Artist Profile #76: Cathy Davalos (Richmond, CA)

 

Photo: David Gaylord

Hometown: Cerritos, CA

Current city: Richmond, CA

Age: 52

College and degree: California State University, Long Beach (CSULB); BA in Philosophy and Dance

Graduate school and degree: California State University, Long Beach; MFA in Dance: Choreography and Performance when I was 32 years old.

Website: www.davalosdance.org and http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/mfa-in-dance

How you pay the bills: Director of Dance and Professor at Saint Mary’s College of California

All of the dance hats you wear: Dancer, choreographer, teacher/professor, and administrator

Non-dance work you do: I don’t get paid for these, but they occupy my time and space - wife, mother, sister, daughter,  maker of homemade cards and gifts, and Reiki healer

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Describe your dance life in your…. 

20s- In my early 20s I started my training as a dancer. I fell in love with modern dance after I took a beginning level class my second year of college.  I had one prior experience with dance classes - ballet at age 5 because my mother said I was a klutz! I auditioned for the department and was accepted on probation. They had me on probation for a year because I was inexperienced. At one point I was also on “weight probation” and I only weighed about 100 lbs. They even told me I should consider another major, because I was not “cut out” to be a dancer. I came home devastated and my father said, “Are you going to let them tell you what you want to study?” My father is a first generation Mexican from the ghettos of East Los Angeles who overcame poverty and earned a PhD from USC. I set myself to a more positive attitude and changed their minds and graduated with highest honors. My mentor at CSULB was an incredible woman named Tryntje Shapli.  I still quote her today.

After I graduated from college, my mother was helpful in getting me a job at the same high school in which she was teaching. I interviewed for the position of part-time dance teacher and the principal told me I had nice legs and he gave me the job! 

I performed with friends in the Los Angeles area after graduation. I also got married in my late twenties to artist David Gaylord. We have been married for 25 years. 

When the state was in a budget crisis (sound familiar) back in 1993, I was laid off from this position.  Luckily, Tryntje called me and asked if I would like to apply to CSULB for the first MFA cohort of the graduate program.   

30s- I started grad school and immersed myself in dance. Dancing in my 30s was incredible. My body caught up to my brain and I could do anything! My work was chosen to represent CSULB at the American College Dance Festival Association’s Southwest Conference. Once in New Mexico, my dance “Doblez” was chosen to be performed at the Gala and then at the Kennedy Center for the National College Dance Festival, 1994. This was and continues to be one of my favorite performance memories. (Twenty years later, my students at Saint Mary’s College were given the same honor, and they had the same dressing room! It was sweet.)

I formed the Davalos Dance Company in 1994. I was 32 years old. We performed all over the Los Angeles area that first year, and I had my first real review in the Los Angeles Times in 1995. I was teaching part-time everywhere.

In 1997 I applied for the one and only job I would ever have - Director of Dance at Saint Mary’s College and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area with some of my dance company members. 

After ten years of marriage, we decided to have children. I did not realize it would be difficult for me, but I was blessed with a son (after four months of bedrest) in July 1999. We like to say that Emilio is our greatest work. I ended my 30s as a mother with a backache, but I had a good job, health insurance, lovely dancers in my company and an incredible partner. 

40s- Dancing in your 40s is another life changing experience; maturity is coupled with movement potential! I continued to work with my dance company performing all over the country. My most memorable experience was at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Campus, MALCS Summer Institute and Conference in August 2007. I had re-choreographed my dance, Borders, Spaces, and Brown-Eyed Girls into a 30 minute solo version and performed it for an all Latina audience. It was remarkable because it was the first time an audience was all like me! They really understood everything and even sang along to some of the music. I was 45. I also was promoted to full professor in 2008.  

50s- I am loving my 50s. I celebrated my 50th birthday by restaging “Doblez” with dancer Rogelio Lopez. I was also invited to be a guest artist with the Latin Ballet of Virginia, directed by Ana Ines King. I set a full evening work on her company called “Volver.” I received my first NEA grant with Ana. After 15 years of study, I became a (Bill) Evans Certified Teacher.    

 

Photo: David Gaylord

On Luck: 

Luck - getting my job at Saint Mary’s because it has allowed me to work in dance and get paid for what I love. Being born into the most loving family. My parents are a gift to us and the world. They had been together since they met in junior high school.

Setbacks and sacrifices:

I don’t believe in setbacks. I sacrificed being a mother and waited too long to have children. Having a career is great, but being a mother is even better. I never thought I would say that.

What are you exploring in your artistic work over the next year? 

Currently, I am really excited about a new work called “Son.” It is a full length dance concert performed to live mariachi music. It is an investigation of masculinity and patriarchy and social identities in tandem with constructs of privilege such as race, sexuality and gender. The predominately male cast is comprised of members of the Davalos Dance Company and the Latin Ballet of Virginia, with a traditional music ensemble. Set on a proscenium stage, the main vehicle of performance will be dance enhanced by elements of video and spoken word. My plan is to have it premier in the San Francisco International Arts Festival in 2016.

