Kevin Iega Jeff began studying dance formally at age thirteen, training at the Bernice Johnson Cultural Arts Center, New York City’s High School for the Performing Arts, Darvash Ballet School, and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center before matriculating into The Juilliard School. As a dancer he has been praised for his technical brilliance and rigor, his dramatic power, and the singular ability to perform and bridge different dance forms in a seamless manner, whether it be ballet, modern, contemporary, or African American dance. At the age of twenty one, Iega founded his first company, JUBILATION! Dance Company in New York City, which toured nationally and internationally for ten years. In 1995, he co-founded Deeply Rooted Productions in Chicago where he continues to serve today as Artistic Director. He has been celebrated as a choreographer and artist by many organizations including being named as one of the Juilliard School’s 100 Outstanding Alumni in 2005. From solos to company dances, Iega has created more than 50 works.

When you were little what did you want to be when you grew up? Did you always want to do what you are doing now?

Interesting. Right off I always saw myself I mean as a doctor or a lawyer, those are the two things that interest me as a child and then I became very attached and interested in Dr. Kay, what he was doing with his wife I think that was at a pretty young age because I was eight years old when he was killed and I had some awareness of what transpired during not the whole life (0 :34). I was also very intrigued by Malcolm X as well so I would say, feeling was very important to me and also creating a state of justice and consciousness was very important to me.

What‘s your favorite thing to eat?

Right now what comes to mind is butterfeet jam and gelati…(1:16). That‘s what comes to mind right now. I don‘t eat a whole lot of it but I do enjoy when I eat it. On the other hand of the spectrum I love macaroni and cheese and of course I try to eat healthily but but those are definitely things that I do enjoy.

Favorite books?

Probably James Baldwin‘s «Giovanni‘s Room » is probably one of my favorite books. That’s what comes to mind right now and I say that because it really inspired the creation of work I choreographed for my sister, « Beneath… » (2:37) and the piece is called « Naeemah’s Room» and I was reading « Giovanni’s Room » right before I choreographed the work and it was quite… It formed what I did with « Naeehma’s Room » and even though the story is like different they were very similar in many ways and yes so that’s one of the books that stands out right now.

Favorite movies?

I know this is probably not my favorite movie but it’s one that impacted me strongly at a young age and it’s « The Learning Tree » by Gordon Parks. This is probably one of my favorites because I was very young when I saw it and it just spoke to me and the fact that it was created and directed by Gordon Parks also impacted me because of course as soon as I grew up the America was currently racist and there were more issues that are segregating and people being able to speak their voices and I was always impressed with Gordon Parks because he found many ways to do that as an artist, as a photographer, as a director. He was a man ahead of his time and when I saw the movie I came to see he was a man ahead of his time and the movie spoke a lot of the things that I love about life and also concerns me about life.

Favorite dance piece?

I think there’s a man, who’s my mentor Lee Aca Thompson, and he created a very very regal ballet called « Dragon Ritual », it’s an african paragrammic ballet and that would have to be one of my favorites that set a standard for me in terms of just that movement and execution and ritual and tradition. It has a richness to it that picked me today, of course as a younger person seeing it for the first time, revelation of it is another one certainly. I would say due to the very very good and difficult question Armando I’ve seen a lot of work and I’ve seen a lot of really really good works that have inspired me so it’s very difficult. I don’t know but I have a bet but I do have certainly works that have inspired me and well definitely a revelation and and let me say and more recently I can’t leave it all without mentioning you did a good job. I just think you are the poet, what’s a poet? Here’s a poet where he is now, where he is curious and dancing now and the work that comes to mind was the evening that I saw episodes performed by the original cast and I remembered that was beautiful as well.

I like dancers who …

Surrender.

I am afraid of…

Fear.

A dance piece should…

Make me care.

What‘s something you like to do other than creating ballets?

Talk.

What‘s one of the happiest moments in your life?

When I see people become who they intend to be they are.

What‘s one of your most unusual or coolest experiences?

