We were lucky to catch up with Aimee McDonald recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Aimee thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you in your creative career?
When I was a twelve years old my mother worked in a gift store owned by a single mother, independent business woman. Being short staffed they brought me in to help out during a busy Christmas season and I ended up working there part time all through Jr High, High School, and college. What I learned from the business owner, Carol, was that no matter how tempting it is to take a short cut to greater profit, or overlook the needs of people in the community to make things easier for yourself in the short term, there’s no excuse for compromising your principles for anything, including the sake of your business. She refused to open on Sundays because she felt her staff needed a day off, even though that was a busy shopping day in our downtown area. She wouldn’t carry certain products because she didn’t like some aspect of the supplier’s approach to business, and she showed great loyalty to her staff, sales reps, and the community. When I eventually opened my studio I carried these ideas into my approach to my interactions with staff, customers, and the community. I reminded myself that in the long run, what’s good for my karma is good for my business. Because of maintaining this for so many years I have built a reputation of being fair, reasonable, and honest, which may have cost me a few short term dollars, but has given longevity and the loyalty of customers and of others in my field.
Aimee , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I’ve always seen the world in terms of human movement, bodies moving through space as expression and both a grounding in and an escape from reality. Maybe an expansion of reality is more accurate. So I naturally gravitated to dance from the time I was a very small child. We had a strong dance program in my high school, which focused not only on performance, but also choreography and dance production. I majored in Dance at the University of Michigan. There’s not much money in dance and it takes a toll on the body, so after college I ended up training to become a pilates trainer, both for an income source and as a means of maintaining my own body. This was before many people even knew what pilates was. I borrowed a little money from my dad and got some equipment that I put in the living room of my apartment and started seeing clients there. Soon the demand was enough that I was able to get a small studio space and more equipment. I also discovered the GYROTONIC® work around this time, which is a more complex, nuanced system of movement, and I went deep into that. Meanwhile, I was running my dance productions at a local theatre venue. Over the past couple of decades I’ve been able to focus my work on the most important elements. I’m teaching Gyrotonic® out of a home studio again, so that I don’t have the burden of running a large space and managing employees. I’ve moved a lot of my teaching work to an online subscription service so that I earn passive income and free up time for my dance company. I still travel to teach courses, but I’ve narrowed that down to fewer trips so that I can spend more consistent time in rehearsals. My work, both in movement training and in my choreography is deeply rooted in human relationships and orienting oneself in space and time. As I’ve matured in both aspects of my work I’ve moved away from the concept of obtaining some ideal and more into exploring what is healthy and authentic for each individual. I like a diversity of movers in my dance company and encourage them to bring out what is true to them. My choreography might look very different on their bodies than it does on mine, but I think that’s a good thing
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
As a choreographer my tool is human bodies, which means I need to work with people. I’m an introvert and spend a lot of time in my own head, visualizing works, researching for my pieces, and designing costumes. But in the studio I’m mostly with other people and during performance weeks we are working together and depending on each other a lot. I find that the connections I’m able to make with the dancers, how much of their hearts they put into their performances of my work, and how much support they give me in the process, makes me feel like I’m making some small positive impact on the world around me. I may not be able to change the world, but this little patch of it that I’m living in working in feels full of love and support.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
We need money for the arts. It’s as simple as that. My latest dance production was a “great success”, but it cost nearly $20,000 to pull off and I had to front at least a quarter of that out of personal money. As we’re looking forward to our 2024 season I’m working on all the creative aspects, but also trying to get it all launched on an empty dance company bank account. There aren’t many grants available for dance, unfortunately. And a lot of those grants are available only to groups that are doing social justice or educational work. My work is just art about being a human being, which doesn’t draw many funding opportunities. My work as a movement trainer funds my art and the paychecks of my dancers, which I’m fortunate to be able to do, but it’s a high bar for many artists and we’re excluding a lot of voices by making it so challenging to make work in our society.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.TerpsichoreCollective.com www.aimeemcdonaldmoves.com www.gyrotonicannarbor.com
- Instagram: @Terpsichorecollective @aimeemcdonaldmoves
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091259774168 https://www.facebook.com/Gyrotonicannarbor
Image Credits
Photos: Kirk Donaldson, Olivia Lemmenes