Today we’d like to introduce you to Calen Smith.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Calen. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I began my dance journey at the age of three in church. My family has always been deeply rooted in church and my mom was the leader of the dance ministry there. Once my parents realized how much I loved dance, they decided to go ahead and enroll me into formal dance classes. I went to a “regular” elementary school where I was a majorette, and from there I went on to attend magnet schools such as W.E. Greiner Middle School and Exploratory Arts Academy, and then for high school Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. I danced and trained a lot to the point where I was in a dance studio more than I was at home.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It most definitely has not been a smooth road. There have been a lot of struggles along the way, but I think the most difficult to deal with was the death of my father. When I was 15, a week before my sophomore year in high school, I woke up to my mom screaming in the bathroom and my aunt telling me to call 911. I don’t really remember much from that day — a trauma thing, I guess — but I do know that that day turned my life upside down. I started having nightmares soon after and not being able to sleep, along with a bad case of depression that left me sad and unmotivated. Although that was the hardest, I’ve also had a plethora of injuries, including a back injury that doctors just can’t figure out. Some days are definitely better than others. Most days there is very mild pain to the point that I probably don’t notice it. However, there are those days that the pain is so bad I’ve had to crawl to the bathroom or anywhere I needed to go.
Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
Right now, my main focuses are praise dance and modern dance. No matter how old I get and how much dance training I have, praise dance will always be a part of me. It’s where I came from and my life has been transformed on various levels because of it. I believe that anyone can dance, but there has to be a special calling for those called to minister through dance and bring people closer to God. That is my main purpose as a minister of the Gospel.
My goal is to help others find their purpose and navigate their way through this journey. It can be hard and the attacks that come with it come even harder, but in the end, it is all worth it. Modern dance, particularly Graham and Horton technique styles, and just the post-modern era, in general, are among my favorite styles of dance. As an artist, dancer, and choreographer, I love to take these and make them my own while also staying true to the foundations of these techniques.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The proudest moment of my career is being apart of the Emmy Award-winning 34th Annual Black Music and Civil Rights Movement Concert: A Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. written, produced, and directed by Curtis King of The Black Academy of Arts and Letters (TBAAL). This program is monumental and is full of history that makes myself and others, as part of the African American community proud and grateful for those that stood before us to make sure we have the rights and opportunities. To be apart of something so great and have it only nominated for an Emmy is one thing, but to be apart of history and be apart of the program when it received its very first Emmy is rewarding to no end and I’m grateful for the opportunity to be apart of something so great.
Contact Info:
- Phone: 6824386531
- Email: calenchristen@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/calenchristen
- Facebook: facebook.com/calenchristen
Image Credit:
Anthony Blake
Shurnita Black
Brian Guilliaux
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