We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Carmen Cage a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Carmen, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
I grew up around the arts my entire life. I went to art schools since middle school and grew up in a dance studio my entire life. In a way dance found me. At a young age I never really truly grasped that dance can even be a full career but it was my passion and that was for certain. I believe around the age of 17, that’s when I truly knew that this was something I knew I wanted to do professionally, once I started meeting other artist who were doing so. It was a deep drive in me to make it happen and to not quit until I was where I wanted to be artistically and professionally.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am originally from Jacksonville Florida, and I currently live in Dallas Texas. I started dancing at my home studio in Florida at the age of 3. I trained in art schools for middle and high school in dance, then moved to New York to receive my BFA and continue my training at SUNY Purchase College. After graduating in 2018,I received my job as a professional dancer at Dallas Black Dance Theatre, and have been here ever since. Dance has been my passion for as long as I can remember and it has led me to travel the world and meet so many people that I may not have the opportunity to had it not been for this career. While being a dancer, fitness was always so important to me. I have dived into another passion of teaching fitness through my love for bodies and movement. I feel that I am able to connect with many people through movement and also helping people find the joy in moving their own bodies. It has truly been a gift to be able to follow my dreams in many different fields.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
Truly just support. Come to shows, ask questions, try new things. For an artist exposure is such a huge goal to make a career flourish. So simply just by showing up and seeing what creatives are creating will help an artist thrive.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist would just be being able to emotionally move someone without any words. Having someone watch me dance and then expressing how it impacted them in such an emotional way is always the most rewarding aspect for me as an artist. It why I do what I do, for a bigger goal than just myself.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Carm_cage
Image Credits
Daylillies Photography Shadden Hashem Photography Victoria Saperstein Photography