My hope is that through these profiles, upcoming dancers and choreographers will be inspired by veterans in the field, while simultaneously continuing to promote interactive dance dialogue in the Los Angeles community. Enjoy!
CHOREOGRAPHER OF THE MONTH:
CHAD MICHAEL HALL
This week I had the privilege of speaking with Chad Michael Hall, Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance at Loyola Marymount University. Hall, who is originally from New Castle, Pennsylvania, fell in love with dancing at the age of twenty-one, after watching a modern dance class at Slippery Rock University in 1997. Despite his lack of technical ability, his ability to easily replicate movement landed Hall a spot in the Slippery Rock Dance Program. Hall began his dancing career at Slippery Rock University in the spring of 1998, becoming the first male dancer in the program.
However, Hall’s dream wasn’t always to be a professional dancer. Since a young age, music had always been his artistic outlet. He did show choir in high school, “way before it was cool” he jokes, and studied at Duquesne University’s School of Music for three years, until one day he had an epiphany while singing in Moscow, Russia. “It was like here I was, half way around the world, and so good at this [music],” he says, “and yet, I felt so lost.” So, Hall packed his bags, returned home to Pennsylvania, and never looked back.
Although he had always been intrigued by dance, Hall never thought that dancing professionally could be an option for a career. However, after leaving Duquesne, Hall now had the opportunity to give dance a chance. After spending all day observing dance classes at Slippery Rock University, Hall felt that he had finally found his true calling, “I just sat there and thought, wow, I know I fit here.”
Ursula Payne, Hall’s first modern dance professor and mentor at Slippery Rock, recognized Hall’s potential and encouraged him to “get himself out there and network” by doing solo performances at local movement arts festivals, attending summer dance workshops such as American Dance Festival, and taking any opportunity to perform. Hall equates this work ethic to his success post grad. “If you are committed and work hard, doors will open,” Hall encourages, “It’s not because you are some sensation, it’s because you decided to put yourself out there.” Hall was one of few undergraduates at Slippery Rock to have two major offers on his hands post graduation: a position with Dance Alloy, an established modern dance company based in Pittsburgh and a full ride scholarship to receive his MFA from Ohio State University’s prestige Department of Dance. Knowing that he wanted to teach someday, Hall choose the latter, where he worked on his choreographic abilities, while partaking in a teaching fellowship that required him to teach three classes a week on top of his master’s course load. Hall graduated from Ohio State University in 2004, calling his time there, “the hardest years of [his] life.”
Shortly after graduation, Hall landed a spot in Diavolo, a physically rigorous Los Angeles based dance company that tours around the country. Hall found Diavolo very rewarding because the company challenged him to push his body to the limit every night. “Your physical well-being lies in the hands of your partner,” Hall describes when discussing the unique and dynamic movement patterns of the Diavolo. The company is known for its partner work that involves series of free-fall jumping and leaping, while trusting that someone will be there to catch you. “It was pretty incredible to save someone’s life every night,” Hall says.
After two touring seasons with Diavolo, Hall found himself yearning to be able to teach and express himself choreographically again. Hall received an offer to become a part-time faculty member at Loyola Marymount University in the Fall of 2006, and has been teaching modern dance, dance technology, and choreography classes there ever since. His teaching philosophy is a hybrid of the methods he learned from his dance education and mentors. “I believe teaching is an art form in itself,” Hall says, “just because you know a lot about something doesn’t necessarily mean you can teach it.”
Hall attributes the success in his career thus far to listening to his intuition, his unwillingness to quit, and dedication to constantly working at improving his craft. “I love dance, so I wanted to always work to get better at it,” Hall says. He insists that dancers train towards the “holy trinity” of a dance career: performance, choreography, and teaching. He also suggests getting credentialed in other somatic practices such as yoga or Pilates, because “it helps pay the bills.” However, above all else, if Chad Hall could offer any advice to the aspiring dancer or choreographer, it would be that “hard work pays off far beyond talent.” He says, “ it is talent that gets you in the door, but when you walk through it and everyone else there is really good too, you have to have something that sets you apart, and so, dedication, the drive to follow through, and commitment are of the utmost importance.”
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