We recently connected with Vo Vera and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Vo thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Each individual member of our collective has spent on average about 15 years developing their dance styles and street art crafts. That may equate to thousands of training sessions, and tens of thousands of hours. Sessions are often alone, by oneself and especially over the past two years in spaces that were not necessarily conducive to training that craft. Nevertheless, we compromise, accommodate, acclimate, and we keep on pushing forward, despite extraneous external circumstances. Above all other qualities that make someone good at training their craft, I think everyone would agree that there are two qualities or skills, which foster greater consistency, longevity, and overall development. These qualities, are 1) having fun, and 2) dedication. Creative fatigue, lack of motivation, comparing oneself to demotivating things, and flawed mindsets and inconsistent behavior are all grounds for not sticking to the craft. Enjoying the process means making space to enjoy the fruits of one’s labor, when one has eventually worked up to the point of being able to see such fruits. Dedication means a level of commitment, regardless and in spite of other circumstances. Dedication, however, is often overshadowed by motivation. One does not have to be motivated t0 engage with their craft; rather, they just have to stay focused and return to it constantly. This heightened sense of positive emotion, combined with the commitment to fulfill intention, create an incredible––and sometimes incredibly difficult, albeit enriching experience.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

We’re a collective of artists who share at least one commonality; we have a strong connection to the street dance community. We are comprised of various artistries, jobs, dance styles, skill sets, and spiritual paths. Dancers, DJs, MCs, hand artists, etc… Comprehensively, we teach and educate, present and perform, speak and rap, and move and groove. A large portion of our art exists within our community of practice as artists, which is oft-times unseen by other communities. The Sacred G’s was formed in 2014 as 5 of us performed at a music arts festival in an entirely different community than our own. We each have our own path, coming together to create and share our crafts in a good way, namely with other communities. Today, A lot of our work, especially lately, has been of our own ambition, fulfilling our own creative ventures with grant or private funding. Granted, most of our work entails teaching, performing, and creating unique shows for festivals, municipalities, corporate and commercial ventures, and of course for local communities. Our LED suit performances have brought us a lot of attention, however our performances are not limited to LED tech. In recent years we have used grants to host free public dance sessions, and produced a free cross-community event that included mindful movement classes and a multimedia dance performance. With three chapters in Portland, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, (and with Phoenix as our hub), we are accepting offers to teach, choreograph, perform, as well as host, MC, and produce programing for events or special areas at festivals. We’re a collective of artists who share at least one commonality; we have a strong connection to the street dance community. We are comprised of various artistries, jobs, dance styles, skill sets, and spiritual paths. Dancers, DJs, MCs, hand artists, etc… Comprehensively, we teach and educate, present and perform, speak and rap, and move and groove. A large portion of our art exists within our community of practice as artists, which is oft-times unseen by other communities.
The Sacred G’s was formed in 2014 as 5 of us performed at a music arts festival in an entirely different community than our own. We each have our own path, coming together to create and share our crafts in a good way, namely with other communities.
Today, A lot of our work, especially lately, has been of our own ambition, fulfilling our own creative ventures with grant or private funding. Granted, most of our work entails teaching, performing, and creating unique shows for festivals, municipalities, corporate and commercial ventures, and of course for local communities. Our LED suit performances have brought us a lot of attention, however our performances are not limited to LED tech. In recent years we have used grants to host free public dance sessions, and produced a free cross-community event that included mindful movement classes and a multimedia dance performance.
With three chapters in Portland, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, (and with Phoenix as our hub), we are accepting offers to teach, choreograph, perform, as well as host, MC, and produce programing for events or special areas at festivals.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

There are so many funding opportunities for the arts, particularly when they are appropriately and fundamentally tied to particular social, economic, cultural, or human ventures. The amount of municipal and private arts funding has surprised us in a good way. Such ventures get the mind considering how to step away from the “me and my art, simply because I’m an artist,” and towards the “we can benefit society in these ways.” This has really helped our leadership to create with less focus on all that comes with gig life (“entertainability,” dynamics, client requests, etc). For example, instead of fulfilling client requests for flips and tricks littered throughout the dance work, we put more energy into how our highest messages for humanity can transcribe into our work, and how the audience might receive and become inspired by the work. In short, we are grateful to now know how much support exists for artists who seek to create meaningful, enriching work.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

As highlighted in our mission statement, The Sacred G’s is dedicated to conceiving, creating and presenting dance and performance art-based works grounded in inspiration, empowerment, peace and oneness, with a dual focus on expanding the discourse of street dance and spirituality, and bridging the gap between communities and the street arts. The expansion of such discourse reflects on some of our leadership’s current engagement with academia, as they are researching and agglomerating parallels between street dance as an African diasporic culture, and spiritual components of the human experience.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thesacredgs.com/
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/thesacredgs
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesacredgs
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/thesacredgs