Before I was a Producer of hit television programming, I was a Dancer. As a young boy, I latched onto movement as an art form to build confidence, and from it grew an abiding love for performance. Throughout my academic and professional careers—from the Theatre Department at Howard University to producing art and entertainment for stage and television—I have come to appreciate, engage in, and support the various roles that transform one’s creative vision into another’s entertainment.
Concert dance is my first love. It amazes me that even after my television production achievements, dance still consumes my heart. On the side—I have managed to produce video dance work featured at American Dance Festivals; Dancing for the Camera, be a principal dancer in Spike Lee’s "She’s Gotta Have It” on Netflix, and recently displayed my dance video work in Senegal, West Africa. Audiences have changed greatly over the last 20 years due to advancements in technology and the emergence and proliferation of the internet. Social media has become an expansive resource of dance entertainment. Besides Dancers and Choreographers, the thing that will keep the art of dance alive is technology.
My mother often says she felt me as a dancer in her womb, because I never stopped moving. That unbridled impulse to move followed me through my adolescent years to Austin-East Magnet High School—where I began to concentrate on dance, no longer as an innate impulse, but as a discipline. At age 15 I was introduced to the American Dance Festival, and my life was forever changed.
I entered Howard University in the fall of 2000, as a dance major. There, I realized that—as much as I loved my own body in motion—I would not be able to sustain a professional dance career for more than a decade. With the long view in mind, I added another level to my love affair with performance art: Producing. Intrigued and inspired by the coalescence of art and business—I changed my major to Theatre Arts Administration and learned what it takes to produce a show and manage a business. As to be expected—in my early 20s, art took me to New York City. I was fortunate to start my career stage managing several dance companies and grant writing for artists and choreographers seeking funds to support their works.
My education prepared me well, and the work was very fulfilling. It gave me the opportunity to put my management skills to use, while still being a part of creating dance work. In order to expand my production and management skills and keep afloat in a spiraling economy, I explored television production and loved it. Because the majority of television production is freelance, I have been able to learn difficult production management skills and styles from multiple networks and third-party companies. I moved up the ranks quickly. Today, organizations tend to recruit me from a wide variety of show styles and internationally-known platforms. As a Line Producer— the highest tier of production management—I facilitate, hiring, long and short-term logistical planning, procurement contract negotiations, regulatory media clearance, trade-out agreements and the overall monitoring/tracking of show production budgets. It is truly my hope that I can combine my love for movement, fashion, and skill for production in a single position to inspire audiences globally.
