Today we’d like to introduce you to Connor Cornelius.
Connor, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Growing up, I had a melting pot of mom’s close friends as our chosen family. My “aunties” influenced me with their different cultures: Nigerian, New Mexican, Polish and Cuban. One night we would be eating Perogis while waxing eggs and the next we would have a Salsa dance party in the kitchen. My brother and I would jam out in the car listening to King Sonny Ade, a Nigerian music artist, blissfully unaware of the beauty of the cultural community of support we had, on the way to visit our other aunties. I think my “village” that raised me made me the artist I am today. I now appreciate their influences on me as a person and as a creative person. My choreography reveals who I am and where I came from. My mission with GRIT is related to always seeing and hearing different people around me and understanding the value in multiple perspectives.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Rejection is my middle name! Maybe I shouldn’t admit that, but being an artist comes with a difficult path. There is a certain toughness you have to build up as a dancer in the face of constant rejection and, to be honest, most of us are used to this feeling. We generally take a lot of criticism and that comes with the job.
When people ask why I chose my profession or why I continue to attempt to make an impact in such a competitive field, I am sometimes unsure myself. While I have understood from the beginning that the artist life is a hustle, it can be challenging to endure. A constant motivation for me is considering what our world would be without art. I think about what my life would be or who I would be without art; the same art and culture that made me the woman I am today. It is easy to be inspired and think about creating, but I believe it takes courage to fully invest yourself and “risk it all” for the art you want to create. I think the world needs artists who choose to say something through dance and other creative mediums. I am inspired and driven to create and that far outweighs the hardships of the artist’s life. I push through knowing I have worked extremely hard to get where I am today and I am fortunate for the opportunities I have experienced.
Please tell us about GRIT.
GRIT is a dance collective that celebrates diversity in age, race, size, music and styles of dance. We have created our own community of creative and diverse dancers who come together to create interesting and thought-provoking art. We embrace our quirks and envision our art with moxie as our backbone. Our current and previous members of GRIT include: Maddie Ackerman, Sam Crouch, Gabriel Huang, Kris Lenzo, Frances Pakulski, Diane Vanderhei, and Connor Cornelius (me). We all dance and contribute to the group choreographically.
Since we are different in age, gender, race, disabilities and more, we can share our individual movement narratives, performance quality and creativity. We are inspired by one another and can come together to support one another with these different qualities. We are not a dance company of sameness and typecasting, we break the mold of the traditional dance company which differentiates us in a positive way. My hope is that audience members can connect with GRIT because they may see themselves as one of us. I want our artistic statements to be accessible and relatable and we do that by being different, sharing our stories, and with our mission. We strive to cross the line between audience and stage, hoping to bridge that gap with an emotional connection.
Due to our varied bodies, we are able to connect our partnering in compelling ways. For example, during one piece we performed, we created a dance-based off of a story that portrayed Gabriel as weightless. He soared through the wind trying to grab ahold of his hat blowing away. We passed Gabriel from person to person keeping him in the air spiraling as if he was carried by the wind while in search of his hat. We were able to achieve this aesthetic because Gabe was a small boy that we could carry with that air-like quality. (Picture included) We relish in experimenting with ways, we can utilize our strengths and sizes in our work.
Our first evening-length concert was in Chicago in 2018. I wanted our first concert to exemplify our mission essentially stating we are GRIT and this is what we do. Our concert was titled GRIT Storytelling, where we told our stories through movement in an evening-length dance work.
For our second concert, we added three new dancers. Frances Pakulski, a young dancer, Maddie Ackerman, a recent high school graduate, and Kris Lenzo an adult wheelchair dancer. Noting our eclectic family of dancers, I decided to explore our personal influences from our families in a concert titled Family Ties. For an added challenge, I used a giant rope prop that connected us throughout our journeys in the concert.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I am interested in more directly addressing politics and making a statement on what is going on in our country, although I do think our group in itself is somewhat of a political statement. Other than that, I am grateful for my team and what we accomplished and would only want to make the days longer so we can keep creating!
Contact Info:
- Website: http://connorlcornelius.
wixsite.com/grit - Email: connorlcornelius@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/
conzacorn/ - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/
GRITdance/
Image Credit:
M.Ried Photography
Bill Kissinger Photography
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