um, so that was, that was cool. Um, I'm a planner, so I tend to write all this down. Like I start with the brainstorm of like, what are the possible things I can abstract? What are the images that I want to done? What are the different directions? So where are they gonna go on the stage? And then from there, I can work through the sequencing, what I want to happen at which part, and then I usually come up with what's called a movement. So this is just a series of gestures that I can base a whole dance on. So if you think of a dance as like a tree, I would say the motif for the movement phrase is like the seed. So I can have a movement of me just like, let's say opening my hands, turning and then spinning. And then from there I can manipulate those three phrases to make up all this movement. So instead of opening just my hands, I might lay on my back and open my legs. So we made that movement into a different thing, Where instead of spinning like just with my body, I might just spin my arm. And there's so many things you can abstract with just that. So you can make it bigger, you can make it smaller, you can do that with another person. You can change the direction, you can do it while you're moving. So take the movement phrase, do a lot of extraction, and then once I have a bunch of that, I find the music that I want and I play with different and put it on top, see what I don't like. And then I think about costuming, which is always the hardest part. I suck at costuming cuz I just feel like what? Put'em in all black. That was mouthful. Yeah, it's a long process. Me improvising is a good way for me to work. So working off whatever my topic is, I'll just set up my video camera and just record myself moving for like five to 10 minutes, which doesn't sound like a lot. But when you're just moving with no phrase, it's a lot of time. And then I'll watch back what I did and then pick out things that I liked and then what?
Raya:Oh, okay.
Brittany:And then I can abstract that. Like, okay, ooh, what if I did that? But I was like scooting on the floor while I did that hand movement and kind of piece it all together. Lots of videos, always videoed, and then set it on the dancers. Remember what she made up. Try to teach it to'em. Hope they do it. Change it again. and then when you get to the point where you don't hate it that much, then you're like, okay, I guess people gone see it now.
Raya:I guess it's done right?
Brittany:I guess it's, it's the dance.
Raya:No, I love that. First of all, a dance based off the attachment theory is so dope. I just learned about it and I was like, dang, this does explain a lot of stuff.
Brittany:Isn't that cool?
Raya:Yeah. I also think like, so I'm gathering that the motif phrase is kind of like a single motion, but then you do different variations of that motion. Right. Okay. Exactly.
Brittany:Yeah.
Raya:When you're teaching the dance to new people, how do you inspire them to see your vision or motivate them? Especially if it's like new people to dance?
Brittany:Hmm. Yeah. I think it depends on the level of answer that you're working with. Like you mentioned, um, the work I did, like I said, a lot of work on other dance majors in college, so they knew kind of the way that I wanted to move. I haven't really worked that much with, uh, less experienced dancers, but I think you would probably adjust your choreography to the skill level. So I'm not gonna have you doing all these random kicks and leaps if you've only been dancing for a year or two. Um, but I do like to give the basis for the piece or my concept before I start. That way they can already be in the head space. Mm-hmm. So I think that piece that you're talking about, I think I made them all take an attachment style quiz and like read about it. So they knew what was going on. Cause when I've been in pieces where they didn't tell me what the piece was about, like, you can do it, but it just feels like you're moving. Like, I don't feel like I'm part of the thing, you know?
Raya:Mm-hmm. there's no connection.
Brittany:Exactly. And when I have the connection, then I'm like, oh, it, it just gives a whole way of intentionality to the movement.
Raya:Yeah.
Brittany:I like my peoples to know what's up, so I'll All right.
Raya:Yeah. And I feel like it makes it more powerful if I know what I'm doing, right? If, if I, I know the emotions I'm supposed to convey the, like, the scene that I'm maybe creating. If I know what I'm doing, then I'm able to give my all to that. So yeah, I definitely understand that.
Brittany:Another thing you mentioned with the motif, um, mo movement phrase thing. One thing I also really love about that technique is a lot of people think when you make a dance, you just do random movement and you throw it all together, which you can do. But when you're working from that movement scene, it just gives this whole through line to the whole work. Like it all looks like it came from the same place because did. So it doesn't look like this random, throw everything in the kitchen sink in it because you, everything came from the same place. Yeah. So of how that can really makes, makes it more cohesive.
