Joel Aguilera talks about how he came to be a choreographer who blends bboying with Latin jazz music. Follow him at https://www.facebook.com/joel.aguilera.7 and https://www.instagram.com/aguilera_joel.
DanceTalks with Joel Aguilera: Full Transcript
Hosted by Andrea Cody, Director of Dance Houston. Originally released May 25, 2020. This transcript was generated automatically and may contain small errors.
Episode summary (SEO)
On this episode of DanceTalks from Dance Houston, host Andrea Cody talks with Joel Aguilera, a Houston b-boy, choreographer and teacher who was a Dance Source Houston artist in residence and director of Outbreak Crew at Klein Forest High School. Joel found breaking through Youth Advocates’ Thursday community nights and Westside High School’s Inertia Dance Company, then earned a dance degree at the University of Houston, where a video audition mixed his first ballet and modern steps with b-boy footwork. He talks about touring with FLY Dance Company from New York’s APAP conference to Albania and Montenegro, two seasons with the Houston Rockets Launch Crew, teaching at studios across Houston, and building his own style from breaking floorwork and José Limón’s fall and recovery. Joel traces how his Colombian family’s love of Latin jazz and salsa, Tito Puente, Machito and Mario Bauzá, and the rumba of the Bronx connect to breaking, and shares how his residency, his students and online teaching are carrying on through the COVID-19 shutdown. Recorded May 2, 2020.
Key takeaways
- Be open to every genre. Joel is a b-boy trained in ballet, modern, contemporary, Lindy Hop and salsa, and he believes the more styles you’re open to, the better a dancer you become.
- Musicality beats a planned routine. In a battle you don’t know what the DJ will play, so learn the familiar breakbeat rhythms and fit your combos to the music in the moment.
- Your roots are your material. Joel blends Latin jazz from his Colombian upbringing with breaking and Limón technique, and found they share deep roots in New York and the Bronx.
- Each one teach one. He had so many teachers and role models that it feels right to pass on what he knows.
- Online dance can open doors. Virtual classes help shy dancers, push students to be more independent, and will likely stay part of dance after the shutdown.
Transcript
This transcript has been lightly edited for readability: filler words and repeats were removed, and several passages that could not be heard clearly in the recording were left out.
[0:00] Introduction
Andrea: Hello and welcome to DanceTalks. Today is May 2, 2020, and my guest is Joel Aguilera. He is an artist in residence for Dance Source Houston and a teacher at Klein Forest High School, where he is the director of Outbreak Crew. Joel, thank you for being a part of DanceTalks.
Joel Aguilera: Thanks for having me.
Andrea: Take us back to the beginning of your journey becoming a dancer.
Joel Aguilera: It really all started when I was a freshman. I went to Westside High School, and they have a dance company there called Inertia, which dances a lot of genres, whether it’s hip-hop or contemporary or lyrical, and the boys tend to be b-boys, breakers, whatever you might call them. So I first started getting into breakdancing, or as other people call it, breaking, which is the original term. There’s actually a class in b-boying there, so I did that my freshman year, and sophomore through senior year I was in Inertia and started getting performance experience. Then I majored in dance at the University of Houston. I danced with FLY Dance Company for four or five years, danced for the Rockets for a couple of seasons, and I’m a member of RAD Crew, so I battle as well in the b-boy and hip-hop culture scene. Now I’m choreographing, I’m a current artist in residence for Dance Source Houston, and I’m teaching at a high school, teaching breaking, hip-hop and a lot of other genres. So it’s come full circle.
[1:31] Breaking at Westside High School
Andrea: Awesome. Let us sit on your shoulder and see what happened with each one of those steps. When you got into Inertia, or started your high school classes, what was the environment like? I’m assuming you got credit for it, but what was going on in there?
Joel Aguilera: Honestly, it was just so much fun. My friends were all b-boys as well, so it was our main focus. Even though we did well in school, we definitely made breaking a priority. Every lunch, we would eat our food in the first five minutes, and for the remaining 45 minutes we would go into the dance studio and practice as hard as we could until our next class. After school, right back into it. If the dance studio was open we’d practice in there; if not, we’d practice in an open area of the school. Even on weekends we might have a studio open. It was literally practicing as much as we could. On Thursday nights we might go to YA, and there were just different opportunities.