Last performance you saw that really inspired you: 

I enjoy art openings and museums, theatre, music, and dance. They all leave me with something, especially Latina/o art exhibitions because they are speaking my language. The most memorable dance concert in the recent past is “Paul C’s Homeroom Journal” by Stranger Lover Dreamer. The artistic directors of this collaborative ensemble are Shaunna Vella, Elizebeth Randall, and Andrew Merrell. I am lucky because they all dance for me too!

Can you talk about developing the new MFA program at Saint Mary’s College? What was your inspiration and impetus for this? What kinds of dancers are you looking for in the program (and when can people apply for 2015)?  

I started an MFA in dance for selfish reasons and some not so selfish. The selfish reasons were to provide a space for my undergrads to continue to study with us. I simply hate it when they graduate! More seriously, I was looking at the various graduate dance programs across the country and thinking about how Saint Mary’s could add to that dialogue. We have something very unique to offer students due to our incredibly talented and diverse dance faculty. I wanted to change the look of the traditional MFA in choreography and performance to include a somatic movement practice and more theory. We also wanted to provide dance designers a place to study, so we created the first MFA in design and production for dance. I am inspired by dance theory and wanted to investigate the creative practice in relationship to what scholars are saying about what we do. I am looking for the “dance nerd.” You know, the one who loves to read dance history, and talk about Laban and Bartenieff concepts, and then get excited about the how rotation really works, just before going to two different dance classes and rehearsal, and then comes home to examine the pedagogy from class. Our program is built on the dancer who thinks. See our webpage for more on this: http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/mfa-in-dance. The early application deadline is in November, but we will keep taking applications until full. We accept 15 students a year, half in each program. We will start auditions in January.

I am inspired by our first cohort of graduate students.  They are smart, creative, genius-types with a hunger for more. They came that way. I am just lucky enough to be in their path. I am forever grateful that they chose Saint Mary’s College. 

Using some of the language from LMA – exertion and recuperation – how do you balance all of the aspects of your dance career, your family life, and caring for your body? How do you stay inspired year after year?  

Fortunately I love my work and so I do not feel the need for recuperation unless I have been sitting at my desk for hours.  That kind of work is often harder on my body than dancing.  Every month (or even every three weeks), I have a Rolfing appointment with the amazing Sonja Yount and acupuncture with my healing goddess, Kirstin Lindquist.  Sometimes I also see a chiropractor at Oakbay Chiropractic.  I depend on these folks to put me back together physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  Some weeks I work all of the time, day and night. Other weeks I actually get to watch Netflix! I take Yoga and meditate, and I go to my son’s performances with his bands Waterfly Spigot and Play on Birds. I am addicted to work and have to be convinced otherwise. Best recuperation so far: three weeks in Northern Italy. 

Financial advice for dancers and choreographers:

• Be flexible, versatile, and smart.
• Do whatever it takes to make dance happen wherever you are. Don’t wait for dance to come to you.
• Get a job you enjoy and one that is not too hard on your body. 
• Pay your dancers a little something, even if it is in meals or trade.  
• Don’t settle for love, find a partner that supports you. Because being an artist has its own innate struggles, this part of your life should be easy. When you come home from a long day of work, followed by dance class, and then rehearsal, your partner should ask: How was your day? Can I get you something? Oh, and if you plan on having children, make sure one of you is good at math. 
• It doesn’t have to be at Zellerbach, the Lincoln Center, or the Kennedy Center to be good.  Some of the best dance I have seen happens in unusual performance venues.

Three questions for young choreographers to consider:

1. Does my title give my audience a clue about my dance? (because I think it should)
2. Are you making the same dances that your teacher(s) made? (no judgment here, just awareness)
3. Do you count your blessings or your stressors? (I only count my blessings)

Final advice to young dancers:

• Be excited about learning something new. 
• Find your investigative creative spirit. Play.  
• Make dance happen wherever you are.
• Take time to focus on your breath everyday.  
• Be versatile and flexible.
• Leave judgment behind. 
• Spend time on finding awareness; it is the first step toward change.
• Remember that the mirror is only a reflection of you. 
• Be generous with your love.  
• Eat well and don’t smoke, anything.
• Study Laban and Bartenieff movement studies --- it will blow your mind and change your life. 
• And if you are so inclined, eat chocolate (the Aztecs, my ancestors, knew what they were doing here).

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Comments

[John Gaylord]

Just wonderful. Great person, dancer and mother. Very creative and wise. We are all richer for knowing Cathy. A special family of talented folks. HooraY FOR EACH OF YOU. WE SALUTE YOU TODAY !!! John and Jody

[Stacy Moore]

Your words are an inspiration Cathy! You are a bright light to all who know you. I am so fortunate to be part of your family and love and appreciate you.
Your dance and spirit brings goodness to this world.
Smiles, Stacy and Peter Moore