Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Zyad Sibai. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Zyad, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
As cringy as it sounds, I started off my dance journey at 8 years old, developing my sense of rhythm through countless hours on Just Dance 4. I applied my amateur skill to my sisters’ engagement/wedding dance floors, impressing the attendees with my electric energy when dancing to songs like Jennifer Lopez’s “On the Floor.” Regardless of my seemingly innate connection to dance, my main hobby was mixed martial arts (MMA) and jiu-jitsu, sports I took on in favor of my family. Even though I never felt at home with the martial arts, I retained concepts of discipline, risk-taking, and “striking”, all of which I transferred into the latter parts of my dance journey. As I continued losing my passion for MMA, I felt more inclined to dance. The closest studio was forty minutes away and I could not afford consistent classes, but I was intrinsically motivated to follow my anticipating passion. I spent time learning from the resources available to me: YouTube videos. I recalled Phil Wright’s choreographies daily and captured embarrassing videos (that will never be seen) to track my growth. Nevertheless, my context meant that my training missed an integral element of dance: technique.
With bare training, I decided to join my high school’s drill team, “H2O”. To preface, drilling as a dance form started in Miami, deriving from marching bands, street dance forms, and local battle scenes; it later became popularized through Attack Dance Crew and other Historically Black College and University (HBCU) dance organizations. As I participate in it, drilling focuses on extreme precision and energetic movement, which helped me combine control and energy through movement. As a freshman, I practiced for hours at home and asked my teammates for advice on improving my precision and control since we did not have access to mirrors. As they became my dance family, I established my family of movement under energy and developed my performance quality. With the support of my local dance community, not only did I improve, but I found that the true essence of dance lies in plain sight–in the communities that embody and share movement passionately.
While my circumstances did not entirely hinder me from doing what I love, I always found more room to grow…there was more technique to develop, more dance styles to embody, and more potential to reach. Therefore, I took independent measures to take monthly classes at Show Stopper Studio and virtual classes with any spare free time, all while captaining H2O for two years. Hence, I was exposed to styles ranging from Hip Hop to Reggaeton and even Contemporary and Improv.
Due to my newfound breadth, I started controlling my movement, adding dynamics, textures, and fluidity in every at-home practice. While I felt myself improving quickly, COVID-19 placed me back in self-training mode.
Throughout quarantine, I challenged myself to dance outside, hoping that social facilitation brought me back into performance mode so that I could apply my focus in front of others. Using the Miami breeze as my release, my shadow as my mirror, and the canal water as my flow, I replicated and combined aspects of out-of-the-box performance and at-home freestyle to advance my movement. My growth sparked intrinsic confidence as I started appreciating rather than solely critiquing my movement; therefore, I decided to audition for my first professional dance company, Karizma Dancers. Shortly after my audition two years ago, I was accepted into the company and spent months training under renowned choreographers who taught me foundation, technique, and professional etiquette.
Once I entered Pomona College in California last year, I achieved my dreams of training in Los Angeles with instructors I’ve always wanted to meet and now, I work as a professional dance artist. Looking back at my journey, I know that my rate of growth and my environments were all meant to be as they made me the professional, mover, and human I am today.
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 background and context?
I am a Muslim, Arab-American immigrant from Homs, Syria.
My movement is embodied intention, whether that be to connect, share, feel, or explore. I primarily focus my dance training on street styles like Hip Hop culture and drilling, various Afro styles (including Amapiano and Afrobeats), as well as Modern Dance. Apart from execution, I find a lot of enjoyment in creating open-style choreography that fuses intention, musicality, and dance styles to move the viewer. I LOVE performing. To sway a crowd into feeling anything and drawing engagement from an audience is, and will forever be, an HONOR.
While I am a creative, I am also a full-time student and Posse scholar at Pomona College, where I major in Public Policy Analysis and minor in Dance. Using my studies, I want to implement radical ethics in my professional life and contribute to the abolition of the carceral system through non-profit work, legislation, and local community education/engagement. As I’m developing skills in critical pedagogy and mentorship, I aim to fuse my identity traits, aspirations, and experiences to produce meaningful contributions to society––which for me, comes through in advocacy and policy work.
Seeing as my studies teach me more about my function in the US’ capitalistic environment, I aim to share with everyone who reads this that YOU…yes, you…can have more than one function, more than one purpose, more than one goal in your life. Growing up, I was always encouraged to specialize in one craft, whether that be ONLY dance or ONLY policy, or (in my younger years) ONLY health science. However, I find that one pursuit does not fulfill or encompass the diverse aspects of help I can provide. If you feel that you have multiple passions, then manage yourself well enough to embody them all, even if they’re at different points in your life.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
As with any ecosystem, the creative ecosystem requires a multifaceted approach to care, one that includes longitudinal attentiveness and individual-community lenses.
Our young creatives–the heirs of dance–need to be nurtured as the artists they dream to become. Even if that means letting them experiment with dance games, art projects, or classes, the overseers of young creatives need to support them in their pursuits. As I worked as an Assistant Choreographer with the Confidence, Community, Artistry (CCA) Dance Project in Bridgeport, CT, I was reminded of how important dance was for the youth to explore themselves wholly. Since CCA functioned as a not-for-profit organization, we were able to access students located in places without proper dance resources. If performing arts grant funding increases institutionally, locally, and academically, more students can explore themselves and find confidence in any of their pursuits.
Our established creatives–the carriers of dance–need to be gratified for their work. When comparing expected dance artist pay rates from the SAG-AFTRA labor union and Dancers Alliance (a partnering volunteer organization) with the real rates provided by booking opportunities, I find that there is a large discrepancy–a net loss for the dance artist. Especially looking at global inflation rates due to the pandemic, these pay discrepancies are hurting artists worldwide. In speaking with Khaja J (my mentor and creative director of Karizma Dancers), I really grew to see that the push for higher rates per-project and the REJECTION of low rates pushes the community one step further. If everyone stayed true to that advocacy and found sufficiency in financial backing from non-industry pursuits, then the dance community will make strides.
Our international creatives–the originators and wealth of dance–need to be acknowledged for their work. Being in classes where I see that a move being taught closely resembles the “gwara gwara” (an afrobeat move) or the “twist-o-flex” (a popping dance) goes unnamed and executed, I see the lack of credit in our dance education. As teachers, we need to educate ourselves on the lineage of our dance styles, including their history and terminology. Looking more generally, international creatives should also have more access to artist visas so that they can benefit from opportunities in high-culture places that take advantage of their work.
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.
I found (and find) myself most when I let go. We maneuver through a life of societal expectations and clashing desires. We are told “NO” time and time again, sometimes, from the people we love most–the people who we wish to hear “yes” from. We seek to find ourselves in spaces that shape and define us. Little do we know (as I didn’t once) that we are ourselves naturally, at all times. Like Kesha says “We R Who We R”, and if we let go of external pressures and fight through the pain with passion, we become our actualized selves. This does not come easy and those without privileges in a white, cis-gendered, heteronormative-dominant world have more resistance to our pursuits; however, it played a key role in my journey.
Take the risk and let go. Take a dance class in bare feet, without any intention of appeasing anyone but yourself or something important to you. I assure you FROM EXPERIENCE, you can fall face-flat in an industry master class after feeling free in improv movement and as you keep moving forward in life, not only will everyone forget, but you would have also gained from that experience of letting go. Breathe and let go.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @zyadsibai
- Other: Email: [email protected]
Image Credits
Vanessa from @ccadanceproject Justin from @xclusivtradez_inc, @clubjete, @heartweho Corina from @corinaspixels