Andrea: How were you treated as a man in high school being a dancer?
Joel Aguilera: I get different responses depending on who I’m talking to. People from Westside High School thought it was cool that there were guys doing breaking. For those who didn’t know much about it, if you said you dance, you might get a weird look, like, “What, ballet? You do ballet?” Which is funny now, because yes, I do do ballet. Not only am I a b-boy who’s been breaking for a decade, but I’m trained in ballet, modern and contemporary, and I’ve done Lindy Hop and salsa and different genres. Personally, I think the more open you are to genres, the better a dancer you are, and the more marketable you are. So no matter what reaction I get, I don’t really mind.
Andrea: Cool. What was prom like at Westside High School with all these dancers?
Joel Aguilera: It was a party every time. Whichever year it was, there were always b-boys around, so no matter what kind of dance, whether it was homecoming or prom, or even randomly during lunch in the cafeteria, people would be dancing. It wasn’t uncommon for the b-boys to just get down wherever. That’s just how it was at Westside High School.
Andrea: Wow, it’s like a musical.
Joel Aguilera: I guess to some people it might look like that, breaking into dance. No one’s singing, though.
[4:22] HCC and the University of Houston
Andrea: Right. When you were in high school, did you dance for the Rockets then, or was that after?
Joel Aguilera: No, that was after.
Andrea: Okay, so the next step was going to the University of Houston?
Joel Aguilera: Well, I went to HCC for a year and a half, just to get my core classes out of the way; it’s more affordable that way. When I started at U of H, that’s where the next step began. At first I joined FLY Dance Company.
Andrea: And HCC is Houston Community College?
Joel Aguilera: Yes, Houston Community College. They have multiple branches around Houston, and I went to the Spring Branch campus for my core classes. When I started majoring in dance, I was in FLY Dance Company. FLY is an all-male contemporary dance company; we do breaking, but to classical music, so it’s a little different from what people usually see. Putting breaking on stage gives it a different look that’s more acceptable to all ages and different kinds of audiences. And then shortly after that I joined the Houston Rockets Launch Crew.
Andrea: How did you get into U of H’s dance department?
Joel Aguilera: They have an audition process. Of course they look at your grades and GPA, and they have an audition. For whatever reason, I think it was some kind of hurricane, I couldn’t go to the audition I was supposed to go to, so I had to send a video. That was very different for me, because at that point I’d only had one semester of ballet training and none of modern, and they required videos of both. So I really had to reach. I still added a video of breaking anyway, just so they knew I had experience as a dancer, and thankfully I made it.
Andrea: Cool. How did you give yourself Ballet and Modern 101 to prepare for the video audition?
Joel Aguilera: Well, I took a semester of ballet at HCC, so thankfully I knew some of the terminology and what they were looking for. For modern, I asked someone to show me some basic modern movement, and he showed me a few things for maybe 30 minutes. I took all of that, put it into a solo, and added some b-boy footwork in between, just to show them I knew a little bit, or at least was willing to learn more. Thankfully it worked.
Andrea: Can you give us a quick overview of the moves you did for ballet and modern?
Joel Aguilera: For ballet, I just did a basic barre warm-up: pliés, tendus, ronds de jambe, battements. I kept it as simple as that. I didn’t go into the center; I didn’t know allegro, none of that. For modern, it was very simple: an X on the floor, contract and release, a little flowy arm, a butt roll. It was very, very beginner, what people would do if they thought they were doing modern and knew nothing about it.
Andrea: You nailed it.
Joel Aguilera: Well, apparently it was enough to convince them. There are a lot of good dancers in that program, so adding the b-boy element got them intrigued enough to let me in. If I’d done it solely on modern and ballet, I don’t think I’d have gotten in.
Andrea: What was the program like?
Joel Aguilera: It focused on performance, composition and of course technique, and I honestly think I grew in all three while I was in the program. I loved everything about it, and honestly, I wish I could go back sometimes. They watch how you grow, and there are things you have to execute correctly to get the proper grade. And of course we learned a lot about dance history, watched dance performances and wrote about them. So it’s not solely movement; it was a little bit of both.
[9:20] Joining FLY Dance Company
Andrea: Cool. How did you come to be a part of FLY Dance Company?