Honestly it would have to be laying on the beach in Bermuda feeling as though I was being massaged by the ocean and the sun and sand because the wind was so powerful and that day was my last day in Bermuda and I was laying there and I felt like all of creation was embracing me, kind of washing me with all of its elements and I felt so peaceful, so that moment stays up in my mind right now.

One of your most embarrassing moments?

Probably it was further than embarrassing when I was in the wing and I fell flat on my face. I was in the wing with my costume and the buckle opened we had just finished…(10:29) and the buckle opened and my pants slowly started falling down and yes I walked in the way and just as I hit the wings they hit my ankles and I tripped and I fell flat on my face and the bottom of my legs were left on stage. You could see the crew dragging me off stage. Well I was carrying all that stuff and I couldn’t stop the pants from falling down. And it fell on down and I fell on down with it and it will be off the stage. And yeah, it was funny, it was embarassing.

Who has been influential to you?

Well, that’s clearly easy. Apart from my parents it would have to be, let me say my family because my family is a great family and I was very lucky. Would be Britney Stanton and Lee Aca Thompson. Those are the two and BJ Heather (11:54) on the studio cause I’m sure and I’d recall Lee Aca Thompson had taught at the studio for many many years. He taught everyone. He taught Rogers, he taught me, Lester Wilson, he taught Michael Peters, I mean none of us would be doing… He was ahead of his time just like…(name, 12:20) was ahead of his time. And he‘s still doing his thing, he‘s been teaching and he‘s just an incredible person because what he did was he had the ability… He just struck me as Davis Jr. Type of talent. He’s a dad, he was an incredible singer, his voice was equitable in terms of… He had that kind of distinct power with his voice and he was an incredible actor. He worked with Josephine Baker, Catherine Dunham, all of the great names of his time. He decided that what he was seeing in part of a black music in particularly with a young man and how they were not… in American community that he was experiencing that they were not, they were being oppressed and suppressed. He dedicated his life to working in communities to bring consciousness to young black men and one of the places that he did that was at (14:36). And so when you look at… If you see me, you see him, you see Rogers and you see me and you see him. And even though we are all different inside of our choices and our manifestations, it all is connected and rooted to him, if you see « Thriller » and « Beat It », you’d see him because Michael Peters believe me would never be able to get to any of that stuff. He had a tremendous effect on me.

What‘s one of the hardest things about doing what you do, I guess about being a choreographer?

I think I’m okay choreographer, I think what I do best through dance and choreography… What I really consider myself is someone who builds community through art and someone who helps people understand. I’d like to think I’m someone who ignites genius within people. But what I do want to do is create works that have people understand their own value and so I think the greatest challenge that I‘ve had in my life is constantly being faithful in my own value. I mean I’m a guy who values myself but at the same time that life has taught me a lot – has taught me a lot in terms of humility, has taught me a lot in terms of compassion, has taught me a lot in terms of patience and joy. I think ultimately when you take on some of these concerns through your work you also… I think it’s important you live a joyful life. To have a good time while you’re here no matter what’s going on and so I think the greatest challenge sometime is that it’s not taking yourself too seriously and also understanding that you’re in creation plan. Just be completely faithful in what you’re calling is because creation does have you and if you’re gonna be honest and totally committed to what that inner voice is telling you without without worry, doubt or fear or at least managing worry, doubt and fear inside of your space then you’re gonna be okay.

I was committed to becoming completely informed about and aware of… it’s just the things that would have reached the highest apex of humanity (18 :33) and that being one of those things being the construct of the brain and how unofficial that is, how far (?) that is. I think that’s something difficult to accept, I don’t accept it. And what I do now is use dance to enlighten and educate about it. I think everybody in humanity is critical and necessary and I think what we do when we live inside a racial construct that dehumanizes anyone, it makes our quest for humanity deficient. I really believe that that’s my calling, to really be inside of the conversation at our highest point inside of our sharing… So the challenge of that is not being stocked up into the construct of race. I think that it‘s important that we discuss the issue that have been made prevalent in pride of racial construct but I don’t think we should live in that space and I think that that divides it. That is the large part of what concerns me as well.

