Interview with Choreographer Elisabeth Joy

How did you get started in dance?

I am actually a veteran. I was in the army for 11 years; I flew helicopters. Then I was a CrossFit competitor and coach here in Austin while I got my master's degree at UT in exercise and sports psychology, so literally, my master's degree is in movement, it's good for you. I had a bunch of injuries, I had a bunch of other things happen and I had adrenal fatigue, and I had really bad insomnia for about 18 months after I had my son, tried to start my own business and totally wore myself out. I literally got to a place where I had nothing left. My marriage dissolved, although we are still on good terms for our son, he's six, and literally, I got to a point where I was like, I've got nothing left, so I'm going to do what I want to do, and that's dance. So, I was a rhythm tapper and I found a Bollywood company and I auditioned for them and I got picked up for that. So I've been with them for almost 2 years now. Last year I attended the ACC open house in December, and I just remember sitting in that studio, looking around and watching the demonstration going on, "I could do this". So I checked my education benefits and I still have some time left and I enrolled as a dance major and I started in January.

Did you have an interest in dance before pursuing your exercise major at UT?

I was a clubber. I love dancing anyways, I wanted to do ballet as a kid, but I had a large family and my parents had already put me in gymnastics and ice skating. I had an older sister and three younger brothers and that was kind of it for me… as I got older I did sports. I did volleyball, I was a skier, now I'm a snowboarder, but dance has always just been something I like to do but never really considered something that I could get into fully.

So what's your process with choreographing?

I was a dance director for the Austin veterans Art Festival which just happened this year and I did a mostly improv piece five-part duet with another ACC student so that one was really wonderful because we worked through a lot of my military experiences and my journey to get me to where I am right now. Plus doing a duet with her, she's an accomplished dancer, and she performed all the time and we both love to perform so that set me up really well for this piece because I got all of that out experience. With this new piece, I kind of had an idea of what I wanted to do mostly through the World Dance Cultures class. I was really inspired by the trend that we were learning about world dance culture. I would say that was really my biggest influence at this point because all the military stuff is done so now it's like what's next and it's like the power of the divine feminine re-emerging.

Do you have any future plans of where you would like to take dance or is it all just a personal Journey?

I would love to help other veterans try to process getting back into normal society after we return from war because we're so used to the heightened experience. It's not like a let down I just want everyone to be able to feel at home in their bodies. I have a girlfriend who's a dancer who was a sex trafficking victim and I think that regaining our sensual power without guilt is very important so I would love to work with those two populations.

What about your piece for this show?

This is my first truly choreographed piece; it's a solo because at this point for me I've never done anything like this before. It's called "Emergence" and it's about the awakening and emancipation of the divine feminine power. I am really owning being a woman with strength, beauty, grace, no guilt. I'm very excited to do it.