The Black Box News had the opportunity to digitally interview Surya Swilley and learn even more about her Outta Box Genius.
She has shared some beautifully moving words that we are excited to share with you below!
She has shared some beautifully moving words that we are excited to share with you below!
What are your first childhood memories centered around dance and movement as expression?
"The first memory is not mine of my own, but one that my father recalls and frequently reminds me of. Apparently at around 10 months old, I had just begun to stand on my own, and while visiting my grandparents’ home in Florida, the television was on BET. During a music video countdown, “The Ghetto” by Too Short was playing and by the television, I was dancing in sync to the downbeat, with my feet making a deliberate 3-part step. I can just always recall being largely drawn to deep bass lines, and always being able to access “the beat”, through a simple head nod or hip sway—it’s always been there. At around 2 or 3 however, my mother began taking me with her to her West African dance rehearsals. It was there that I truly recall knowing that dance, particularly the dances that were rooted in Africanist aesthetics were my safe space."
"The first memory is not mine of my own, but one that my father recalls and frequently reminds me of. Apparently at around 10 months old, I had just begun to stand on my own, and while visiting my grandparents’ home in Florida, the television was on BET. During a music video countdown, “The Ghetto” by Too Short was playing and by the television, I was dancing in sync to the downbeat, with my feet making a deliberate 3-part step. I can just always recall being largely drawn to deep bass lines, and always being able to access “the beat”, through a simple head nod or hip sway—it’s always been there. At around 2 or 3 however, my mother began taking me with her to her West African dance rehearsals. It was there that I truly recall knowing that dance, particularly the dances that were rooted in Africanist aesthetics were my safe space."
It’s quite common for artists to begin diving into their craft as a result of their parents placing them in a specific art form. Is there a time when you remember specifically that your choice to be a performer became your own and a part of your own identity?
"A few things, so take them as you will:
Although my mom placed me in dance classes growing up, it always felt like it was mine. Like, “ok, this is what you do.” No one ever had to really force me to go to rehearsals or anything like that, I’ve just known that dance is essential to my mental health. It’s truly been a therapeutic outlet (among other things), and frankly has saved my life a number of times, so from very early on, I’ve known to keep it as a critical tool to get me through difficult moments, if not, pursuing it professionally. I mean there was the occasional, going to see a performance, and being so incredibly inspired that I knew I wanted to meet and touch the dancers afterwards. I’ve had several moments where I have been an audience member wishing I was on stage dancing, and making promises to myself that this is the direction I’d go. I think in my life, God has given me small confirmations to affirm that the desire placed in my heart to perform was intentional, and I’ve just tried to do my best to be obedient to that infinite, beautiful, divine spirit.
"A few things, so take them as you will:
Although my mom placed me in dance classes growing up, it always felt like it was mine. Like, “ok, this is what you do.” No one ever had to really force me to go to rehearsals or anything like that, I’ve just known that dance is essential to my mental health. It’s truly been a therapeutic outlet (among other things), and frankly has saved my life a number of times, so from very early on, I’ve known to keep it as a critical tool to get me through difficult moments, if not, pursuing it professionally. I mean there was the occasional, going to see a performance, and being so incredibly inspired that I knew I wanted to meet and touch the dancers afterwards. I’ve had several moments where I have been an audience member wishing I was on stage dancing, and making promises to myself that this is the direction I’d go. I think in my life, God has given me small confirmations to affirm that the desire placed in my heart to perform was intentional, and I’ve just tried to do my best to be obedient to that infinite, beautiful, divine spirit.
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One year, my undergraduate repertory company performed a work at the American College Dance Association (formerly ACDFA). One of the adjudicators, Shani Collins taught a master class at the culmination of the conference, and that was the first time that I not only saw myself, but I saw what the possibilities were as a black woman in the field. It was powerful, so representation matters. She came in breastfeeding, with her locs, baby in tow, gathered us in a circle, facilitated this really sensual warm up, and held the space with so much peace. That most definitely shifted things for me. I eventually asked her to be my mentor, and it’s been one of the most rewarding decisions of my life. "
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What does it mean to be a ‘multilingual artist’ and when did you realize you were interested in becoming one?
"Right? What does that mean? It’s something I am still grappling with. I’m drawing from so many things, that I want to honor them all, but I can’t take credit for the term “multilingual”. It was shared with me by my mentor, Shani Collins. I took that term on though because it encompassed my truth of drawing from multiple vocabularies. I seek to be an artist that expresses myself in performance in a multitude of ways, and don’t want to get stuck inside of just one term. I know I carry West African lineage in my body, and that may or may not come out in my work, but I leave space for it to be honored in any work I do. Additionally, I am also honoring what we call the concert dance forms that come out. I honor the awareness that modern dance forms like Graham and Horton give my body, and I recognize that the post-modern exposure I have had, gave me permission to express myself in any way I see fit. So, in drawing from all that I just mentioned, it only seems right to describe my work as multi-lingual. With each nuance, breath, step…whatever, I honor that any of the vocabularies that my body has been exposed to could influence the next phrase I create, ultimately giving way to more freedom for myself, and hopefully, my audiences."
