Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kelly Archer. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Kelly , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
Most projects my company (Chadash Contemporary Dance Movement) undertakes are meaningful, which is why we exist. It’s important that our projects not only mean something to myself and our audiences, but also to our company dancers. Years ago in college, I knew I had a desire to become a choreographer. I remember listening as some of my friends, who were also dancers, talked about how they longed to one day dance in a company whose work was meaningful. I could hear their hearts in those moments- they wanted to do serious, excellent work, but wanted it to mean something. It was at that point that I realized that someday I wanted to create a professional dance company that would do just that. Since our creation in 2016, our concerts have had that goal. Our mission is “to stand in the ashes of the barn burned down and point to the moon, one foot in suffering and one foot in hope,” and that is the lens through which we create each show.
One concert that stands out is “Beacon,” which we performed in 2019. It told the story of three parallel characters, who at the end of the show it is revealed, are all related. One of the characters was based on our Artist in Residence and my mentor, Judi Daniels, who has since passed away. In her story, we follow her relationship with husband, Craig, all the way through her diagnosis with Stage 4 cancer. That was extremely meaningful not only for me but for our whole cast.
But the concert we are working on now is definitely one of the most powerful shows we have ever created. It is based on the true story of a village of 3,000 residents in France during World War 2 who saved 3000-5000 Jews, mostly children. We are also thrilled to be collaborating with Michelle DeYoung, a multi-grammy award winning singer who will be performing most of the music live in the show. That collaboration came out of her attending one of our concerts and finding it personally meaningful to her! The show will be presented in Westminster, Colorado on June 10-11.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
As far back as I can remember, I have felt an urgency to create. I grew up training in both dance and theater. I loved performing onstage, but my greatest desire was being behind the scenes- creating and producing shows. In first grade I wrote my first play and performed it for my class. My favorite pastime growing up was gathering the neighborhood kids together to create a show for our parents. In middle school, I would gather my friends together to perform some big production number for our talent show. Bringing people together, in community, to create performances is an integral part of who I was created to be.
So, looking back, even though I trained as a dance performer, it is no surprise that at some point, I fell in love with choreography. I lived in Los Angeles when I was young so most of my training was in commercial dance but in college, I discovered the world of concert dance which gave me a chance to tell stories through movement. Around this time, I also realized how much hope, joy, light and love art can usher into the world. Gradually, a desire began to grow inside of me to someday create a company of performers who wanted to change the world through dance.
I also had a love for dance education and began teaching at a young age. I especially loved working with dancers who had the desire to go on to dance professionally. I had the opportunity to join the faculty of a dance conservatory in Northern California, as co-director of their pre-professional program, through which I was able to help incredible young human beings and dancers gain entrance into some of the most prestigious university and conservatory dance programs after high school. My favorite part of the process was instilling in them the importance of their role as the next generation of artists on this planet and the power they hold to help shape it for good or for bad. My deepest desire, as I work with young dancers, is to help them understand that they have the opportunity to be architects of hope in a sometimes very dark world.
Fast forward to the present, as I now direct Chadash, a professional dance company based in the Denver area, alongside Stephanie McGill, our Associate Director. Chadash was founded on these same principles of birthing art that will usher light and hope into the world. Our concerts are based on original stories that are soul-stirring, thought-provoking and transcendent, and are accessible to all. Our stories are told mostly through dance, but one of our values is to employ as many media as possible including spoken word, poetry, original music, visual and graphic art and photography. Our company dancers are visual storytellers who are passionate about our mission and the meaningful work that we always hope to create, the difference we always want to make in people’s lives through the stories we tell. We want to change the world through dance!
Adjacent to this is Colorado Dance Initiative, a supplemental pre-professional program targeted towards dancers who have the desire for a professional dance career. Through CDI, young dancers have the opportunity to take classes with Chadash as well as perform in a concert with them. Through the opportunity of working with the Chadash dancers, they learn from and are mentored by them in a professional setting. At the beginning of the season, they are even assigned a company dancer who will mentor them one-on-one. I have the opportunity to guide these dancers into the university/conservatory programs that will be the best fit for them, helping them forge a path towards those programs as well as preparing them for a professional career. The program includes coaching sessions with myself throughout the season with the dancers and their parents to help them on this path. As the season continues, our hope is that these young dancers will realize the great privilege they have to become artists/storytellers who have the potential to change the world.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
Like I’ve mentioned, I have a very specific mission that has always guided me on my creative journey and that is Hope in what can seem to be a hopeless world. I am always keeping my eye out for dancers and other creatives who resonate with our mission and want to join us on our creative journey.