Raya:Yeah. As I mentioned earlier, you are also a poet and what excites you about blending dance with poetry?
Brittany:Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. So before that, when you're making dances, a lot of people think of it as matching the movement with the music, which it can be. And I think when a lot of dancers start out, that is what they default to you, because that's what's easiest. I get it. However, what I don't like about that is when you match the movement to music, it's almost like you are the soundtrack to the music, if that makes sense, like the music is the star but you're just illustrating it. But when I see dance and poetry together, it's almost like the words and the movement are in conversation with each other versus just being an illustration of the other. So when you're dancing to words like there's no right way to move with a sentence. So you can be moving with the words you could, or you could be working with the meaning of the word. You could be matching with the rhythm of the word. You could be working with the whole meaning of the whole piece. So there's just so much more possibility and it's much more interesting to watch, I think. Cause not a lot of people do it. It's not like music video. It's not what you see when you go to most ballets or modern dance companies. So it just gives you so much more artistic freedom when you work that way. Yeah, I just, yeah, I need to do it more. You would think since I do both, that I would do it more.
Raya:Yeah, you should do it more.
Brittany:I should.
Raya:You just said there's, there's not really a lane for it, so you can create it.
Brittany:There's not, yeah, so Love it.
Raya:Well, on your website you talk about like poetry being agency for you, so what do you mean by that statement?
Brittany:Yeah, I think for me, poetry is about taking control of your own story. I think throughout history there's always gonna be stories told about everybody, but as a poet, I am writing my own story, and I think there's something so powerful about you being the author of what is happening to you because it just allows you to not only sit with what has happened but feel like life isn't happening to you. Right? So that's what I mean by agency. Like, you have some control. It's not over what happened, over how you're gonna remember it, how you're gonna memorialize it, how you're going to relay that to other people.
Raya:For me that, that means a lot to me actually, because poetry has always been my, like catharsis.
Brittany:Mm-hmm.
Raya:So it is a way. I can look at situations in my life and be like, I can spin it like this. I can choose to have a positive spin on it. I can like just be creative in any way that I want to be with my life. So, yeah, I love that.
Brittany:I agree. So, cathartic. Oh, so cathartic.
Raya:So describe what you believe to be your best performance and what did you learn from that experience?
Brittany:Oh, lord. What? Oh, what me, what medium?
Raya:We can do two, we can do poetry or dance.
Brittany:When you say performance, do you mean like specifically relating to dance? Something I've danced in or something I've created?
Raya:Um, danced in.
Brittany:Danced in? Mm, okay. It was recent, so I just did a dance concert with the University of Kentucky in February and I did this one piece called Cascade by Warren. And it was about environmentalism and it had this really great classical score and we kind of symbolize like water and different things in nature. What I love the most about it was this was the first time that I danced and I saw myself as a professional dancer. As I was going through the rehearsals and going through the performances, I was like, ah, like I had this aha moment, like, oh, I, maybe I can actually really do this. And there was this moment cuz I had a, a pretty full solo in there. And when I was just falling into the different movements, it's almost like I was melting into the moment.
Raya:Aw, I love that.
Brittany:Like this transcendent like, not to be all like hippy dippy, but I was like, ah, you know, you're just in the zone. Like you just float.
Raya:Yeah. You were in it in the moment.
Brittany:And I feel like as dancers it's hard because there's the audience. You know, you're thinking it's technique, right? Make sure I don't run into this dancer that make sure I'm on the beat. But when you can access that space where you're really just in it and you're just on autopilot, but you're still performing to the best of your ability and you really feel like not only with the movement, but also with the audience is peak. That would be my favorite. And the movement was also just gorgeous. Like it was so yummy to do. Sometimes you have movement from choreographers and like it, it looks good, but it don't feel good. But this movement looked good and felt good. Like we would go to rehearsal every Saturday. We'd have rehearsal from like 9 to 12 and I'd wake up on Saturday morning and be like, ah. Going to rehearsal. like, Ooh.
