We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Selly Talley a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Selly, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

Well for as long as I can remember, I’ve always had rhythm but i didn’t act on it until I got involved in my high school’s dance program. In that program we would learn the basics as well as the history of various dance styles. We would have to learn a class routine and perform it in front of friends, parents, and classmates every quarter of the school year.

Once I graduated high school I got involved with a local dance studio and that’s when I started taking dance more seriously since it was a studio that enters various competitions.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hey readers, my name is Selwyn Talley but most would know me as Selly. I’m a 30 year old Mississippi native who relocated to Minnesota with my mother & brother after the devastating hurricane Katrina.

When I was younger I’ve always had some sort of passion for artistic movement. I would try to learn choreography from popular dance movies such as “you got served”, the “Step Up” movies and “Stomp The Yard”.

I am trained in various styles of dance such as Hip Hop, Ballet, Lyrical, Jazz, Jazz Funk, Street Jazz and House but the two styles that I enjoy the most is Hip Hop and Street Jazz. Being Black most of us grew up listening to hip hop, it’s something that’s very deep rooted in black culture. Hip hop is not just music, it’s fashion, art, a whole lifestyle. Street jazz is a style that takes from multiple styles of dance such as hip hop, jazz funk and jazz.

After I was done with competitive dance,
me and my best friend Tottiana Stolberg would constantly work on our choreography skills by choreographing a few 8 counts to some of our favorite artists which then lead us to start wanting to teach the dances we’ve come up with. My best friend Tottiana was a college student at the time and she started a dance class for the student body. During this class we would teach the students our choreography free of charge while also working on our teaching skills. After that was over we would take classes at various community studios and get more training. Taking those classes you will meet other dancers from the community and start networking and building relationships with them which will open doors for amazing opportunities.

I am very thankful for the opportunities that had landed my way. Some of the amazing opportunities that I’ve had is performing at various stadiums, arena’s and theaters. I’ve performed at the WeDay festival at the excel arena in front of thousands of students with local dance crew shapeshift. I’ve choreographed for the Minnesota Timberwolves dance team and I’m also a member of their Hip Hop crew the “612 Crew” that performs during the games.

Working on my craft for about 10 years I’m at a place where I’m very proud on how far I’ve gotten and how much I’ve grown as a dancer, choreographer and teacher. I’m currently teaching competitive Hip Hop and Jazz/ jazz funk at Stage left Dance Co. as well as teaching adult community classes at Klass Mpls. At my community class I teach a combination of hip hop, jazz funk and street jazz. Working with kids multiple days amps me up for my adult classes because I get to teach more challenging choreography. What sets my class apart from other dancers/ teachers in the community is you have to have a good sense of musicality and stamina since my choreography can be in the intermediate to advanced range and it’s very fast paced but I also like to slow it down sometimes. I love to see my students excitement once they finally have the choreography memorized it’s such a great feeling and the most important thing to me is that they just have a good time.

One of the main opportunities I’m proud of is me and Tottiana got the chance to set a 20 min piece for a dance show called “MIXTAPE”. The reason this opportunity is so important to me is because not anyone can be a choreographer for the show, you have to put in the work, grind and make somewhat of a name for yourself in the community so being asked to do the show let me know people see the talent, dedication to the craft and the growth.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Sometimes Dancers/ choreographers aren’t paid what they are worth at times. If you’re a dancer in my community sometimes you’ll get messages from artists/ businesses saying they’re looking for dancers and they have a budget of $100 to give you which is not worth the time or gas. So I think society could pay artists for what they’re worth especially dancers

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

My end goal is for me to be a choreographer/ dancer and booked for touring for some of the biggest names in music. I’ve performed with a few artist before but nothing compared to what I want to do. I also want to have my own dance studio/ company in the future

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/selly_dance?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@Sellyevhs

Image Credits
Selwyn Talley