We were lucky to catch up with Jocelyn Basham recently and have shared our conversation below.
Jocelyn, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Is there a heartwarming story from your career that you look back on?
One of my favorite stories to tell is how I watched Layla’s light come back. This little dancer was diagnosed with T-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and when Dancers Against Cancer received her application we knew we wanted to help.
Layla is a dedicated dancer from Kristina’s Dance Escape in Ohio and she was hospitalized at the same time as her baby brother was in the cardiac ICU awaiting open-heart surgery and recovering from a stroke. This family’s story broke my heart, not one sick baby but two?! I truly could not imagine and quickly we were able to process the application to give the family a $10,000 donation. At the same time, we were in the midst of planning our upcoming music video shoot with Meghan Trainor and JOJO Siwa’s girl group, XOMG POP! The song was “You Can Be Anything” and it represented everything DAC stood for. We knew it would be difficult, but it was worth a shot to see if Layla would be healthy enough to travel and she was!
From the second she arrived she looked absolutely exhausted. She was shy and stayed hidden under her jacket’s black hood. Even while getting the full costume and makeover, which is normally the kids’ favorite part, she was so unhappy it just made me feel so helpless. As she rested in her chair she watched the other kids dancing and you could just see she was envious of their energy. Finally it was time to surprise the kids with Meghan and JoJo. She is absolutely obsessed with JoJo and finally we at least got her to crack a smile. I was so patient knowing she just had to warm up first but also knowing based on where she was at in her treatment it would be a while before her energy came back.
Fast forward to October, it was time for our annual Industry Dance Awards where we roll out the red carpet to celebrate the best performances of the dance season. Layla was a completely new kid when she showed up, she was jumping and laughing. I couldn’t believe it was the same little girl. The whole week she was on fire! She was chatting with anyone and everyone. Any chance she got you would hear “Yaaassss Queen Slay!!” She was a ball of joy and it was magical to witness this transformation. Layla stole the hearts of everyone she talked to and was besties with JoJo the whole week. She has continued to participate in photo shoots and dance opportunities DAC provided over the last 2 years and is growing up into a strong young lady who is not afraid to speak her mind! She is officially ringing her bell at the end of March 2025 to celebrate her finishing chemotherapy treatment. Me along with some other DAC representatives will be going to visit and document the weekend. Layla will be surrounded by her family and friends feeling the love she deserves. I have no doubt she is going to be a force to be reckoned with. Her light is so bright I can’t wait to watch her shine! Layla has forever touched so many people’s hearts within our Dancers Against Cancer family.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I was a performer my whole life. I started dancing when I was 2 years old and continued my love for the arts through musical theatre, auditioning for television and movies, even competing in scholarship pageants. I was a busy kid with big dreams but our life really flipped upside down when my mom was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in 2004. I was seven years old and it was my very first season of competition dance. Throughout her whole journey with treatment I really used dance and performing as my form of therapy. It completely shifted our lives moving forward. It changed all of our hearts and started leading us down this path of service. It started with my mom mentoring women throughout our community who got diagnosed with Breast Cancer and then that continued to her being a Spokesperson for Relay For Life and then worked with Susan G Komen and other local support groups. I was raised to spend my Saturdays performing at charity events or making gift baskets to go drop off on someone’s doorstep to give them a little encouragement. I was taught using our creative talents to help others is just what you do!
I continued dancing throughout college and found myself facing the full circle moment of starting a job at KAR Productions as an emcee for the Kids Artistic Revue National Dance Competition tour. This was the very stage I spent my whole life competing on and when that opportunity came knocking I knew this was the perfect home for me. My love for production and events grew as I learned more about all of the incredible brands within our company, but there was one in particular that I had my heart set on, Dancers Against Cancer. The perfect combination of my two passions just felt right to me. I offered my help after the pandemic had taken its toll on the donations coming into the charity and I was completely honored and humbled to be asked to be the official employee for Dancers Against Cancer. This was absolutely my dream job and I knew how lucky I was to be given this precious task of serving the dance community.
