We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Omar Román De Jesús a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Omar , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
Creating my dance company, Boca Tuya, has been one of the greatest joys of my career. I came into directorship the way many dance artists do – with the assumption that if I wanted to make my own work and get it shown, a company would be the most logical way to accomplish that. Of course, running an organization comes with far more responsibility than simply making dances and convincing people to present them. Being a director means being a leader. Stepping into leadership involves listening closely, communicating clearly, and advocating fiercely in favor of the people who make that leadership experience possible. While there have been plenty of gaps to fill in along the way, these improvisational circumstances have served as chances for me to redirect my dance training in service of relationship building, team work, camaraderie, capacity building, and wonder. Much like creating a dance, starting a company involves taking a seed of imagination and building it into a tangible world. As the world evolves, so do the people inside of it. I love being a part of this kaleidoscope. The chance to make dances; to share the magic of live performance with people around the world; and to do so alongside collaborators possessing such high degrees of talent, trust, and integrity brings me pleasure every day. As Boca Tuya enters its fifth year of building a platform for audiences, artists, and leaders to dream without boundaries, I can’t help but beam in gratitude. The people who continue to make this endeavor possible have allowed me to live one of my greatest dreams. Everyday, I aim to return the favor.
Omar , 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?
As a child, I accumulated a long resume of dancing in front of mirrors. My grandmother helped raise me. At her house, I would improvise rousing performances — accompanied by the musical stylings of Shakira and Backstreet Boys on cassette tape — to an audience of my own reflection. My mom noticed my antics and asked me if I wanted to take dance classes. I had no idea that people could go to classes for dance. I walked into my first lesson at age 10 and never looked back.
Dance celebrated my confidence. I was bullied throughout elementary school but those experiences didn’t seem to harm me in the way I know they have harmed many of my friends. I didn’t fit in. Some people were jerks. That was okay. Once I hit fifth grade, I had my first taste of choreography creating a dance for the school talent show. My imagination ran wild. In this experience of making something out of nothing and performing for my classmates and teachers, I was able to see being different as an advantage rather than a hindrance. Individuality is cause for excitement! Seeking out others who are proud to be in their own skin and confident in their uniqueness remains one of the keystones in my work as a choreographer to this day.
I continued dancing throughout my childhood and teens. At some point, I understood that I could make a living as a professional performer and choreographer. Being myself allowed me to step into my career from a place of innovation. The risks of innovation thrill me. Choreographing, like conducting a previously untried experiment, attempting a world record, or convincing a toddler to sit and listen for more than five minutes comes with plenty of mishaps. Sometimes things blow up, ideas fall apart, or funding falls through. Other times, everything coalesces and I am confronted with magic.
Today, I direct my own contemporary dance company, Boca Tuya, and offer freelance services as a professional choreographer and educator. Art quickly becomes an interdisciplinary job. I have found that the intersections between my multiple roles have helped me to build empathy in the studio and ignite conversations about funding in the arts, the future of dance leadership, the perks and pitfalls of identity based messaging, and the trajectory of my own choreographic imagination. I work closely with collaborators in writing, design, and leadership to create a space for dancers to study, push artistic boundaries, teach, perform, tour, and showcase the full scope of their talents. It is an honor to facilitate this multidimensional experience of dance.
I am proud that I continue to take chances on myself.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
All of my work is guided by a mission to help artists, audiences, and leaders dream without boundaries. In my life, I have experienced a number of hurdles that have threatened the likelihood of my own dreams coming true. Nine years ago, I moved from Puerto Rico to New York. By the time I began making choreography professionally, I assumed I was on even footing with the other makers around me. It took time to realize the degree of resource scarcity with which I was contending, and even longer to realize that my value on any given day seemed more tied to individual aspects of my personal identity than the caliber of my work. While these personal roadblocks might have closed off my dream of choreographing professionally, I instead realized that I could use the skill of resourcefulness to help me on my journey to stand up for other people who were facing similar challenges. While each person in dance has an individual story, many of the themes overlap. Dancers are often overlooked and underfunded due to assumptions about their backgrounds, intelligence, financial acumen, or history of subordination. Each time I make a decision within Boca Tuya, I tease out how the work I make, the statement I declare, the commission I accept, or the program I run can make a positive impact for the people in my community who continue to be silenced, categorized, or fetishized. This mission always leads me toward questions. I think the moment we stop asking questions, we hit stasis. As you might imagine, being stuck in one place doesn’t suit dancers well. We are a community of mobilizers. It is my deepest hope that creators can be valued for what they make and who they are in their entirety. A person should never be sanctioned off into slices like a piece of meat, evaluated only by the most (or least) appetizing feature trending on any particular day. We all deserve to be whole.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
First, it is pertinent to remember that artists are part of society. When dancers are asked, “What do you do?” and reply with “I dance” or “I’m a dancer,” one of the most common follow up reactions is: “Oh, so you do ballet?!” This response, which indicates a familiarity with ballet also comes with an important subtext — that ballet equals dance. Wrapping all dance under the ballet umbrella, however inadvertently, means that the general public operates under the assumption that all dance follows the implied framework of the structure of ballet. Ballet’s roots situate dancers as objects of spectacle separate from the people able to attend those ballets. In this situation, patrons are wealthy and dancers are poor. Dancers are made to be looked at. They are viewed as society’s products rather than society’s makers. Supporting a dancer is somewhat of a sport that comes with perks and perhaps a degree of saviorism. While I do strongly believe that becoming an arts patron is a cornerstone of civic leadership, I do not think that dance goers should be under the impression that their role is to save the arts or artists. Yes, funding is essential and yes, we still exist in a structure where arts sustainability is dependent on patron support. However, I hope that audiences can see art as a reflection of society and use that information to start meaningful conversation and make meaningful changes. Personally, I would love to talk with more people who come to our shows about resourcing, investment, and relationships extending beyond a single performance or donation. To support a thriving arts ecosystem, I challenge any non-dancer reading this to approach artists not only as purveyors of magic or objects of attention, but as equals in business, industry, and innovation.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bocatuya.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bocatuya____/?next=%2F
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/omar.r.jesus/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/omar-román-de-jesús-698b45120/
Image Credits
1. Maria Baranova (pink colors and smoke) Company: my own, “Boca Tuya” 2. Julie Lemberger (solo female dancer in black suit with 180 degree leg extension.) Company: The Joffrey Concert Group 3. Stefano Altamura (white female with red hair in light gray sleeveless costume supported / surrounded by 3 males dancers) Company: Whim W’Him 4. Steven Pisano: (group of dancers in action, running. Female in front has maroon suit jacket) Company: my own, “Boca Tuya”