We recently connected with Lily Conforti and have shared our conversation below.

Lily, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

Earning a full-time living from my creative work has been a challenge, but through the process of graduating from school and looking for work I have found that there are many avenues I can take in my field. Being a dancer in the Twin Cities has never been one full time job for me. It is typically made up of many gigs and part time jobs that make up my livable, full time income. Although this approach doesn’t work for everyone it has given me the flexibility to create a schedule that allows for dance rehearsals, auditions, and my own personal dance explorations that aren’t necessarily big money makers.

Fresh out of school in spring of 2021 there were not many performance opportunities because of this I leaned on other aspects of dance to support me financially. I knew that I wanted to create, and inspire younger dancers and with those goals in mind I started teaching at three dance studios and guest teaching at a few others. There were very few auditions in the twin cities after I graduated due to companies not performing and theaters still being shut down. There were also very few grants or financial help. Through this time I started to grow my dance collective (Corpus Callosum Dance). Teaching was supporting me financially and all the rest of my time went to my own projects. I released a dance film in the summer after graduating and started the process of creating a full evening length show for the fringe festival in August of 2022. My collective still does not make up a large percentage of my income but I have found that this is only one part of being a dancer for me. Production assistant work, along with arts administration, and teaching sustain me and fit into my way of being a full time artist. In 2022 into 2023 there were more opportunities to apply for artist grants to create work along with more auditions and company positions. I have been able to perform more outside of my company in the past 6 months along with create a new work for Corpus Callosum which was presented at the candy box dance festival in April 2023.

Calling myself a professional dancer is still a scary thought sometimes because I am not a prima ballerina making a full time living performing on grand stages, but I have discovered that this understanding of a professional dancer/artist is not the only way to fulfill that title. Professional artist can look like anything from a young artist working in arts administration and a hand full of other jobs or a seasoned artists performing full time. There are so many options and avenues, and none of them make you less of a professional or less of a creative.

Lily, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am dance artist currently performing, teaching, and choreographing in the Twin Cities. I am the founder and choreographer of Corpus Callosum Dance Project. I started the group in 2019 and it formerly performed under the name LCcreations until its name change in October 2022. We create mixed media art that combines dance and other artistic genres. Each project allows for artists of distinct and unique backgrounds to come on board, and work together to make something new. The cast creates under a collective goal of blending mediums together to cultivate an art experience that is new and invigorating for the audience.

People often ask me where the name Corpus Callosum, came from. ‘Corpus Callosum’ anatomically refers to the nerve fibers that connect the two hemispheres of the brain, permitting communication between the right and left sides. This name was chosen to represent the connection and crossing over of artistic mediums that the dance project hopes to achieve in its work.

Some examples of Corpus’ collaborations include include their dance and visual art show titled, ‘Botanical Dancing’ presented at the 2019 MN Fringe Festival where dancers laid canvas drop cloths across the stage and proceeded to dance in brightly colored paint, making patterns on the floor as they did so. Through this show they explored lasting and fleeting shapes on stage. The collective has also done works combining dance and textiles for DanceBarn’s Vol 3 show – CollabArts. In collaboration with Alexandrea Beaumont, a Minneapolis textile artist, the group built a 6ft standing cube of fabric which they danced in and through. Corpus Callosum collaborated with videographers for their 10 min short film titled ‘Limbo’. ‘Limbo’ received accolades from several acclaimed film festivals, including, 4th Logcinema Music Film Festival, FROSTBITE International Indie Fest, and Munich Music Video Festival.  In August 2022, Corpus Callosum collaborated with a local punk/rock band, Oister Boy, to create a 45 min, mixed media show for the MN and Indy Fringe Festivals. Most recently, in April of 2023, we created a work titled ‘By the skin of our sleeves’ for the happy hour portion of the Candy Box dance festival. This thirty minute show began to explore our senses and how they shape the lens through which we experience the world using headlamps, jangling keys, and stretchy sweaters.

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

My goal for Corpus Callosum Dance is to create art that sparks conversation and makes people excited. I want to create a space where artists are valued, safe, and their ideas are explored. I want to pay dancers a respectable wage for their work, and I want to create platforms for other creatives to showcase their work. Beyond the artist that I work with directly, I want to create an inviting space for the audience no matter if it is their first dance show or their 100th.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The two most rewarding aspects of being an artist for me is the exchange and conversation with the audience and the connection I have with fellow artists.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.corpuscallosumdanceproject.com/
• Instagram: @corpuscallosum_dance

Image Credits
Olivia Smith, Indy Ghostlight, Bill Cameron