As we grow as a company of ‘architects of hope’ and continue to tell our stories, the desire has grown in us to move from a project based company to a full-time company. We want CDI to become a full-time pre-professional company as well, in order to provide comprehensive training and preparation for dancers in the Denver area looking to go on to a professional career in dance. And all of this is under the banner of our mission and value of creating a community of artists who long to create meaningful work through storytelling that is healing.
Presently, we are looking for individuals and corporations who resonate with our mission and vision, who want to partner with us to help us move toward the goal of becoming a full-time company. We are excited about the future and the opportunity to expand what we are doing now, to be able to tell more stories and welcome more artists in this generation and the next!
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
As a creator, I love getting to “make” choreography- to seek to see what the work is supposed to look like and then carve away at the movement until what remains is what was always meant to be there in the first place. In this way, I have realized that developing my inner eyes is just as important as developing my technical skills as a choreographer. I love creating work that people can relate to, that reflects the human condition, that has the potential to bypass people’s minds and lodge straight into their hearts. I love creating work that hopefully leaves people changed when they exit the theater.
As an artist who is a part of creating large-scale productions, I love the actual performance part of the artistic process. I love getting to sit in the tech booth and watch everything our company has worked so hard to create and embody (literally) come to fruition right before my eyes. I also love hearing the audience’s reaction to what they have experienced. Because of our mission, we aren’t just about entertaining people, we hope that our work will deeply impact people. Hearing about how it lands in people’s souls is one of my favorite parts of this artistic journey I am on!
As time has gone on, however, and our company has developed, I have realized how important, even more important than the end product, the process is. There is something about those moments of inspiration, of discovery, of vulnerability, of intimacy with each other in the studio that is so formative for us as humans and creatives. The pandemic helped us (along with many other artists, I am certain) to realize this. We had a concert in California in January of 2021. During our week of rehearsal, one of the variants started to peak. We did our best to put every possible precaution we could in place, but even so, were anxious that we wouldn’t make it to our show dates. We made it through our first two concerts but on the day of our last two performances, several of the cast woke up feeling sick. So when we had to cancel the rest of the run, even though we knew it was the right call, it was tough. We had to circle up on that last day and remind each other how important, how wonderful and fulfilling it was to be together and create throughout the week leading up to the show. That had to be enough for us as we said goodbye and went our separate ways. And we realized that it was. Since then, I have learned to value process over product, or at least to hold them equally.
Lastly, I love the community that is created when we, as artists, come together and share our gifts with each other and our audiences. Our company really is a family. During the week of rehearsals leading up to our August shows, we fly dancers to Denver from all over the country to be a part of our cast. On those nights, we have “family dinners,” where we laugh, share our lives, and sometimes cry together. There is a bond that is forged when we share who we are with each other in and outside of rehearsals. And that shows up onstage as well. I talk a lot to our dancers about how what we do is very vulnerable- I really believe dance is the most vulnerable of the arts because we are embodying our creation- we are employing body, spirit and soul, sharing our whole selves as we tell our stories. Because of this, we experience community with each other that is difficult to find anywhere else.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://chadashdance.com, https://coloradodanceintiative.com, https://kellykristenarcher.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chadashdance/, https://www.instagram.com/coloradodanceinitiative/, https://www.instagram.com/kellykristenca/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChadashDance, https://www.facebook.com/ColoradoDanceInitiative, https://www.facebook.com/kellyarcherdance
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbsJnrtCI3LL8f_4eVUVwyA
- Other: https://vimeo.com/kellyarcher
- Ticket link: https://events.humanitix.com/le-chambon
Image Credits
Valerie Febre-Yap Eric Fairlee