Raya:It sounds like it was like a, a confident environment for you.
Brittany:Oh, for sure. And she was so supportive. I think sometimes dancers with choreographers, they get into this mode of, okay, I have to impress them. I cannot mess up but she made it very collaborative. Like she would ask us like, oh, what do you think we should do in this part? Or What should we do? What if we do this way? And man, yeah. Awesome. Awesome work experience as well.
Raya:That's great. So, in your opinion, what are some important traits that you have to have as a dancer?
Brittany:Hmm. I think one of the more important ones is attention to detail. There is no detail too small like the tension between your fourth and your thumb finger needs to be the same as the person next to you. You need to make sure that the tilt of the head is exactly what it's supposed to be. Cause every little thing, you have to make sure you're matching exactly what the choreographer wants. Unless of course they say, okay, make it your own like they do in hip hop. But otherwise, you need to make sure that you are really doing what they need. Cuz when you're in an audition, they're gonna pick the person who's matching them the most and making sure you pay attention. Uh, I would say somebody who is able to work with people who doesn't have an attitude. You know, dance is a team sport. And somebody who's having fun cause when I'm watching a dancer, I wanna watch people who make me wanna dance too like your movement should move other people. There's not a lot of demand, especially for ballet and modern dance, unless you really, really love it.
Raya:Yeah, while you were saying that, I actually wanna go back.
Brittany:Yeah,
Raya:because you said you had auditioned to get into the magnet school. What was that audition process like and what is the audition process like for dancing?
Brittany:Oh, I can't speak. I'm really at the beginning of my career, but from my limited experience, all just to get into the dance school, it was basically a huge masterclass. And a masterclass is just, uh, a big class that you take usually with a teacher you haven't taken with before. So they'll take you through a warmup, you'll do different exercises. Um, for that, I remember they had us improvise, so they would give us words and they would have us move based on the words that they did. And then usually there's a combination and they'll have you do the combination either in groups or pairs in front of everybody so they can kind of see how you move, how you pick up the choreography.
Raya:Are you normally like very excited for the audition process? Is it something that kind of challenges you?
Brittany:Yeah, I think at this point I'm used to, I think I'm used to it at this point.
Raya:Mm-hmm.
Brittany:I don't know. I try to think about it too much cuz I'll get anxious about it.
Raya:Oh yeah,
Brittany:Go in there and do your best. I try to treat it like every other dance class if, if you're giving a hundred percent in your regular dance class, then I think an audition, it's pretty much the same thing. Just making sure that they see your individuality. Cause everybody has great, great technique, but if they really like your personality and your essence, then they're gonna pick you.
Raya:That's a really good point because if everybody's doing the same movements, how do you stand out? Showing your own individuality is important. Yeah.
Brittany:And another thing that's interesting to me, uh, as a choreographer when I'm watching is, like you were saying, people can do the same movement, but the same movement can look vastly different, not just cuz they have different bodies, but their movement qualities. just the way that they carry their limbs or how far out extended they extend out their limbs and their hemisphere or their eye contact. So, and that was one big thing when I first started choreographing, is it was so cool to see my movement on bodies that weren't mine.
Raya:What are your, some of your favorite dance styles?
Brittany:Ooh. So I really got into, Ooh, I'm gonna mess this up. Contemporary African, I don't know if that's the right term, but whatever dance they'd be doing with Afro Pop and Afro beats. Really into that. And that's extremely fun. Also, taking some traditional African, I think another fun one is tap. Tap is always cool. And then modern has always been an all time favorite.
Raya:Oh okay.
Brittany:You know, you get to roll around on the floor, do weird stuff. And I feel like with modern specifically, you can do anything, but there aren't really any rules.
Raya:So it's like, you like more of just the, the free kind of unique dance styles where you could do basically create your own.
