Artist Profile #4: Doug Gillespie (Brooklyn, NY)

Photo Credit: Keira Chang

Hometown: Jacksonville, Florida

Current city: Brooklyn, NY

Age: 34

When you started to dance: 17

When you first took a modern dance class: 17 

College and degree: Florida State University, Bachelor of Fine Arts

Website: kateweare.com

How you pay the bills (ie paying work): I am a manny (man-nanny) for a family in Park Slope that have 3 boys--ages 3, 7 & 9; I am a yoga instructor, a dance teacher, and occasional dog-sitter.  

All of the dance hats you wear: I am a dancer and rehearsal director for Kate Weare Company. I also handle a small portion of administrative duties for the company. I teach classes at colleges, universities, and around NY on behalf of the company. Another part of my job with KWco is to choreograph and set rep pieces on students while in residency with a school or festival.  

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 Paying the bills. What are the various ways you have paid the bills over the years? Can you write a little about being a “manny” --- what drew you to it, how you balance dance work and non-dance work?

I have supported my dance career in the past mainly by waiting tables and bartending. Being a server and a dancer is great because it's good money and fast BUT the caveat to that is it takes a toll on your body. The late hours and long time on my feet made rehearsals or class the next day a little precarious. I left the restaurant business because it eventually became too much of a hassle to take time off for tours and the other gigs that involved the company. Being a manny-- man-nanny is wonderful! I sort of fell into doing it really. I had looked after the boys a bit when I first moved to the city for extra money but it wasn't consistent. A few years later the family would regularly come into the restaurant I was working in and asked if I would help them out with the boys--they just had their third son. I had just finished yoga school and was looking to get out of the restaurant business, so I became a manny. The family is a huge supporter of my dance career --- they attend all my NY performances and are quite fond of Kate's work. Being a manny is easily balanced with dancing as the family is very understanding when I need time off or if my rehearsal hours shift. I will say though that it is a more stressful non-dance job. When working in a restaurant the most risk you have of failing is ruining a meal; being a manny you are responsible for lives. 

One last thing about balancing non-dance work is that it is very important to find employers who understand that dance needs to come first. I have found that any non-dance work that made it difficult to support my dance career or that I had to make too many concessions to serve that non-dance work, then that job had to go. I would not let any non-dance job get in the way of what I had worked so hard for and strived to achieve.

Photo: Christopher Duggan for the Kate Weare Company

How did you get into Kate’s company? 

I auditioned for Kate's company. But at the time I had not heard of Kate but I was working with Leslie Kraus (another company member) at a yoga studio. Leslie had not seen me dance but had a "good feeling" about me as we had become very fast friends. She said that Kate was looking for a dancer and would I want to come in for a small audition. I accepted and went into the audition which was myself and one other dancer. So Leslie's "feeling" about me worked out and here I am almost 6 years later!

Describe a current or past project of Kate’s that you could really sink your teeth into.

I adore everything we do in Kate's work; however, I have to say that the process and performances of Bright Land were by far the most satisfying. In Bright Land we had the pleasure of working with an old-time band called The Crooked Jades. American folk music isn't usually thought of when modern dance comes to mind; but I believe that is what made the experience so fascinating for me. I fell in love with old-time music, how it tells a story, and the process through which we as a company created the journey of Bright Land with The Crooked Jades. To encounter such generous, amazing, and fun musicians paired with a rich and engaging genre of music was unbelievable. The movement vocabulary was inspired by old-time which made choreographing quite unique. We played with syncing in time with the music, going against it, or creating our own rhythms inside the music. The huge sweeping choreography of some sections took my breath away... literally and figuratively. Bright Land is a potent, expressive gauntlet of movement with an unparalleled soundscape. 

Can you write a little about being in a small, tightknit dance company? What are the advantages and disadvantages of this? Can write some about collaboration, risk taking, trust, and being a team player?

A small, tight-knit dance company is what I've always wanted, and didn't know it. Working with only a few dancers builds incredible bonds between one another. Kate's work is so heavily relationship-based that I couldn't imagine another dancer just being plugged into a part without creating a significant connection first. I have gotten to know the other dancers' movement so well that reacting with it has become instinctual. I love working in a small company because it feels like a family and we are one. We build a trusting and safe environment through which we can explore movement by being vulnerable and exposed with one another. A disadvantage to being one in a five person company is that if I get injured no one knows my part. Kate has designed her company to be full of artists with individuality and strong dancing styles of their own to inform her choreography, thus making it difficult for anyone of us to jump into someone else's part at a moment's notice. The pressure of keeping your body healthy and knowing that you are a precious commodity can be intense, but also wonderful. Collaboration is a large part of how we create work in the company. Kate will often come into rehearsal with a bit of choreography that she'll want us to riff off of or use a phrase of words about movement to kinesthetically inspire the company for a new work.

How do you train these days? How do you maintain and care for your body? 

As far as training goes I'm back to grass roots. By that I mean I try and take a dance class when I can, but I mostly train by doing lots of yoga, ride my bike, push-ups, ab work and stretching as often as possible. We rehearse four days a week, four hours a day and then we all leave afterwards to go to our "other" job(s). I tend to do a workout in rehearsal during our warm-up time and then it's all about what dance/yoga class and any other exercise can I squeeze in during my spare time. Care and maintenance of my body is essential. But frankly, I'm a little bit of a glutton. I love to eat and drink and am a night owl. So this part of life has to be countered with wise decisions about my body, after all it is my instrument. I drink a ton of water, exercise regularly, eat natural/organic whole foods and try and get as much rest as possible. 

What are you working on/exploring/are curious about as a dancer these days?

As a dancer what I'm curious about is --- What else can I do? I mean that in a few ways. One of my wildest dreams is to open a massive "Art Depot" --- a place where the community and professionals of all art forms can come practice, learn and perform. Whether it's sculpting, throwing pottery, painting, photography, dance, theater, culinary, anything artistic, it can happen in the "Depot." My direction in that dream now would be to start dance classes in the community for young people who wouldn't normally have the opportunity to take. The other What else can I do? is about my own dancing. I have always wanted for my dance life to be multifaceted in movement style and performance base. I would like to do more projects with different genres of contemporary dance. I did many dance-theater shows in college and miss that experience with some of the antics involved in the process and performance. 

Future career goals:

At this point I would like my dance career to last as long as possible. However, I know that it won't last and I have many different interests that I'd love to delve deeper into. I would like to have more culinary training. I want to learn American Sign Language. I want more yoga training. My options are open. I tell my father, who asks me occasionally what my goals are, basically I want to dance or do things I love and pay my bills while I do it.

On teaching…..

I love teaching. I love being in class, I love having a good time in class, I love learning. Kathleen Hermesdorf has been an inspiration for my pedagogy. Kathleen's classes are very informative, well structured, push boundaries, and are always a blast. In my classes I strive for those qualities as well. I believe teaching is a privilege and I hope, at the very least, the students I teach will learn something about themselves, each other, and have a good time.

Advice to young dancers, especially dancers who want to be in NYC:

Keep your options and your mind open; your dream job could be the company you've never heard of. Have another viable skill. I was so thankful I had so much restaurant experience that I could work and take class without stressing out about paying rent. Identify yourself as a dancer; it's very easy to get caught up in the struggle to be a dancer in NY and forget that you are one. I got caught up in quantifying how I "knew" I was dancer, "when I get paid to dance," or "when dance jobs alone pay the bills." I just had to say "I am a dancer" and then prove it --- by taking class, performing, seeing performances, immersing myself in the art form that I love so deeply.