We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Amber McCrink. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Amber below.

Hi Amber, thanks for joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Mission: McCrink & Co is a NYC based performance company that aspires to cultivate community, empower creativity, celebrate diversity, and excite artistic passion by providing performance opportunities, experience, and mentorship support to every member.

A revelation I had in my early 20’s was community matters. I have always been a firm believer that dance is for everyone and if you allow it, dance can hold a special place in anyone’s life. Like many others, the pandemic severely altered my priorities and brought clarity to my values. During this time I shifted from being a performing dancer to a choreographer, educator and director. I always knew this was a role I wanted to take on. Since I was a young girl in grade school I used to write, “I want to be a choreographer and dance teacher when I grow up.” Over the pandemic, I was unable to train due to a long recovery process from my fourth major eye surgery. However, I found myself in a position where many of my friends were asking me for choreography to update their reels and self tapes. I began teaching on more virtual platforms which led to more in person teaching and by the end of the pandemic my career completely shifted into choreography and education. NYC felt immensely different after COVID-19. The arts community felt strangely disconnected. Many dancers were expressing their need for communities and safe spaces. I always loved bringing people together and mentoring. I saw this as an opportunity to take a chance and do something I always dreamed of putting together, a performance company. This is a space for professional dancers to have a community, build their resumes, create lasting friendships, and find support in a city and in a professional field where it is very easy to feel alone. By doing this I understood I was stepping into a role of responsibility to ensure my company members were safe, welcomed, and nurtured. That’s why inclusivity and artistic expression are at the forefront of my company’s values. To be a part of our community you have to be kind and have integrity, not just be a talented dancer.

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?

My name is Amber McCrink and I am a New York based choreographer, dancer, educator, and judge. I earned my B.A. in Arts Entertainment Management and Pre- Law from Pace University’s Lubin School of Business. I am the director of McCrink & Co, a NYC based performance company I founded. I began competitively dancing at seven years old. My mother signed me up with hopes to improve my poor balance and coordination due to my nystagmus. Throughout the years, I specialized training in multiple styles, both commercial and concert. I attended LaGuardia High School (a.k.a. “The Fame School ”) as a dance major earning a Chancellors of the Arts Endorsed Diploma and NY State Regents Dance Diploma. While at LaGuardia I was a member of the prestigious LaGuardia Dance Ensemble, and was inducted for the Lee Theodore Award. As a performer, I was fortunate enough to partake in multiple stage credits, some including the first ever recreation of “Revelations” performed outside of the Ailey Company, Landmark theater in Spain, and numerous professional Showcases. Some of my television and film experiences include World of Dance, Season16 of FOX’s So You Think You Can Dance, and various music videos with emerging young artists. At a young age, I took a strong interest in assisting my educators, in hopes of ultimately pursuing a path in choreography and education. Now, as an established educator, I’m a weekly instructor at various studios and volunteer for programs that use dance as a form of movement therapy for people with disabilities. I find this portion of my career to be particularly fulfilling because I am able to help build and better my local communities. My choreography has been showcased in both professional and educational settings such as Young Choreographers Festival, D.D.A., Sybarite NYC, Project Create, Journey Dance NYC, BCDP Winter Showcase, Koin & Co. Showcase, various music and concept videos, competitive national opening numbers, and LaGuardia’s Junior & Senior showcases. I’m eager to utilize my love for dance and background in business and law to help ensure dance is an inclusive, safe, and equitable industry for all. I truly believe molding the next generation of artists to be well rounded, educated, confident, and kind is imperative to our industry’s survival and is one of my favorite responsibilities in my position. Outside of mentorship and education of the youth, I am humbled to have a performance company that is facilitating a community of professional dancers ready to spread positivity, artistic expression, and kindness into our industry.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I was born with a condition called Nystagmus which led me to be declared legally blind by the age of two. Nystagmus is a visual condition in which the eyes make repetitive, uncontrolled movements. These movements often result in reduced vision and depth perception and can affect balance and coordination. I’ve had four corrective eye surgeries throughout my life so far at ages four, six, ten and twenty. Recovery from these surgeries are challenging. You are rendered sightless for multiple days, if not weeks. Light sensitivity, extreme headaches, and head/eye sensitivity lasts for months. As a child these surgeries taught me how to ask for help from others and accept a loss of control. I found gratitude for normalcy and became hyper aware of ableism. I learned how to mask my disability and adapted to standard teaching styles. Navigating this disability in the dance industry has not been easy. Every time I thought I was making progress in my training it felt like I took one step forward and two backward. In my high school years, I needed a fourth surgery, but due to financial hardships couldn’t afford one. I struggled daily with the intrusive thought that dance was not meant for me and my love for it would never outweigh my condition. I was training in rigorous, competitive, and elite programs where I felt everyone was excelling and understanding movement right away. Looking back now I know I belonged and was most certainly succeeding within my curriculum, however, I always felt a little out of place. That feeling of uncertainty continued to linger into my early performance career. I was on a professional job at a final call where an individual I had admired for years said to me, “you are extraordinary for what you have, but you will never be extraordinary.” Never meet your heroes, right? I reacted to that discriminatory comment with grace and really reflected on what it meant. That comment encouraged me to question not only my path, but also decipher what is “extraordinary?” What qualifications do others have that allow them to tell me that I am anything less than extraordinary? I very well could have quit right then and there. Instead, I decided to continue my career in the arts and dedicated my life to it because I realized that extraordinary was a form of opinion, not fact. Now I am an educator, mentor, choreographer, and director. I have created a space in my classrooms and company where diversity and accessibility is at the forefront. I know that everyone has the capacity of exceptionality and with proper guidance and confidence I hope to help artists in my community achieve just that.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I entered the Covid-19 pandemic as a performing dancer and left it as a choreographer and educator. My training was put on hold not only due to the lockdown, but also a necessary recovery from major eye surgery and injuries. When I was cleared to be active again the world was on full lockdown. I couldn’t see the computer or television screens clearly enough to take class nor did I really have the space. I still tried and trained as effectively as possible, but knew it wasn’t bringing me the same joy I once had. I began to experiment more with my improvisation and choreographic skills. This was always an element of dance I enjoyed and didn’t get to hone in on personally as a performer. I began setting more work on others and was asked to teach on more platforms. Before I knew it I was choreographing multiple pieces of work for both educational and professional settings. The transition felt seamless and I didn’t fully notice it until I graduated college. Once I graduated I decided to take my career one step further and direct a professional performance company. This severely altered my life and gave me a great sense of purpose. I take immense pride in my role as an educator to professionals and children alike. I’ve never felt more at home than I do now in choreography, direction and education and am eager to use my position to help build the arts community.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @mccrinkandco
• Other: TikTok @mccrinkandcompany23

Image Credits
PERSONAL PHOTO……..LEE GUMBS ycf-hands dirty by amber mccrink-push……….‘Photo by Jaqi Medlock, courtesy of Young Choreographer’s Festival’ ycf-hands dirty by amber mccrink-HAND HOLD….Photo by Jaqi Medlock, courtesy of Young Choreographer’s Festival’ ycf-hands dirty by amber mccrink-throw………Photo by Jaqi Medlock, courtesy of Young Choreographer’s Festival’ IMG-3882.JPG……LEE GUMBS SYBARITE 23………. COMMUNITY ARTISTRY