Joel Aguilera: I was roommates with friends and crew members Kenny Louis and Jeffrey Louis. We were all living together at the time, and they were both in FLY. I think Jorge Casco, the director of FLY Dance Company, had just reached out to them, and they’d been doing it for a couple of months. When I learned about it, I was like, “Hook me up, that’s pretty cool.” They were looking for more dancers; I think the original group was only about eight of them. They brought me on, and I was just a fly on the wall watching a couple of rehearsals. Then, honestly, at my second rehearsal I was sitting there and Kathy Wood, the artistic director, said, “All right, get up, get in the formation.” She put me right to work. I was doing the choreo, thankfully I was doing well, and that’s really how it started. I think it was kind of a trial to see if I could do it, and since I was doing it, she kept putting me in, and sooner or later I was an official member performing with them.
Andrea: Where did you first perform with them? Was it Barnevelder?
Joel Aguilera: Right, Barnevelder. That was back in 2015 or 2016, so a while ago. I just kept staying with it, went to every rehearsal, and then we started touring.
Andrea: Where did you go?
Joel Aguilera: Our first tour, I think, was New York, where we presented for the APAP conference. Later on we went to Albania and Montenegro, and St. Louis. It was a lot of different places, and I had a great opportunity with them. I really enjoyed just being able to travel and dance. It was a dream.
Andrea: Awesome. APAP is the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, right?
Joel Aguilera: I believe so.
Andrea: And it’s a conference in New York. Is it just for dance companies, or any touring production?
Joel Aguilera: It’s all entertainment. Whatever you can think of as a show was there: comedians, artists, singers, painters, maybe a puppeteer, magicians. It was pretty intense seeing all the different acts, with all these agents walking around looking for who to book.
Andrea: Is it in one hotel or multiple?
Joel Aguilera: When I went, I believe it was one hotel, but basically the whole hotel, every level, had stuff going on, whether people were showcasing or had their booths set up. It was all over the place.
Andrea: And did you get to tour the city while you were there?
Joel Aguilera: A little bit. We basically stayed in Manhattan, and I think we drove to the East Side for a bit. Being in Times Square was awesome. That was my first and only time in New York.
[13:14] The Houston Rockets Launch Crew
Joel Aguilera: With the Rockets, my friends and I are all members of RAD Crew, and we’ve been dancing together for years and years. I think Kenny had done it for a year, so we knew what it was about. We went to the audition, and I actually didn’t make it my first year. The second year I auditioned, I made it, and I was on there for two seasons. It was just as much fun as FLY: performing, dancing, getting to practice with your friends and colleagues. And it’s a job, so you’re getting paid for it. It’s definitely worth it. Being courtside at Rockets games was definitely a plus, and we had a lot of good opportunities there too.
Andrea: Can you tell us how they run things, like what the audition was like and how you rehearse? Are you performing just at halftime, or do you do promotional events too?
Joel Aguilera: For the audition, we learned a combination from the choreographer, Natalie, and performed it once or twice. Then we had a freestyle section, which is the main course, where they watch you freestyle, so you throw out your best moves, and they pick the ones who are most entertaining to watch. We practiced every Tuesday, and we would sign up for our games, whether it was a full-squad game, which means all of us have to be there, or a smaller squad, which is more based on your schedule and availability. There was a requirement for how many games to do per month. I think they run things a little differently now and want you at more games, but I’m not on it now because I’m a teacher at a school. When I was there, we would perform during timeouts, halftime and quarter breaks, but we also appeared at different events, like a festival or a party, and did performances there. We also did educational shows and things like that.
Andrea: Cool. Did they give you a lot of gear?
Joel Aguilera: Yes, they did. I’m still rocking all my Rockets gear every chance I get. As long as you make it through the season, you get to keep it all.
Andrea: Tell me more about the performances. What was the audience reaction?
Joel Aguilera: It was always fun. It’s our job to get them hyped and excited, so we made sure we were doing our best, whether it was getting them to clap along or cheer or just have a smile on their face, getting them hyped for the game itself. A Rockets game just has such a positive vibe, and people are happy to be there, so we were trying to add to that experience so everybody who came had a good time, whether we were performing or throwing them T-shirts and prizes. We just wanted to get the crowd engaged.
