We were lucky to catch up with Stephanie Metzger recently and have shared our conversation below.

Stephanie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

God works in funny ways. Growing up I was convinced I would be a whale trainer, ended up teaching Spanish in public schools, and found myself running an arts non-profit almost by accident. I was an athlete growing up and made my parents take me out of the dance classes they enrolled me in to play soccer instead. I spent years wearing all camo and enrolling in every sport I could try. By all means, I was not on your typical path toward being a professional dancer or artist.

In my freshmen year of college, I wasn’t interested in Greek life or college football, but still wanted to find community. I walked by our university gym and saw a group of students dancing Salsa. I tried to stealthily peek into the class, but was quickly dragged into the lesson despite repeatedly telling people I had two left feet. From there I quickly fell in love with Latin dancing and joined a variety of different dance organizations. I’m a bit of an ‘all in’ personality – to the point that I was dancing 3 to 4 hours every day. I just love learning, and couldn’t get enough of dance. From there I decided to do a semester in the Dominican Republic to mainly focus on Bachata, and after college I moved to the salsa capital of the world: Cali, Colombia. Those years of training every day in Bachata and Salsa are some of my happiest memories. Dance made me feel so joyful and connected to people and the community around me.

The ability to find meaningful community through dance, and the happiness dancing with others gave me was something I wanted to help give back to others. When I moved back to the States from Colombia, that was when I knew I wanted to pursue the arts more seriously. After living in a city and community that lived and breathed Salsa, I wanted to bring a little bit of that back with me. For me, pursuing an artistic path professionally has always been about engaging others in joy and community.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Stephanie Metzger, and I am the Executive Director and founder of Inspira Dance, a non-profit focused on making dance accessible to all students and hosting community dance events. I am blessed to be able to work with such an incredible and talented team to educate and inspire the next generation of dancers in public schools throughout the DMV. Each week we work with over 300 students across 9 different schools, teaching Salsa, Bachata, Krump, Hip Hop, Breaking, and Creative Movement dance classes. We offer our programming year-round to help students grow, and we integrate our dance curriculum into the school day. Many of our students have performed at various local events, and have even made appearances on the news.

Apart from the impact we have on schools and students, we also work with local businesses to host community dance events. Our social dance events range in styles from Latin and Swing, to Country dancing. Each month we host over 10 events where hundreds of people come together to dance, learn, and connect. Our community dance events start with a dance lesson, no partner or experience needed! Anyone can attend, make new friends, learn a new dance, and then we open the floor to social dancing.

I count my blessings every day, and I’m proud of the work the Inspira Dance team has done to positively impact our community.

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

I would have never admitted this in my early 20s, but I felt my identity was deeply connected to my job. When I left my full-time ‘regular’ teaching career, I felt a bit aimless and lost. My whole world was working with students from 7am to 4pm, then usually doing dance programming after school, home visits, and lesson planning… my whole life was being a teacher. When I left teaching I was burnt out after years of this routine, and the decision to leave during the pandemic wasn’t an easy one. Who would I be when I wasn’t a teacher? I didn’t have a plan. But I trusted that God was calling me to something else.

It wasn’t a quick and easy answer. I didn’t get to where I am without a few years of small jobs here and there, and a lot of mistakes. But I’m a glass-half-full type of person, and I would constantly pursue what gave me purpose and joy. I loved learning new things and if something seemed interesting I would try it. I kept myself open for opportunities to create and connect, even if they didn’t directly align with the ‘perfect job’, which ultimately led me to some of the connections that started our non-profit organization. While building your resume and experience is important, I found a focus on building relationships and connections with others to be just as, or even more, valuable.

It took a while, but I had to unlearn this deep-seated sense of worth and identity tied to my job and work. I found I could show up to any job and situation as my full creative, curious, and artistic self. I let go of the idea of a ‘dream job’. I didn’t need to find the perfect job, I decided to create the job and space I wanted to be in and invite others to participate in that.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I think everyone is deeply creative, but sometimes that’s expressed in different ways. Some people find creativity in athletic settings, others in cooking and creating new recipes. But for the more ‘traditional’ creative arts careers such as dance and media platforms, I think there is a common misconception that it’s all fun and easy-going. The reality is that you can live a fulfilling career pursuing the arts, but there is a lot of work behind the scenes. There’s people management, financial planning, marketing, emails, meetings, grant writing, and contracts. I’m not in a dance studio 8 hours a day, although there can be some weeks when that is a reality. But working in the arts does not mean an ‘escape’ from traditional work, for me, it has meant I feel a deeper connection and purpose to the work that I am doing.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.inspiradanceinc.com
• Instagram: inspiradanceinc
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/inspiradanceinc
• Other: stephaniemetzgerr (IG)

Image Credits
Rachel Yearick