Brittany:Yeah. I've never really been a ballet girl. I think now that I'm older, I have an appreciation for it. But when I first started, I hated ballet, like hated it. It was so boring. Like we'd be at the bar, I know and you know, at the bar, we'd do the same, um, movements in the same order every time you start the class. So I would just be in my head making up stories to like, make the time go quicker. Cause I'm so bored Laraya, you don't understand. But now, like I kind of get, the discipline it requires is grounding now but back in the day, like when I was 6, 7, 8, could not get me to stay at the bar.
Raya:I actually took a ballet class.
Brittany:Did you?
Raya:In college and Yes, it was during the pandemic. So we were at home.
Brittany:No. So you were on Zoom?
Raya:And we're like on zoom.
Brittany:No.
Raya:And the lady was like, doing all the movements and I was like, ma'am, this is, this is not working for me
Brittany:baby.
Raya:It is. It, it was a little boring. Like I can just hear her in my head now like plié and all these other terms.
Brittany:Wait, was that your first ballet class?
Raya:Yeah.
Brittany:No, you gotta do it again. That doesn't. No.
Raya:Yeah, I didn't, I didn't get to do all the moves that I should have been able to do because we were at home. But yeah,
Brittany:no. And I remember, it's funny you mentioned that. I remember when we first realized the pandemic like wasn't going anywhere and we were gonna have to go online. And my first thought was like, how the heck am I gonna do a dance major at home?
Raya:Yeah.
Brittany:I dunno how they did it, but you can attest. They figured it out with the Zoom Ballet way. Zoom modern. but at first it was a struggle. Yeah. To get the right arm. And you don't know if it's mirrored based on the, the video and, oh, I was struggling.
Raya:Oh yeah, you probably had like dance classes back to back cuz you were a major, right?
Brittany:I did do and do you know my teacher Shout out to Theresa Batista, but we still had to be in dress code at home, so I'm just in my living room in pink tights and a leotard over here with a table is my bar, hair in a bun. All of that, doing pliés.
Raya:I mean just the pandemic did us so dirty. I don't know why I'm talking about it like it's past tense, but we still in it right now but it's okay. Yeah, we'll work it through it
Brittany:But at least we're in person though. Cause that was one thing I really
Raya:Yeah.
Brittany:Had missed was in person dance class and before. I think when you're younger and like in my case, when you had dance class all the time, you kind of take it for granted, kind of gets redundant, like, oh, another dance class. But after the pandemic baby,
Raya:We coming back?
Brittany:No, I was like rolling on the ground. I was like, thank you God. We have a dance studio. We can dance Yeah.
Raya:And it doesn't seem like fun to be dancing at home by yourself sometimes if you're in a supposed to be in a class environment.
Brittany:For sure. Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad we did it, honestly. That's all that matters.
Raya:Yeah. So while we're on the topic of dancing, how do you utilize improvisation in your dancing?
Brittany:Yeah. Good. So how I mentioned before, it's a big part of my choreography process is
Raya:mm-hmm.
Brittany:helping me generate movement. But I took an improv class with Stephanie Hillman, who was a wonderful dance teacher slash dear friend of mine, and basically the whole class was improv, which at first I was like, okay, what are we gonna do in improv class? But I kind of got to see improvisation, not just as a tool for choreography, but that end in and of itself, you know, just moving for movement sake and exploration like it totally revolutionized my concept on dance and like what could be inspiration cuz we were having to move and be inspired by literally everything around us. And this was also during Zoom. Um, so it was just wonderful. And even now I kind of use it just to de-stress. So when I'm upset, you know, just go improv, turn on a song, move, figure out what's going on in your body, move your body. So I recommend it. Just start moving.
Raya:Yeah, sometimes I wanna start dancing, but
Brittany:This is your time.
Raya:I'm gonna do it.
Brittany:Go ahead and do it.
Raya:You've actually done like a lot of community work from what I've seen on your website. So I would love to know the origin and the purpose for the Black Girls Project that you have.