Andrea: Did you ever do anything with the cheerleaders?
Joel Aguilera: I think there are a couple of performances they do together. I don’t think I did any, whether I was busy or it just wasn’t that season, but every now and then they do a combined number with the Power Dancers, the Launch Crew and the other groups. They find a way to put everybody together at some point.
Andrea: Cool. I’ve heard other teams are doing that now, having just one group.
Joel Aguilera: I’m sure a lot of other teams have different versions of entertainment. Some teams might have only b-boys; some might have a girls’ dance team and cheerleaders. The Rockets had a little bit of everything, which I think is what made the entertainment there so good.
Andrea: Did you get audience participation, like pulling people in from the audience?
Joel Aguilera: I don’t think we ever did that, but the Rockets would. They might have someone go up into the stands.
Andrea: Were you on TV?
Joel Aguilera: I was on TV a couple of times. I have no idea how many, but someone might tag me on Instagram, like, “Hey, this is you,” and I’m like, “That’s me.” From what I remember, there was a time James Harden was getting interviewed and I was right behind him, hyping everybody up. That one traveled around for a bit.
[18:47] Getting started teaching
Andrea: Cool. How did you get started teaching?
Joel Aguilera: I’d have to rewind that one pretty far back. I actually started before the Rockets, before FLY, before the job I have now. When I was in high school, I started at Sunrise Dance Studio, where I taught a couple of privates to some of the kids. It was very rare that I taught a class, but that was my first experience teaching. Then once I started college, I thought, “I don’t want to be a waiter, I don’t want to work at a grocery store. Dance is what I’m going to end up doing, so I need to figure out how to work as a dancer.” I couldn’t get performances all the time, so I decided to start teaching. My resume was the performance experience I had, and thankfully, even as a freshman in college, I had experience thanks to Inertia. That got me in the door at studios. I think the first studio I taught at was Memorial Dance Center, teaching hip-hop and breaking, and from that point on I was teaching at studios all across Houston. Now that I’ve graduated from the University of Houston and been certified through Texas Teachers, I’m teaching at Klein Forest High School. Thankfully, I got that job right out of graduation. I was lining up schools and emailing everybody I could, because I didn’t want to take a break; I wanted to go into it right away. That worked out, and I’m really loving it at Klein Forest.
Andrea: Awesome. Who’s the director there?
Joel Aguilera: Stacey Russell.
Andrea: What’s your partnership with her like?
Joel Aguilera: Great. Me, her and her assistant director, Courtney, all get along really well and help each other out. They’ve been teaching me a lot in my first year. They’ve been there longer than I have, so it’s easy to go to them for guidance and advice, and I’m surprised how much they know from how long they’ve been there. It’s great to have somebody like that when you’re a first-year teacher.
[21:28] Outbreak Crew
Andrea: How does it compare to Inertia?
Joel Aguilera: It’s a little different. Stacey and Courtney run the drill team, which I had nothing to do with back when I was in school, and now I’m taking over Outbreak Crew. Inertia has been around for so long; Outbreak Crew has only been here for five years, going on six. They’re a little more hip-hop core, more modern, urban choreography, as opposed to Inertia, which is more true to the fundamentals of breaking and old school hip-hop, like locking and popping. So I’m trying to bring that old school flavor and foundation back to Outbreak, more fundamentals of breaking, while still letting them do the urban movement they like. I’m giving them a little of both and trying to help them become more well-rounded hip-hop dancers.
Andrea: Do you give them opportunities to choreograph?
Joel Aguilera: Definitely. For our winter show, they had one piece they choreographed on their own, and they were making their spring show piece on their own as well. Unfortunately, we couldn’t do a spring show with everything going on with COVID, but hopefully I can get them even more opportunities next year. They actually had an opportunity to perform at Westside High School, which was a very interesting experience for me, seeing both Inertia and my students perform in the same show. I try to get them as many opportunities as I can, because that’s how I grew, by performing outside my high school, and I want the same experience for them.
Andrea: That’s great. What are you doing for the spring show?
Joel Aguilera: We’re talking about it right now. We’re thinking about some kind of virtual spring show. We’re letting them choreograph it; they’re currently deciding which song to use, and then we’ll assign certain eight-counts to each student and let them film it, along with figuring out transitions, so that dancer number one shows dancer number two how they end, and dancer number two starts that way. We’ll see how it goes. They’ll have the opportunity to do solos as well, and we’re going to do a senior slideshow to give the graduating seniors a proper send-off.
