We recently connected with Cynthia Dragoni and have shared our conversation below.

Cynthia, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

My background is as a classical dancer, and it occurred to me at eight years old that that’s what I was going to do. I had had exposure to visual art and to music, but dance really wasn’t on our radar. I think I saw ballet on PBS and it was like a revelation, it hit me like a lightning bolt. So eventually, we found a ballet school and that was the deep focus for a very long time. I danced professionally for a while, and along the way I started teaching which really took on a life of its own. Then there’s a long winding tale through a school and uncovering a great love of communicating both the experience of the art form and the knowledge of it. Through that process I started doing talks and eventually courses, videos and social media on the connections between dance, history, fashion, art, politics and it was like a homecoming. My experiences and interests started to congeal and even my heartbreaks started to make sense, in ways that could only have revealed themselves through time.

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

I’m and arts and culture writer and producer. You can find my work on Marquee TV, PBS and AllArts TV. Right now I’m the creative director of a platform called The Dance Lens which is an alternative dance publication. It’s rich in content flowing from the arts, through world events and back to traditional ballet stages with articles, podcasts and videos on dance, arts, history & politics, fashion and social evolutions.

I think of my work as being a bridge between the society and the art form. Dance is woven into our histories and really the fabric of our lives whether or not we realize it. Conversely, politics, history, fashion and other arts have a PROFOUND influence on the way dance develops and it can be a lot of fun to go on visual and literal journeys through those connections. It demystifies it but also, more importantly, shows that this is an art form for all.

As a part of this picture I also do content marketing for dance companies, it’s all the same thing really. Asking, how do we bring this form or this show to people who otherwise may have assumed it wasn’t for them?

I love love love getting messages from people that they went to their first ballet, or signed up for a dance class because of my work. Especially in a time when art and thought are losing the negligible federal funding they already had, opening the doors to each other and the arts is a cultural imperative.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

My current iteration of my work is a MASSIVE pivot that I never saw coming. I was a dancer, then I owned and directed a school for ten years. Which really, I thought I would do for the rest of my life—then the pandemic happened and I started doing work online as we all did. I realized that I love connecting and teaching through media, through digital platforms. It was something that just wasn’t even a thought in my former life, but once I started to figure it out, it was like coming home to myself. Honestly, I’m still figuring it out, this chapter is still just a couple of years old but it feels aligned and filled with possibilities in a way that being a dancer never did—for me.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I started on TikTok and just leaned into that for a while, then moved onto Instagram and finally YouTube and Substack (all @thedancelens), which are the hardest to grow on but also the audience is most interested in a deeper way in my experience.

Get focused, even if your business or interests are multi-faceted. Pick a few facet pillars and tend to them evenly. You don’t have to be on every platform, lean into 1 or maybe 2, then make another decision. Once you build traction you’ll have a better sense of what’s working and where to expand or go next.

Also, remember, you’re in service of your audience, your work is an offering for them to enjoy, learn from or solve a pain point. So if you’re feeling shy or otherwise uncomfortable putting yourself out there, it can help to remember that you’re sharing something that you’re genuinely into, like you would with a friend, it’s an offering not a sales pitch.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thedancelens.substack.com/
• Instagram: @thedancelens
• Youtube: @thedancelens

Image Credits

Image 3 (on an ancient mountain in a costume) Photo Credit: Sarah Dawson McClean