Brittany:Yes, that's my favorite one. One of my favorite topics. So the Black Girl project. So the source person, the person whose idea it was, he's a community organizer, rapper, hiphop activist based out of Lexington. His name is Divine Karama, and he's been rapping and doing work with mentorship specifically for years. He taught a hiphop class at the University of Kentucky that my friend was in, and they were going to do a project, but then the pandemic happened. So then a year later, apparently he got the idea to do a community project music mentorship initiative for Black women specifically. And he had two people that had been in his class before went, one of which was my friend, and they needed more people. So my friend called me and was like, Hey, like we're doing this music mentorship thing. It's hip hop, like you should do it. And I was like, what? Cause only call me do it. I was like, you know, I'm not a rapper. I don't do none of that. I don't know what you think I'm here for. They're like, oh, but poetry is not that different from rap. But I was really opposed to it. I love the mission. I'm all about black girls. I'm all about, you know, the next generation. But I was busy at the time, didn't know if I had what I needed for the project, but I decided to go anyway just to see what it was about and fell in love. So we basically recruited, it was two, well started with three, ended up being two middle school black girls that were local, and then it was four high school, college age black girls. And we basically just took them under our wing. We processed together what it means to be a black woman. We had brainstorm sessions about different topics that we felt related to us. Told stories about things that resonated with us, and from those brainstorm topics, he had beats for us cause since he is a rapper, he had access to production and all that. So he gave us all these beats and we picked the beats that we wanted and voted on him. Picked the beats, wrote the lyrics, and then we went in the studio and we recorded it all. And then he put it all together and he gave us all types of artistic control over how we wanted to produce it and the order. And it was just honestly a once in a lifetime thing. Never in my life, which I think I would've been on a project like that and to this day, it's one of the projects I'm most proud of being on. Um, not only cause the end product's dope, go listen to it if you haven't. But just the process of it was wonderful and being in the studio and some of these girls would never rap before, obviously never recorded before, but you just saw this confidence creep up in them when they got up to the microphone and they started talking and ugh. And then one of my favorite moments was I had wrote a short poem and everybody on the project was gonna say the lines and they were gonna like stack it on each other to make up a chorus. And hearing these 12 year old girls say the lines of my poem was just a, you know, to hear them in the, the words where I have been seen, I'm seen, I have been known, I'm known and talking about love and worthiness. They just, oh, it was a boohoo moment. I was like, oh, this is everything. This is why we do art, you know? Mm-hmm. bring them together, so, and we'll have that piece of art together forever. We'll have those memories forever. And that's just something you can't, those are the moments that you'll never forget.
Raya:Yeah. I love that. It's like affirmation for black women.
Brittany:Precisely.
Raya:Were you rapping or how did, how did the poetry in the. Okay. Tell us about the rapping experience.
Brittany:Oh, they did convince me to do a little verse or something.
Raya:Ok.
Brittany:I actually had a lot of fun with that. It isn't as different from poetry as I thought. Uh, so I think I have two, two verses on the project. So I have two verses on the project rapping, and then there's one whole track that's a spoken word poem that I wrote. And then I have a friend of mine doing background vocals and there's like music underneath. And then I do background singing vocals on a couple of the tracks, so I'm just like the,
Raya:Ooh, okay.
Brittany:Voice your hair and underneath. So it, it was really cool. and the, one of the poems that they're reciting on one of the first tracks. So I kind of did, did a lot at different things.
Raya:Okay. Do I hear Kendrick Lamar? Do I hear Beyonce?
Brittany:I really don't know anything about that aspect of the arts, but I'd love to make music, not even like on some type, like I'm gonna be a singer type. So I'm just really fascinated by the production process, like how they put songs together. Yeah. So I would love to be a background singer on somebody's track just to be in the studio. So like, you know anybody, you need some background?
Raya:Yeah. I have always wanted to like work with the synthesizer and make my own beats.
Brittany:Really?
Raya:Hopefully somebody on the podcast will, will make my dreams come true.
Brittany:Right. Make those connections sis.
Raya:Yeah. I think we've touched on it a little bit when we talk about affirmations for black women and the importance of community engagement, but I also saw that you have the body, body biographies. Yes. And I would love to hear how important that type of community engagement is to you in your own personal creative journey?
