Interview: Samuel Pott on STAYING AFLOAT WITH NIMBUS DANCE

"We're doing everything that we can to stay safe, while continuing to engage our audiences and plan for the opening of Nimbus Arts Center", says Samuel Pott, artistic director of Nimbus Dance and former soloist with Martha Graham Dance Company.

Like many companies, Nimbus was in the middle of its Spring programming when the pandemic hit. Some of those highlights included the company's 15th season anniversary celebration at Brooklyn Academy of Music||Fisher, a concert residency at Suffolk College, a tour to University of Iowa to celebrate Earth Day, Nimbus2's season (which featured BHdos, Graham 2, and DMB|#dbdanceproject), finishing up a capital campaign, beginning a new commission for New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and the grand opening of the organization's new, state-of-the-art home, Nimbus Arts Center at The Lively.

After having a too-close-for-comfort brush with the virus, Pott realized that it was essential to cancel the BAM Fisher concert. "That was tough, but a lot of our audiences are older adults and young kids. I felt there was no way I could put our audiences, including my daughter and my parents at risk by attending a dance concert, not to mention thousands of others who would have been impacted, from ushers to technicians, to patrons and neighbors. We're all one community and have to look out for each other. Luckily, BAM understood and agreed with our priorities."

After consulting with BAM and Nimbus' Board of Directors, Pott made the decision to cancel the concert. The following day, while working on contingency plans for the remaining season, Mayor Steven Fulop announced a citywide quarantine and curfew. The implications for Nimbus were devastating, but Pott refused to panic. "On the one hand we understood and agreed with the decision. On the other, it met our 'worst case scenario' planning and automatically pushed us into survival mode." Being an arts organization, this was not unfamiliar territory, though with Nimbus' recent upswing in fortunes, Pott was hoping to leave that struggle behind.

While part of the NYC concert dance scene, many New Yorkers are unaware of the many things that Nimbus does. "We're under the radar that way, and I don't mind it", Pott shares. "We're mostly known for our community engagement, educational initiatives, and equitable/inclusion activism, so when people see our dancers and repertoire (which this season included premieres from Sofia Nappi, Kristen Klein, and Yoshito Sakuraba), or hear that we've built a 14,200 square foot arts center, their jaws kind of drop."

How did all of that come about? Slowly and with intention. Well aware of his privilege as a white man living in America, Pott carefully surrounded himself with brilliant people from all backgrounds to help create an infrastructure and body of work that spoke to Jersey City. Few people are aware that Jersey City is the most diverse city in The United States. In choosing to make JC his home base, Pott was tapping into a deeply rooted belief that all people deserve access to the arts that speak to and challenge them.

"I don't have a lot of patience for the idea that 'people don't understand me'. If that's true, the problem is in my messaging and the answer is to talk to people so that they know where I'm coming from and so that I can show them that I recognize and respect where they are. That way we can start building something together", says Pott. That is precisely what he has done, alongside his long-serving Director of Operations, Justin Cosme-Perez, Assistant Director of Programs, Hannah Weeks, and Assistant Director of The School of Nimbus, Julia Marroquin. Rounding out that team is former dancer with Pennsylvania Ballet and Ohio Ballet and Principal Artist with BalletX, Anitra Keegan as Company Manager, to create a dream team of diversity that goes beyond paying simple lip-service to the idea that your executive team should look like the community you serve.

In the middle of this current crisis, that service includes keeping Nimbus' dancers employed--something the company has committed to through April 11th--and ensuring that the School of Nimbus' students continue to receive their classes. "As soon as we realized that a quarantine might prevent us from seeing our kids, we came up with a few plans. This viral disruption is scary and I wanted our students to know that we are still here for them." How do you do that when you can't actually meet up with students? Through hours of video recording and editing to create scrupulously designed dance classes that continue the education, provide a much needed outlet, and are a lot of fun. I know this because as part of my research for this article, I watched one of these videos (Brigitte Codjia's West African class) with my granddaughter. We had so much fun that for a full hour afterwards, we forgot about our problems.

This is Pott's goal. He believes that, "This issue is not going to disappear overnight so we have to come up with ways to stay connected, strengthen our resolve towards what we believe in, and embrace joy. Even when it feels like everything is falling to pieces, we have to remember that we have a right to feel happy." Nimbus is using these classes, as well as new online video challenges to inspire joy throughout the community. #NimbusDanceChallenge is one of the company's invites to joy and inspiration. In the challenge, tagged participants are asked to respond to their challenger by recording and uploading a video of themselves dancing at home. The dance does not have to be anything fancy. It could be as simple as dancing with your apron or jumping around on the carpet while laughing. Participants are invited to tag additional people in their response as a way of including them in the fun. The idea is to help people shake off their angst by prompting them to dance it out.

Dancing your troubles away, if only for a moment, is a wonderful solution for reducing stress. But what about Nimbus' future and current anxieties? "For now, our dancers are recording videos of themselves teaching at home and sharing with their students", Pott explains. "Thankfully we have the funds to carry us through a short-term suspension in activity. After that, we'll just have to take it one hour at a time." The new two trillion dollar stimulus package has some people feeling excited, though Pott knows that due to Jersey City's and Hudson' County's decades-long lack of arts development and investment, those stimulus grants may leave out Jersey City. "Because we are part of the NYC Tri-State Region there is this assumption that we benefit from the same funding sources and grants as companies in New York do. We do not, nor do we have many dedicated grant sources in Jersey City or trickle-down support from the state and federal level. At the best of times, we make due and work hard to remain sustainable, but with our programming cut off, I will admit that I am scared. But no matter what happens, Nimbus will keep fighting to stay afloat."

Nimbus has recently announced a Gofundme campaign to help support their artists. The goal is for $10,000, with 100% of the tax-deductible donations going towards paying the dancers. If you would like to contribute or share the link with others who might be better placed to do so, please visit: shorturl.at/prCG8

To post a comment, you must register and login.