I could not be more proud to work for Dancers Against Cancer, we are providing hope and financial support to dancers, dance educators, and their families impacted by cancer. We serve the entire nation from small local studios to professional choreographers within the industry. No dancer fights alone, we believe in the power of community and creating a safe space for our dance families to heal together through the different experiences we provide for them. Some of these events we invite them to attend are local masterclasses or music video shoots with influential choreographers, while others are iconic red carpet events with some of the industry’s biggest stars. Our goal is to create lasting memories for these dancers and their loved ones to always remember. It is my personal goal that when these kids look back on their cancer journey they don’t immediately think of all the shots and surgeries, I want them to think of the moment they were so excited to meet their dance idol or think of the time they got to pick out their own Sherri Hill dress to wear on a red carpet. I hope the good overshadows the bad and they can see that although it was a tough few years to get through, the family and friends they gained from it will be with them forever.
The family that our owner, Noah Rick Lands, has built since creating DAC since 2012 just continues to grow and it is so inspiring to see the generations of dancers who have been impacted by the work the dance community has done. Dancers Against Cancer is such a tight knit community and brings every dancer no matter how little or famous all down to one level and provides an opportunity to connect in the most genuine way. There is power in sharing your stories and comfort in finding those who have experienced the same heart breaks. Then you add on the emotional connection dance can bring through storytelling and that is the perfect recipe to make a difference. All of us are just dancers and creatives who want to help change these deserving people’s lives in any way we can even if just for a moment. We believe Movement Is Medicine and even on the hardest days all you can do is try to get up and dance. Speeding hope and joy is something dancers have inside them so why not use our energy and talents to change the world?
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
At the end of the day, you have to lead by example. If your team sees you are putting in the effort for not just the big things but the small things too I think that is how you create excellence. I remember hearing about how Walt Disney himself used to walk around the park picking up trash and that has always stuck with me. No job is too small for the man on top when he expects his team to do the same. I think it’s important not to just talk the talk but you have to walk the walk. The leaders who exemplify this have always been people I look up to. If my team sees that I am putting in the attention to detail for even the smallest things, it is my hope that they will do the same even when I am not there managing them. I believe it is something that goes beyond the work, you have to love what you do. In order to go above and beyond, you need passion. I can’t teach someone to care but I can support them and encourage them to care even more! It’s a human to human mutual respect that I work really hard on. Yes this is a job, but we have such a beautiful and unique opportunity to change lives so why would we not give 120% to make that happen? It starts with us.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
The biggest lesson I have had to unlearn is that I can only trust myself. I think for anyone who has a brand, business, or creative project they are building it’s easy to want to do everything yourself. I know my standards, I know I will make it look and feel exactly how I want it to, but then on the flip side you miss out on so many other creative points of view. Throughout the last few years I have really enjoyed getting to know and collaborate with other artists. They have left me feeling inspired and only helped my ideas get even better! Although it may not look exactly how I envisioned it, 9 times out of 10 it turns out even better than I could have imagined. It’s a magical experience when people come together and we all just get it. I have told myself many times that “I can do anything, but I can’t do everything”. Although I want to believe I can handle it all, the real success began when I started delegating and trusting people to bring their own special touches to the projects. I myself always want to feel seen and heard so I always try to do the same in any collaboration I’m working on. I truly just try to trust my gut, most times I can feel if something or someone is going to work out. I just try to trust that the right people will come into my life that are going to love DAC as much as I do. It’s such a part of me and my heart, I am very protective over it but only because I also feel such a strong purpose to protect the families we work with. I have grown to have such close bonds to so many of our dancers and parents that I just wish I could give them the whole world on a hot pink platter! I know there is only so much we can do, but with the right people by my side I know we are going to do amazing things for this community.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://imadanceragainstcancer.org
- Instagram: jocelyn.rene.basham & imadanceragainstcancer
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iadacfoundation
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DancersAgainstCancer
Image Credits
Christopher Curtiss, KAR PRODUCTIONS