Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kristalyn Gill. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Kristalyn, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Kristalyn, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Since I was a teenager, I have long considered creativity as a conduit for an empathetic community, ignited curiosity, and earnest conversation. In fourth grade, this looked like me sharing a poem about my favorite lamppost in the neighborhood (you read that right). In high school, expression took form in dance classes scattered between my time on the volleyball court or soccer field. In college, I was introduced to slam poetry and wrote works for our collegiate slam team to compete with at nationals.

However, it was also in college when I started my professional dance training at age 18 studying jazz, ballet, modern, contemporary, and acting. As a dual-degree student in Dance Performance and Interpersonal Communication at East Carolina University, I became enamored with the reality of interdisciplinary work. I was fascinated by combining mediums of poetry and choreography as well as photography, videography, and audience-interactive sets. I had two instructors, Teal Darkenwald and John Dixon, who empowered my scholastic curiosities to study the ways art is exercised as an act of storytelling. After receiving my university’s Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Grant and a nod of faculty support through ECU’s Roulston Award as a graduating senior, I was led to dream – for the first time – about being a full-time artist, something that prior to this moment I had never considered attainable in my journey as a creator.

After graduation, I moved to Portland, OR for two years as a freelance artist and contemporary choreographer. I had the privilege to teach at institutions such as BodyVox and NW Dance Project while touring my own works to Koresh Dance Company’s Come Together Festival or Chicago’s Harmony Music and Dance Festival. It is also in Portland, I was able to publish my own poetry collection – The Breakup Club: A Collection of Mishaps and Falling Aparts. Following my time in Portland, I moved to New York City and have been here for four incredible years as a freelance dancer, author, educator, and choreographer.

In my years since graduation, I have had the honor and pleasure to gain magnificent mentors in the dance community and industry. These individuals have irrevocably altered my trajectory as a dancer and art-maker. These artists (which graciously include Diana Matos, Bo Park, Candace Brown, Theresa Stone, and James Alonzo) have expanded my training into foundations of new styles – such as hip-hop and house – and reminded me that I am so much more than the art I make. While my identity may rest in being an artist, it is what I experience outside the studio or away from the writing desk that deeply inspires what is made in those places.

Currently, as an NYC-based artist it is my joy to continue expanding the breadth of my creative works within and outside of movement. Within the past 18 months alone, I am grateful to have worked in a variety of roles which include teaching contemporary at Peridance Center, serving as assistant choreographer on an upcoming independent film, producing my own evening-length immersive show “LOOK AT ME” as enabled by receiving the Queens Arts Fund New Work Grant, finishing my newest collection of poetry titled “Purification in Queens,” and performing with Yue Yin Dance Company at dream venues including Jacob’s Pillow, Chelsea Factory, and the quaint town of Camposampiero, Italy.

It is the delight in living in this intersection of arts that sets me apart from others creators. I am a dancer who likes to speak as she improvises, a poet who enjoys crafting set design, a choreographer who is comfortable building cinematography shot lists, and a writer who feels comfortable with public speaking to a crowd of hundreds. This convergence continues in my personal life as I am an artist of faith and identifying Christian. I seek to provide opportunities for individuals in the entertainment industry and/or the faith community to have open, respectful dialogue about identity and creativity. These opportunities take shape in the monthly community forum I have been leading alongside my husband Matt in NYC since October 2020. Together, we cook a homemade meal and invite any self-identifying creative to come over and discuss any hot-button topics about society, identity, history, and religion.

Though I do not know yet how the years ahead will steer my creative passions, I am full confident that I will continue to create, to make people pause in curiosity and steward my art as a catalyst for conversation between individuals and communities who otherwise may have never crossed paths. This is the legacy I want to leave as an artist. Through my work I hope to offer viewers intentional, thoughtful questions through risk-taking mediums of connection and plunge headfirst into the gray spaces of the human experience. I hope to be a mentor for young creatives, empowering them to pioneer the path ahead that sparks their fascinations rather than dreaming the dreams of their predecessors out of fear of the unknown. For this is something I am proud to say I have done. I have been told to splinter my artistic fascinations by others who claimed I would never be successful studying and engaging with so many different art forms.

However, I have been quick to learn that success is not measurable nor attainable as seen through eyes of discontentment. Success is a feeling of personal triumph and of fierce, unwavering purpose. Then if it is purpose we crave, I have never doubted its presence in my artistic journey for a second.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I initially began my professional work as a dancer with a scarcity mentality. I consistently carried with me a competitive mindset, often pitching myself up against those around me not only in auditions but in classes, rehearsals, and training programs. I was unaware that what once fueled me as an athlete (victory on the scoreboard or making it to the state championship game) was not applicable as an artist. I was allowing fears of failure and rejection cast me into an unhealthy state of loneliness, envy, and self-deprecation.

Slowly, I began to learn how the dance community and the dance industry are two separate entities, and while there is of course overlap (think Venn Diagram), there is ALWAYS room for everyone in the dance community. My joy for movement and sharing this joy with others who delight in dance cannot be taken away from me.

I learned this deeply when auditioning for a full-time company right after graduating college. Prior to the audition, my anxiety had reached an all-time high, causing me heartburn and stomach ulcers to the point of pain where I was forced to sleep sternum-down on the floor for a week leading up to the audition. Once at the audition, I could barely eat or control the millions of ways I did not look like the dancers around me. I didn’t study at the schools they went to or know the choreographers they spoke about during lunch. I didn’t know all the terminology used during the ballet portion of the audition, and I didn’t have any other dreams besides this one company we were all vying to impress. After making it into the final round of the audition, receiving the rejection directly from the Artistic Director almost broke my motivation for pursuing dance for good. She told me how they loved my dancing and thought I was a perfect fit, but ultimately my body was not the right look and I could never catch up to the years of ballet training I had missed as a young adult.

It tooks years of unpacking this conversation and unlearning to rebuild a healthy mindset for myself. Now, I can (most of the time at least) appreciate my body for its strength and structure without shame or comparision. I can see how my past has led me exactly where I am today, and I can look at it with gratitude and appreciation, not regret or fear of missing the mark.

As dancers, we should remain motivated by passion and remember there is space for everyone to express, to listen, to be seen, and to be heard. It may be in a different medium or down a different creative path than we expected, but we do not have to live in a scarcity mindset.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I am someone who firmly believes in the power of a “cold call” or out-of-the-blue email. A message sent online through a website or social media forum, if sent with professionalism and clarity, is a terrific way to connect with individuals who you may have never had the chance to interact with prior. I wish someone would have encouraged me sooner to reach out to the artists I am inspired by or want to work with with boldness and courage. We as dancers are accustomed to hearing “no” following submissions and auditions, so why not take a chance by reaching out to those organizations who ignite your artistry?

Email the director your love about observing a closed rehearsal. Ask the teacher after class if they have any personal feedback on areas you can grow. Tag your favorite musician in a video of you freestyling to their song. You never know what opportunities may arise simply by ASKING to be in those spaces or the growth that can come from ASKING for those pieces of feedback.

Additionally, I think there are incredible resources available (I wish I knew about sooner!) for artists to assist them in any facet of their career whether they are auditioning, boosting their marketing, or even befriending other artists. See below!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kristalyngill.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristalyngill/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtBzgulsN-F_LA2M8j-OmdA

Image Credits
All photos in their title have credits cited.