We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kat Jones a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kat, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
Whew. My journey with risk has been quite interesting. This won’t be your typical story of “taking a chance”. When I was in my early 20’s, risk to me looked like moving half way across the country to chase my dream of becoming a “super successful” professional dancer. I was leaving behind the beaten path and expanding into the unknown while navigating both a global pandemic and internal revolution. I literally had a dollar, a dream and my faith. However, now entering into the last year of my 20’s, I would describe taking a risk as something very different. See, previously, on my quest to dance fame, I knew exactly what I wanted and who I wanted to work for. Albeit I had no idea how I’d get there, I could make some sort of game plan because I knew where I wanted to end up. However, once I arrived at those things a new reality struck. “I don’t want this the way I thought I did” was the dialogue that began to surface my heart. This realization was terrifying because it asked me to reevaluate my goals and values. It challenged where I thought I needed to be in my career and why. It seemed to undermine all the hard-work I put in for years to get to where I was. Taking a risk under the guise of this new perspective meant mustering the courage to redefine my values, which meant redefining my mindset, actions and life. Earlier in this paragraph I put “super successful” in quotations. We know success is subjective from person to person, but I don’t think we realize that our personal standard and definition of success is fluid. This is the riskiest thing I’ve ever done; abandon one mindset and take up a new one that gives me certainty on what I want to feel, give and experience but zero clarity on where I specifically want to be. Sure, I know I want to move deeper into choreography and eventually become a creative director and thought leader in the very big world of art. However, by which means and in which rooms? I have no clue. I just know for sure what I value, what I want to feel and what I deserve. It requires me to take any steps forward with these truths laced around my feet and refuse any movement that negates what I now know. It demands that my relationship with God be deeper and my trust in him stretched. It’s risky, but it has been the most rewarding.
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?
I’m a movement creative who translates emotions into movement experiences. I’m trained in classical dance and emerged into the industry through commercial and street dance styles. My choreography spans a range of movement from classic hip hop to fusion with freestyle notes and pedestrian nuances. I bridge the gap between what a song makes the average person feel and how their body might want to express those feelings. I afford anyone watching either my dance or choreography the opportunity to emote—no matter the range of the emotion. What’s unique about this is it’s always impressionable. As a dancer I’m currently most proud of being able to do a world tour with The Weekend and travel to cities I’d never heard of. As a choreographer and creative I’m most proud of the work I get to do with brands and my most recent project “Reach The Sunshine”.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
One of my goals is to be able to create opportunities for others. Opportunities by way of introductions, jobs, resources/information and more. I believe that the bigger and more authentic my impact, the more real-estate I’ll have to create opportunities for others. I’m specifically interested in creating a bridge for the youth in my hometown, Wyandanch, NY. Growing up, I knew I was artistically inclined but I didn’t know much about careers in entertainment. This means I stumbled through methods of how to break into the industry due to lack of information/resources. My hope is that by sharing stories and bringing industry creatives into the community, schools and events, I can widen the lens through which the next-generation views their path. By providing them the opportunity of this proximity, not only will these paths be something that exist-they’ll feel achievable. The concept that my creative journey and experience it’s not just for me serves as my inspiration.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Okay, hear me out, building your audience on social media is not the end-all-be-all we sometimes think it is. Unless you have SOLEY a digital product, there are other methods of influence and networking that make a difference. The reason I’m leading with this is because hinging your success on your social media influence may create an unhealthy dynamic between how/why you’re creating content. Allow yourself the gift of longevity by creating and sharing content that is authentic to you and your end goal. Save yourself from burn out. Once you know your how and why, stay active! Share regularly and engage with the people you have at this stage. I’m no super-influencer on social media but I can maintain my online presence without stress, engage with people and brands and have room to explore types of content I may want to share. I’ve found that my social presence online also grows nicely alongside my real social life. So, it may be time to start meeting new people in real-life and then connecting the in-person interactions to online interactions.
Contact Info:
- Website: katjonesportfolio.com
- Instagram: @imkatjones
Image Credits
Valencia Free Akilah Townsend Lindsay Rosenberg E Morris