We were lucky to catch up with Nygel Sejismundo recently and have shared our conversation below.

Nygel, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

I’ve actually thought about this topic for quite some time. In some ways, I do wish I started my creative career sooner. I wish I started dancing when I was younger, but whenever I get these thoughts I always remind myself that everyone is on their own timeline. There’s no one correct or incorrect timeline, just your own. I’m a firm believer in that all my experiences and decisions have brought me to where I am, and I’m genuinely happy at where I am right now. I believe that being able to choose to dance as a career/passion as an adult has made my relationship with dance that much stronger. I know some of my peers who have started dance when they were younger, whether it was their choice or their parents’ choice, that have a rocky relationship with dance. Choosing to pursue dance as a creative outlet and potential career as a young adult really helped develop my love for dance and the process. As much as I would have loved to start dancing, training, and exploring my creativity sooner, I would not have met some of my best friends that I have now (dancer or not) and I value my relationships that I’ve created with my community and my network. I’ve learned to be more forgiving to myself and giving myself grace throughout this whole process and I’ve helped give advice to those who started dance “late”.

Nygel, 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?

My name is Nygel Sejismundo. I am 27 years old and I’m a dancer and creative who recently moved to New York City last year. My journey as a dancer started when I was 16 years old when my friends at my high school started an Indian American Student Association club. The goal of this club was to spotlight Indian culture through dance, fashion, and food via an end of the year show. I was originally asked to be the Master of Ceremonies for this event, but they asked if I wanted to be a part of a few dances and thus begun my dance journey. When I went to college at Michigan State University, I joined a competitive Bollywood Fusion dance team that would travel to different competitions around the United States to compete at dance competitions. This grew my love for the big cities and performing on stage. I started my creative journey at this time as I would help create our dance routine that we would compete with. Although our team didn’t win any competitions during my years there, it still helped develop my love for dance and I fell in love with it. In addition to this dance team, I joined other dance clubs at my university because I loved it so much. I graduated in with a degree in Chemical Engineering and I moved to Ohio to work a full-time 9-5 job. I found myself unfulfilled at this job and I ended up leaving this job and decided I wanted to pivot my direction in life to work towards being a full-time dancer and creative. I got a remote job based in East Lansing, MI and I joined a pre-professional dance company in Lansing called the INstitute of Dancers. It was at this dance company that I really felt like having a career in dance was possible for me. My mentor, Glenn Douglas Packard, was at one point one of the world’s most sought out choreographers and creatives and has worked with Michael Jackson, Pink, Usher, just to name a few. He really taught me how to navigate the industry, gave me the tools I needed to thrive in the big cities, and has played a HUGE impact in my dance journey. Without him, I don’t know if I would be the creative or dancer that I am today.

I recently moved to New York in October 2023 and my primary focus is being a student and taking in all that New York has to offer. I moved to New York as the next step in my dance journey and to be inspired creatively. There’s so much to be inspired by in New York and there’s so much talent and voice and creativity in the city – it’s hard not to be inspired. When I moved, I still felt attached to my dance community in Michigan and I found myself going back quite frequently. I missed my family and my dance friends. Then one night, I thought of an idea to hold a dance intensive in Michigan. It was very impromptu but the ideas and logistics kept flowing in my head. I decided to dive in head first and dedicate myself to this passion project. I wanted to provide Detroit/Michigan dance community more opportunities to connect with each other and to provide training that isn’t always super accessible or affordable. With the help of some Detroit dance community leaders, I was able to host the first AFIntensive in March 2023. The event was sold out and I received a lot of positive feedback as well as ways to improve the next intensive.

I think where I am in my career, I’m really enjoying being a student. I’ve taken a step back in creating to really be inspired and to build myself up so that when I do decide I want to create again, it will be a process that feels even new to me. I think graduating with an engineering degree makes me stand out in terms of the way I think. I try to analyze situations and am always looking for the most efficient way to get things completed. This also makes me versatile in what type of work that I am able to do and help with. I don’t offer many services, I usually teach dance classes but I think currently in my journey, I’m learning to appreciate the art and beauty of dance.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I think the most rewarding aspect of being an artist or creative is creating connection. Creating connection through art or movement, without words, is magical. Being able to influence another person or soul’s experience through your own just from observation is magic to me. I’ve been moved by other movers and I’ll still remember how they made me feel. The feeling can be anything – happiness, awe, heartbroken, etc. I think as artists and creatives, we create to show a piece of ourselves or a story to others and to have others, even if it is just one, relate or connect with that part of ourselves is so rewarding. It’s a shared experience between the artist and consumer of art and it creates a silent but existing connection between the two. It’s also very rewarding when others say they are inspired by you and your work. When my peers tell me that my journey and/or movement has inspired them, it really warms my heart and gives me more of a push to create more. I think creating those connections and building that network/community is very rewarding.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I joined the pre-professional dance company, the INstitute of Dancers at the beginning of 2020. I had really just started to take my dance training seriously and then COVID hit in March 2020. I was forced to go back to my parents’ house and finish my last semester of college online. After I graduated, I got a full time job in Ohio and had moved there the summer of 2020 as I was classified as an essential employee and had to come into the office/manufacturing plant. The dance company at that point had fully gone online and we were taking dance classes online. I was still technically a part of my dance company but it was difficult to keep up because the dance company was 2 hours away from where I was working. The studio had a large enough studio space where only a limited amount of people could come in and take class and there was a zoom set up for those who wanted to take class online. For about a year, I continued my training over zoom. My schedule 3 days a week was work 8-5PM and then dance online from 5;30PM – 8:30PM. I modified my living room into a dance space, although it was carpet, it was still a space and I had to make it work. There were some weeks once the COVID restrictions had lightened up a bit where I would stay late in the office 2 days a week so that I could leave work early on Friday to drive 2 hours to make it to dance class in person and then drive back home to Ohio around midnight. I knew dance was something I wanted to invest in and it’s one of the few things that kept me happy especially during my job and the isolation I faced during COVID. Although learning on zoom was not ideal and it would have been significantly been better for me to train in person, I still showed up every day and took class. Sometimes the teacher would forget about the zoom and I had to figure out a lot of the learning on my own and try my best to answer my own questions during class. I never gave up on it because I knew this is what I wanted to do and although the situation was not ideal, it was better than not having dance at all.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: nygel_s

Image Credits
Sidd Chauhan