Brittany:Yeah, so body biographies was basically an initiative using movement as therapy in a way to process trauma for young black boys that had been affected by trauma and I think what's impactful about that is not only was this population, Black men, a population that probably isn't going to dance, they're probably not gonna be front row your ballet, but to me this really illuminated how dance is not just about entertainment, but really how we can use movement as a way of healing, as a way of connecting and just seeing how movement it, it really is for everybody. Like it's not about the technique, although it can be sometimes. I think community engagement is so important, especially for dances because everybody has a body, right? Mm-hmm. with other forms or different things like you need equipment, but with dance, all you need is your body. Everybody has one. Everybody can move'em to some extent. So in that sense, I feel like it's super accessible to everybody. You just have to have the will and the open mind to think that this is something that you can do, something that can help you, something that can connect. So I think that's something I need to shout from the rooftops because people don't think of that. Yes. And that could, that's not just for dance, that's for anything. And how are we using what we created or the things we're creating to help people and to impact them, our consumption?
Raya:Yeah. I've actually never thought about it like that, that everybody has a body and that's one of the ways that we can all have common ground in the fact that we all exist and have this body and we can take care of this body and we can move this body. And I think that's so powerful.
Brittany:Yeah, for sure. You better preach. You've given us a word today. Sure. Yeah.
Raya:I didn't intend to get on the pulpit
Brittany:you said. Yeah.
Raya:But we're nearing the end of the podcast, and I just have one more question for you which is what are you looking forward to in the upcoming year?
Brittany:Hmm. Like art making wise or just like in general?
Raya:Um, both. Sure.
Brittany:let's see. I think in general I'm looking forward to being with my family a little bit more, being with friends a little bit more, cause I've been traveling a lot for different things. Haven't really been home or actually I'm looking forward. Starting a life post-grad, cause I graduated college not too long ago.
Raya:Woo.
Brittany:And I Oh, thank you Congratulations. Um, but just moving into like the next phase of my life, you know, starting some things, moving into the next chapter, looking forward to that, that's scary, but. It'll be all right. And then, uh, art making wise, I don't know if this counts art making wise, but I'm, I'm really into salsa dancing and Bachata dancing.
Raya:Okay. That's art.
Brittany:So I'm really looking forward just learning more and, which is so weird cause as a dancer, I feel like I've danced for so long and I kind of know what I'm doing with certain aspects. So I haven't felt like a beginner in a while. But salsa and bachata, like I am definitely a beginner. So it's been kind of a brain rewiring to be like, okay, I don't have to be the best at this right now. Like it's like mm-hmm. mess up and make mistakes. I haven't been at this part of like learning something in year, like decades. Yeah, decades. So, it's good. I'm looking forward to learning more fun with that.
Raya:I love that. Well, I end off every podcast with Laraya's top five. So these are five lightning round questions. You don't have to think too deeply into them, even though some people do.
Brittany:Okay. I'm ready.
Raya:Are you a morning or evening creator?
Brittany:Mm, evening
Raya:Your favorite work you've created thus far.
Brittany:Oh, um, it's a poetry visual called Black Bouquets.
Raya:Okay. Introverted or extroverted?
Brittany:Introverted. Very introverted.
Raya:You're all time favorite album?
Brittany:Oh, mm, probably Ctrl by SZA.
Raya:Okay. I like the choice. I've been loving the, the SZA poems, by the way.
Brittany:Oh, have you been looking at them? I love her. I love her so much.
Raya:All right, our final question is your happiest moment.
Brittany:um, Probably the spring semester of senior year of college was really joyful. A lot of dancing, a lot of friends, a lot of fun stuff.
Raya:Yeah. That's great. Well, you guys can support Brittany's creative projects by following her on Instagram, which is at Brit underscore the creative. I had to make sure I typed that right.
Brittany:I appreciate you. All right, well thank you so much for coming on the podcast. This has been such a good time. Thank you so much for having me. This is a dream come true. You have no idea.
Raya:Thank you.