"Right? What does that mean? It’s something I am still grappling with. I’m drawing from so many things, that I want to honor them all, but I can’t take credit for the term “multilingual”. It was shared with me by my mentor, Shani Collins. I took that term on though because it encompassed my truth of drawing from multiple vocabularies. I seek to be an artist that expresses myself in performance in a multitude of ways, and don’t want to get stuck inside of just one term. I know I carry West African lineage in my body, and that may or may not come out in my work, but I leave space for it to be honored in any work I do. Additionally, I am also honoring what we call the concert dance forms that come out. I honor the awareness that modern dance forms like Graham and Horton give my body, and I recognize that the post-modern exposure I have had, gave me permission to express myself in any way I see fit. So, in drawing from all that I just mentioned, it only seems right to describe my work as multi-lingual. With each nuance, breath, step…whatever, I honor that any of the vocabularies that my body has been exposed to could influence the next phrase I create, ultimately giving way to more freedom for myself, and hopefully, my audiences."
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How do these artistic languages help you 'reckon' with and balance the personal, political, and historical identities that you house in your being?
"The bottom line is: I am actively pursuing my own liberation, and while doing so, I hope to empower audiences to do the same because liberation looks differently for everyone. In the commitment to achieve liberation (which is ongoing), it also requires a commitment to take risk. My work each day is to decolonize my mind from so much of the paradigm-based thinking that has shaped our culture. In so doing, my body needs to be in alignment, and that means giving way for a multitude of expressions to emerge. |
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Honestly, now that you’ve asked, a great deal of my work in the last year or so has been rooted in me purging. Purging my pain and anguish—trauma, and that’s going to ooze out of my system in an unconventional way, right? Each time I shed, I gain new insight into the things that are suppressed in me, that clearly need to come out. Right when you think you’ve healed, you realize “whoops, I’ve got more healing to do!” There is so much overlap (particularly as black folkx) in our personal and political realities, and that intersectionality is where my personal and performative displays are most authentic."
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Would you say becoming multilingual has made it easier to access your drive to actively create work? Or does it present certain barriers?
"Hmm, such a great question. Both. I will say that when I enter creative spaces, and/or I know I need to generate work, I do occasionally get overwhelmed with the multiple vocabularies thing, ha! If it presents any barriers, it’s the barrier of not knowing how to simmer down all of these things that want to come out, and then navigating how to compartmentalize them. It can be a lot. And yet, it’s soooo freeing to simply go with what comes, review it later, and revise with time. This is why it’s good to bring in trusted people to watch some rehearsals, or to provide feedback. |
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We need people we can share our vision with, and for them to hold us accountable to remind us of the root in which we decided to even enter a particular work. I guess the esteemed term for that kind of work is “dramaturgy”, but as long as you have some handy dandy folk who can simply hold space for you, as you navigate getting an idea out, the labels don’t really matter. "
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Has your access to artistic expression helped you make sense of the 'then and now' of black boxes Black folkx have been forced into – especially as it pertains the history of black labor in the Americas?
"Oh, absolutely! I’m so glad you used the word “access”, because honey, let’s talk about it. I know for a fact that I am super privileged to be in the know regarding the kind of black history I do. Our history is simply not always accessible, not the truth at least. We have to seek it out. I have had parents that cloaked me in acknowledging my African heritage growing up, but attending graduate school gave me an opportunity to be inside of conversations that I otherwise wouldn’t have. Coupled with my own desire to know more about black history in general, I have used the city of Philadelphia as my classroom to excavate the black truths that otherwise would go unshared, and some of that is due in part because of the tightly incubated scholarship that I’ve been in for the last 2.5/3 years. |
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It’s certainly helped me to grapple with the notions of systemic racism and how they show up in every crevice of our existence. When it comes to making sense of that in my art, which is done through my body, it most definitely comes up and out of my system sometimes like “Blaaaahhh!” Because the construct of white supremacy strikes us in such a DEEP psychological way, that the body…the black body…MY BLACKBODY has to process it in such a way that it probably looks random, disjointed or maybe even crazy in some way, and I’m ok with that. I’m aware that that is a part of my process."
Are there any specific stereotypes or “box-like” ways of thinking that you actively push up against that inform your creative process?
"One thing I think we’re taught as movers is that you need to secure a creative process. Either you have a specific choreographic regimen or you don’t. That’s not only troublesome, but it makes it so that those who have a desire to create who may not have had ACCESS to creative development in a formal sense, can’t do it. It excludes them, and observes binary thinking. It’s actually not always about going into the studio, putting on music and creating from that space. That’s valid, and hell, I even use that recipe from time to time, but that’s just one way. Things have shifted, and honestly, in a quarantined time, we are forced to be more creative in accessing our creativity.
