We were lucky to catch up with Callie Lacinski recently and have shared our conversation below.

Callie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?

Gosh, I have thought about having a “regular” job more times than I can count… I even tried it for a little bit. It was about 2 years back and my mindset was so toxic in the dance studio. I was taking feedback personally and constantly telling myself that what I was doing was never going to be good enough. I would cry after just about every class I took and thought, “well, if this is not bringing me joy anymore, then why am I doing it?” I decided to take a break from dance, work on my mental state, and ease my way back in. A few days after I had a plan set in motion, life decided it had another path for me when a friend of mine took her life. At that point, I experienced the deepest grief of my soul and all the energy I could muster could barely distribute itself between work and feeding myself. Dance dropped out completely from my life. It took a while to build myself back up, and heal (about 6 months). I had a full time job with health insurance, benefits, the works, and plenty of free time to cook, hike multiple times a week, and see friends often. It was simple and easy. But as I got stronger day by day, I’d find myself grooving a bit in the shower, or visualizing routines in my head, or watching musical films desiring to be in that scene, and I found that there was something deep in my heart that was not ready to let go of dance. I started taking only the classes I knew would fill my soul. It took a long time for me to unpack my relationship with dance, but in every opportunity I had to walk away, some mystical knowing would present itself deep in my gut and pull me back. I started noticing these special moments where I got to see someone take enormous risk despite seemingly insurmountable fear, cry while performing their story through movement, and families get built in the creative process. Every time, my heart would explode with joy and I knew that these were unique and singular pieces of experience, ones that I was never going to experience in a “regular” job. Ever since, I’ve decided to lean into the magic, let it become me, and weave it into every single day.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Dance has been a part of my life for as long as I remember. What started as just 1 dance class per week, turned into as many as I could fit in. I loved it from the second I started and I spent as many waking moments moving as I could. As I grew older, I couldn’t picture my life without movement. I went to Ohio State for a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts degree in Dance, moved back home to Cleveland for a year to perform in sports with the Cleveland Guardians as well as the Cleveland Cavaliers, and then fulfilled my lifelong dream of moving to Los Angeles. I have studied a breadth of styles including jazz, ballet, contemporary, hip-hop, salsa, house, locking, jazz funk, tap, and beyond, all giving me new tools to expand my creativity and reach. I have performed in music videos, on TV internationally, as well as live. I am very much at the beginning of my journey and as I continue to study this form, I learn more and more every day about the kind of artist I am and want to be. At my core, I am a storyteller. I hope to encapsulate into movement and dance the authentic human experience that we all endure and further exemplify something that we all can see a piece of ourselves in. My versatility gives me a wide breadth of vocabulary to leverage and my connection to memory and emotions serves to evoke story within that movement. I plan to continue creating and embodying work that speaks volumes and allows many to relate, remember, question, and interpret to live their own purpose.

: Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I started stumbling upon the word “curiosity” about the same time I began working with the amazing creative and choreographer Tony Testa who places curiosity as the central point to which much of his work revolves around and immerses from. He encourages curiosity in the discomforts we feel, the movements we discover, and the way we stumble through life. Since, I have adopted this as a core idea in my own work. My greatest weakness is often perfectionism, or this sense of doing the “right” thing, never messing up, and constantly living up to the expectations others set. By living through a lens of curiosity, I can break the notions of right vs. wrong and instead sit with what exists and uncover what’s behind, within, around, and inside it. This becomes quite useful of a concept when facing the circumstances regular life throws at us as well. With the mission of curiosity, I release myself from the confines of “should” and “shouldn’t” and find that I get to experience the many corners of life, movement, and emotion without baring immediate judgement. It brings about freedom in my expression and fulfillment in knowing that the most wonderful and difficult parts of existing as a human tread through my body and mind in exquisite detail. I don’t miss the things that pass by. I see them, I feel them, I embody them, and then I get to allow them to manifest as fuel in my creativity. I know that wherever my path may lead, within dance or maybe outside of it, I will have seeped and expressed every square inch that I possibly could. I can’t imagine a better way to ensure a full life.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is seeing the result of when movers go face-to-face with fear, and hurdle themselves forward despite it. It evokes a boundlessness for adventure and never ceases to inspire all who witness it. Within myself, I’m becoming latched to the adrenaline rush and satisfactory feeling when pushing through discomfort. It is unbelievably empowering and stimulating to know that fear has no hold over the choices that we make and the ways we express. It is when fear is overcome (often times the fear of vulnerability) that the greatest, most relatable, and most remarkable stories are brought forth and magic erupts. The cherry on top is when I hear spectators mention they felt something, or were touched, or cried, or just enjoyed watching. In this way, art unites and connects us all, and we realize we are never alone.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/callie.lacinski/

Image Credits
Jesse DeYoung Tara Marier Michael Cruz Samuel S. Garcia Pamela Pelayo