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Q&A: Eric Rivera

Eric Rivera’s professional dance career has taken a number of twists and turns, from ballet companies to Broadway shows to modern dance and back to ballet. He has performed with the Minnesota Ballet, Ballet Theater of Pennsylvania, Danza Jazz de San Juan and in the European tour of West Side Story. During his 13 years with Ballet Hispanico in New York, he began to explore choreography, creating more than 20 works for the company. When he retired from professional dancing six years ago, Rivera took yet another turn—this time into the classroom. He’s now beginning his fourth year as an assistant professor in the VCUarts Department of Dance + Choreography.

Through it all, he says, his deep love of the art form and a refusal to be boxed in have driven his continued success. Here, he talks about the evolution of his decades-long career, the influence of his Puerto Rican culture, and how he approaches teaching students at VCUarts.

What was your introduction to dance?
I still remember as if it was today. I took one dance class and dropped everything else that I was doing and was just like, I don’t want to do anything else. I just want to dance. Since I was 17, I’ve literally either been working in a dance company, been in school for dancing, or now been a teacher.

Your dance career has spanned a range of styles. How has that diversity shaped you as a performer?
Ballet gave me a really strong background to then be able to move into any style of dance that I wanted to. I have always seen dance as a big world that I wanted to be part of. For me, any job that was dancing, it was a good job. It wasn’t, I can only dance ballet, or I only want to do Broadway. If a job came that was dancing, I took it. If the opportunity came, I never let it go. I believe strongly that that’s the reason I was able to have such a successful career for so many years.

How would you describe your style as a choreographer?
My heritage is really important. The music that I utilize, some of the movements that I utilize are things that are integrated in me. They’re just part of me. It could be things as simple as how do we move our hips, that is completely different maybe from any other style of dance.

But I don’t want to box myself in and say I’m a Latino choreographer and that’s all I can do. Even if it’s something that is completely in a classical style, how do I integrate a hip movement that you would do in a salsa step? How do you integrate those two things to make it look seamless? Sometimes I do that successfully. Other times not so successfully. But that’s the beauty of it. You have to try and keep exploring.

Why did you decide to start teaching?
It’s a passion, it’s a love that I have for this art. I want to share what I have done and what I have learned through the professional years with this new generation of artists.

And I was hungry to work with hungry artists. I was really excited to work with artists that are asking a lot of questions: “What is next out there? What is something new that I can learn?” That not only fulfills me as a professor, but it also fulfills me as an artist to keep investigating myself and how to pass on this beautiful art.

I create an environment in my classroom that is really open to feel free to ask questions. An environment that is open to trying new things. An environment that is challenging, as hard as what a professional career brings. My students know that it might be easygoing, but it’s not easy.

The post Q&A: Eric Rivera appeared first on VCUarts.


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