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For instance, as a left handed individual, I may just need to challenge myself by doing things with my right hand for a day, week etc. Small things, like brushing my teeth, or writing with the opposite hand. They’re small things, but so monumental because my brain is being activated in a new way, and the possibilities that open up from being willing to expand my notion of physicality in such a way are endless, and all of these things open the portal toward creativity. It may also be about figuring out new ways to dance in your home, or cook. Even when we think we are ignorant to certain events happening in the world, we are all still effected by it because everything is energetic. So, in my willingness to take care of myself, or think positively, or challenge myself, that energy is submitted to the collective consciousness and effects the next rotation of energy that comes thereafter.
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Electromagnetic fields are real, and we are all effected even by the smallest of gestures. The creative process doesn’t have to be some arduous thing…it can be soft and experimental. In some way or another, my small experiments to try new things are indeed apart of how I generate movement because they inform my willingness to try new things. Lastly, I may get into trouble for this, but God comes up for me a lot. When I incorporate notions of spirituality into my work, and people ask questions about why I may incorporate black church elements, while no longer being Christian, it’s literally because I am challenging the box-like way in which God has been presented to me, and again, seeking liberation which (in a spiritual context) often means questioning ways of worship. Now, I’m most certainly not the first person to do this kind of work. For me, it’s freeing, but I am learning a great deal about the lengths in which white supremacy has impacted my spiritual beliefs, which for me is not cool. I take issue with God being presented in one particular way, and the internalized notion of power that makes it so that I am not to question things. So, each day, particularly in my spiritual practice, I seek to break away from binary thinking, and it’s been very rewarding. "
With the history of the exploitation of black labor in mind, and respect for your private spiritual customs are there any healing and recharging practices that help maintain your creative and personal well-being that you are able to share?
"Recently, it’s been being ok with resting…which is still so hard for me! Right when I think I’m resting, I realize I’ve attached twelve other things to my schedule, so rest becomes an illusion or something I trick my mind into thinking I am getting when that may not always be the case. With labor, rest is needed. Going to sleep/taking a cute little nap isn’t the actual work sometimes. The work for me at least, is more about coaching myself to shift my mind into welcoming rest as a healthy and yes, productive practice. I thoroughly enjoy sitting out in the sun, but have had some issues doing that recently because these days, I sit out on my roof for two seconds, and then the mosquitoes fuck me up, but I mean hey, mosquitoes need love to. My restorative practices right now are pretty practical, I think. I take long hot showers, I dance butt ass naked in my living room/studio, I catch up on Facetime with close friends, I’ll read a book that’s typically centered around blackness in some way, and oh, I’m in therapy! It’s so great to process the nothings and the everythings with a licensed professional who is trained to hold space for triggering subject matter. I guess I’m doing ok. 😊"
"Recently, it’s been being ok with resting…which is still so hard for me! Right when I think I’m resting, I realize I’ve attached twelve other things to my schedule, so rest becomes an illusion or something I trick my mind into thinking I am getting when that may not always be the case. With labor, rest is needed. Going to sleep/taking a cute little nap isn’t the actual work sometimes. The work for me at least, is more about coaching myself to shift my mind into welcoming rest as a healthy and yes, productive practice. I thoroughly enjoy sitting out in the sun, but have had some issues doing that recently because these days, I sit out on my roof for two seconds, and then the mosquitoes fuck me up, but I mean hey, mosquitoes need love to. My restorative practices right now are pretty practical, I think. I take long hot showers, I dance butt ass naked in my living room/studio, I catch up on Facetime with close friends, I’ll read a book that’s typically centered around blackness in some way, and oh, I’m in therapy! It’s so great to process the nothings and the everythings with a licensed professional who is trained to hold space for triggering subject matter. I guess I’m doing ok. 😊"
If you could talk to your younger self and give them some words
of guidance and encouragement to prepare them for their journey what would you say?
"I’d say, “Surya, sweet, dearest Surya. Relax, the universe is not in a rush, only you are. The manifestation of your dreams is coming.
DON’T COMPARE YOURSELF TO OTHERS! Be at your own pace, keep finding laughter…and shake some ass. Asè."
of guidance and encouragement to prepare them for their journey what would you say?
"I’d say, “Surya, sweet, dearest Surya. Relax, the universe is not in a rush, only you are. The manifestation of your dreams is coming.
DON’T COMPARE YOURSELF TO OTHERS! Be at your own pace, keep finding laughter…and shake some ass. Asè."
TBB News is so grateful to have the opportunity to share space with Surya Swilley!
Please continue to support our O.B.A. Artists by donating directly to their artistic endevors.
Surya's work can be supported via Cashapp ($suryaswilley) and Venmo (@Surya-Swilley).
Please continue to support our O.B.A. Artists by donating directly to their artistic endevors.
Surya's work can be supported via Cashapp ($suryaswilley) and Venmo (@Surya-Swilley).