Do you have any goals that you still hope to achieve?

Right now one of my major goals is being in conversations that talk to leadership, like the next generation of leadership, the next few generations actually. I‘m very much into that…with deeply rooted succession plan and play and I‘m enjoying the journey of that succession plan because it is not only what we do to create artists that can take the work of…we definitely have artists that are doing some wonderful and powerful work while taken cared of but then it‘s also understanding the context in which the art that we‘re doing is creative and what it is… It‘s what leadership is all about to make that happen.

I think I‘ll stay on as part of the community. I think what’s happening now is that I am becoming more a part of the leadership community.

Could you say a few words about starting your own group or starting something of your own?

This may sound cliché but it was liberating. I learned a lot, what I knew by then is that I learned so much in the past that things I thought… there were cases that were not the case. Things that are like on both sides of the equation, whether it be good bad or indifferent. So it was liberating to step into that space where I had to think deeply, intellectually, spiritually about what it was I was doing, what it was I was responsible for, who it was I was responsible for, how I succeeded in those responsibilities that have failed. They just gave me insight into me, my value, the gaps inside of my own world cycle and so that’s a part of it. It was also very exciting to meet and work with incredible people who are merely different, that I got to travel the world, by my mid-20’s, probably about 24-25. I was touring a company internationally and I remember sitting in my room in Brooklyn and visiting all of these and all of a sudden one day I was in it. It was slow at first but then very quickly. I had to figure out all those pieces and so it was fun and exciting, challenging, it was daunting, it was scary. It taught me so much about life and I think that that‘s the gift. I was so young that I wasn‘t scared to do it.

The work really just expanded my spiritual realm of understanding humanity and my spiritual realm of understanding myself and it just made me want to be more accountable and contribute more. It went so far be and that. Dance is an important part of my life but it‘s not the point any longer. And so that’s what starting a company and engaging and making and keeping it going just kind of opened up those possibilities to deepen my understanding and that‘s clear. That kind of went into a lot of different directions, it expanded me.

The bad points… I think the struggle with money! I think that kind of thing even more than the money is more about developing relationships and partnerships with management that when people are aligned with your vision enough, understand your goal enough so that you work cohesive enough to avoid the issues… So that you need to be supported in your work. I think that if you have a powerful mindset, I think that money is surmountable. But I think the kind of work that I want to do in terms of consciousness, it‘s not enough for me to be funded… I want to be supported in the consciousness of the work and I want to know that the work is doing what it should be doing for the community. And sometimes putting together the team that can raise the dollars and aligns with that can be challenging.

If you could change one thing in the dance world what would it be?

I think it‘s just about valuing each other more. I think dance, it is considered a stepchild of the arts so to speak and it‘s probably one of the least understood art form. I think we conduct ourselves that way in the dance world, like we expect less.

If you could change one thing in the real world what would you change?

I probably would cast a spell that everybody would have to speak the truth. I think that we‘re on a trajectory in humanity to get to that. I think that it will take a while but ultimately a think all our differences are about our is becoming adult enough, mature enough, free enough to express our sense of self. If we are able to do that then we can engage, then we can really be fulfilling the genius that we are all gifted with when we‘re born.

What’s the piece of advice you could give to young artists who want to do what you do?

I would just simply say really know and value and understand who you are in creation. I mean that‘s really it. I think that we‘re all born with genius, with geniuses, genetics and inside of that is the map of who we are in creation. The idea that my parents have parents andtheir parents have parents and their parents have parents goes back into infinity and so you‘re a genius and what stands in the way of that is the fact that we picked up as human beings baggages that sometimes are in the way of that. So I think really valuing and understanding others and understanding the value of yourself is critical because whatever you decide to do in dance, in choreography, in teaching, is gonna be most powerful in that you are tapping into your authentic self.