We were lucky to catch up with Wanda Ebright recently and have shared our conversation below.
Wanda, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.
My parents did so many things right, even though I wouldn’t realize it for decades! If I could sum it all up, I’d say they taught me that I am multiples. I am, and can be defined as, so many different things that no matter where I am struggling, I am successful somewhere. If I am failing in one area, I still own my self-confidence and respect in some other area. I am a dancer, an athlete, a scholar, an artist, a Lutheran, a woman, a person of color, a teacher, an author, a mentor, a comedian. What this has done for me that I wish for all my students now that I’m a professor and a dean, is that it taught me not to trust or easily accept the names or roles that others use to make me feel small. If you use a racial slur against me, I know all the things that I am and I may be annoyed, but I will never be broken by wrong word choices. If you see me in a sexist way, I know I hold Master’s and Doctoral degrees, am a homeowner, drive a paid-off car, and have a beautiful family. If you see me as overweight, I see myself as having produced two gorgeous women, each by c-section, as well as having been a professional ballet dancer and a state champion gymnast. What my parents did right was teaching me to define myself, to try learning literally anything I wanted to, knowing I was capable, and teaching me to stay grounded in my faith.
Wanda, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
At this time, I am dean for the College of the Arts at Columbus State University (GA, not OH), where I am also a tenured full Professor of Dance. In my family, my brothers and I were required to be in one arts activity and one sport at all times, so we were always busy, out of trouble, and aware we were good at multiple things. Activities were dependent on maintaining good grades, so those were also important and defining. We had to take one year of piano so we could read music, then we could study any other artistic discipline. I thought I’d never be as good a musician as my older brothers, so I changed to dance, but also sang in ensembles and the occasional musical throughout my life. As an athlete, I played softball, was a cheerleader, but was a state champion gymnast, no doubt because of my dance training.
Classical ballet is my primary dance language, followed by Graham-based and Horton-based modern dance and jazz, though I’ve also studied tap and clogging. I danced with Memphis Classical Ballet while earning my BA in French at U. of Memphis (then Memphis State), then pursued my MFA in Dance Performance & Choreography from Florida State, and eventually earned my PhD in Dance at Texas Woman’s University. I coached gymnastics for years, then taught dance in private studios before earning P-12 licensure in dance education to teach middle and high school in DeKalb Center for the Performing Arts (now DeKalb School for the Arts) in Atlanta. I then taught two years at Kansas State University as an assistant professor of dance, and eight years at Coker College (now Coker University) in SC where I became a tenured associate professor of dance and Dance Program Coordinator. I was then asked to Chair the Department of Visual, Performing, & Communication Arts at Johnson C. Smith University (NC), where I continued for 9.5 years. I then became Associate Dean & Director of Graduate Studies for the College of Visual & Performing Arts at Winthrop University in SC for four years before coming to my present job as Dean at Columbus State.
In addition to my progression from professor to administrator, I also served as Artistic Director of The Wanda Project, a ballet-based contemporary dance company that has performed in SC, NC, CO, AL, and GA. As a choreographer, I freely combine my classical ballet with Graham-based modern and jazz movments, and I prioritize polyrhythmic music reflective of my African American background. I am interested in pushing ballet choreography in new ways and in revitalizing story ballets in one-act formats.
I published “Dance on the Historically Black College Campus: The Familiar and the Foreign” through Palgrave Macmillan in 2019 and contributed a chapter to “Inspired to Climb Higher: The Challenges, Questions, Struggles and Joy of Earning Your Doctoral Degree,” published by Rowan & Littlefield in 2024. I am an active guest teacher, guest choreographer, and both scholarly and motivational speaker on dance, the arts, higher education, and how a life onstage prepared me for a career in higher education administration.
Both of my grandmothers were educated in one-room schoolhouses in rural Georgia. College was a dream for them that could not come true. My parents were the first on their respective sides of my family to attend college, and my three brothers and I all hold Master’s degrees. I hold the first doctorate on either side of my family. I see education as the great equalizer of socioeconomic classes, races, religions, political structures, and other would-be means of dividing the population into haves and have nots. If you define yourself, you do not fall for the inferior position people try to force you to accept and own. I also feel strongly that artists are better prepared for most complex jobs because we constantly manage fiscal, human, financial, and space resources. We recruit and market and match skills with roles and develop audiences. What we don’t do is teach artists that this is what they’ve been learning all along, and that these are all transferable, highly sought-after skills in almost every industry.
Let’s get the word out.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
When non-artists ask artists where we work and we have to take a pause to answer, they think we aren’t working. Non-artists can only conceive of what they know, which is that you take a job with one company and work a 40 hour week to earn a salary and benefits. In reality, we pause because the arts are largely project-based. Instead of being able to tell you I work for Microsoft, I have to figure out how to tell you that I have twenty high paying contracts spaced out over the next year and a half, each for a different company to earn as much or more than the one job non-artists have. We pause because the question is flawed, not because we aren’t working.
Also, please stop telling people there are no jobs in the arts. Artists choose the color of your phone and car, we design every logo you’ve ever seen, we compose the jingles you remember and sing, we compose/play/sing the theme songs to all your favorite TV shows, we design the costumes you see every time you turn on your television, we design everything you purchase to furnish your home and office, we design every poster/program/flyer you see, we design the merchandise you buy at a concert/play/musical, and so very much more. We are working all the time in all these project-based ways, and you pay us for this regularly.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
In my performing years as a ballet dancer, I was a tall Black woman with a lean but athletic frame. My training was excellent, so directors would select me and I’d quickly become a soloist. However, I wouldn’t be cast in leading roles and was told it was because audiences weren’t ready to see a black woman in the lead, especially if partnered by a white man. I made a point of knowing every principal dancer’s role and every soloist’s role in addition to my own. When someone was sick or injured and the directors asked who else knows this role and can go onstage, I was always the answer. After each show, audience members gushed and asked where they’d been hiding me all along.
This method has always worked for me as well in academia. I am perfectly content doing my own job and staying in my lane, but when a crisis comes up and someone leaves, I am already prepared to step into that role with confidence and faith because I am always paying attention far more closely than anyone realizes. It’s how I have moved up consistently, and it’s why I know it’s a lie when people say artists can’t make a real living. I’m a dance major making six figures, almost twice over. I am worth every penny of it. Quit spreading the lie.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.columbusstate.edu/profiles/ebright-wanda
- Instagram: @kwmoms
- Facebook: Wanda Ebright
- Linkedin: Wanda Ebright
- Twitter: N/A Anything you see here is a false profile
Image Credits
Whitney Hough, Keiko Guest, Pete Wilson