Andrea: Nice. Had you choreographed like that before, a kind of pass-the-choreo?
Joel Aguilera: Not necessarily. When they were physically at school, they made their own transitions and set different ensembles. This is our way of making it feel more connected, even though we’re so far apart.
Andrea: Are you going to livestream it?
Joel Aguilera: I think we’ll stick with recording. They’ll send it in, and then Ms. Russell and I will edit it together. It’ll take a week or two, but hopefully we’ll get it done before graduation and give our seniors some sort of experience, because I know they’re missing out on a lot right now.
Andrea: It’s good you’re there for them.
Joel Aguilera: Most definitely. We try to do as much as we can. We have weekly Zoom meetings to catch up and hang out for a bit, and for some of them, it’s the only time they talk to anybody. So we make sure we’re there every Tuesday.
[25:22] Joel’s personal style
Andrea: Nice. For our listeners who haven’t seen you dance before, can you describe your personal style?
Joel Aguilera: Since I’m trained in different genres, there’s a little style in each one. If I’m talking specifically about breaking, I focus a lot on footwork, which some people would say is the core essence of breaking. You might start with toprock, but it’s when you go down to the floor that people consider it breaking. As a choreographer, I take the breaking side along with modern technique and try to create its own contemporary form. So I do a lot of breaking floorwork along with José Limón technique specifically, a lot of fall and recovery. I definitely have a lot of floorwork, but I try to emphasize level changes and flow as much as I can. I’d say it’s both dynamic and flowy at the same time.
Andrea: When you freestyle, how much are you improvising?
Joel Aguilera: Now that I’ve improvised for so long, especially in breaking, where you focus a lot on musicality, the music influences how you move. You might have an order of movements, but you need the willingness to open up and switch it up to better fit the music. So now when I freestyle, it’s definitely in the moment. When I have the opportunity, I might fall into a combo I already have, or a step, or some kind of trick or power move. I have the freedom, but also the experience, to freestyle in the moment, fall into something I know, and then go back out of it into something I haven’t done before.
[27:54] Musicality, DJs and live music
Andrea: Cool. I know you’ve done Lindy Hop. I’m thinking, when you’re doing breaking, do you know the music? Is it all DJed, so you don’t really know what’s coming, or maybe you don’t know half the songs played that night? I feel like even when it’s recorded, even if you haven’t heard it, the beat is on a metronome. Whereas with Lindy Hop, there could be a breath in the music, or the band could swing it hard and then soft. How does the rhythm move you?
Joel Aguilera: It’s so different depending on the circumstance. If I’m talking specifically about a b-boy event with a battle going on, you’re standing there and you don’t know what song the DJ is going to pull up. He might play a song you know, and you know where it goes and where that random snare or sound effect comes in. You’re hoping it’s a song you know, but you never know, so you can’t really assign so many moves. Some people go in and say, “I’m doing this move, then this move, then this move,” and they don’t care about the music. That might work for them, but it might not. Personally, I might have a couple of combos I want to put in, but I don’t know when or where, because I need to hear the song first. Even if I’m not familiar with the song, there’s a familiar rhythm pattern in breakbeats. It might go one, two, one, two, three, one, two, one, two, three. You have to be familiar with at least that rhythm, so you know there will be something you can hit.
With something like Lindy Hop, I only have so much experience, and hopefully one day I’ll be able to improvise to it, but I haven’t gotten that far. Anything I’ve done with it has been choreographed, so I got to practice it multiple times before I performed it. If I had to go out on stage and improvise, who knows how it would go. I’d try my best, but if they started switching it up and getting real jazzy with the music, I’d just try my best. With experience, you start to understand music better, so you might know when they want to switch it up and be ready for that change.
Andrea: Have you ever had a musician or DJ play their music based on your movement, like giving you a drum roll?
Joel Aguilera: Oh yeah, there have been a lot of instances where I’m dancing and there’s a drummer. Back with FLY, Jorge Casco is also a drummer. We’d do school shows and he’d be drumming, and since he knew us as dancers, he’d let us dance for a couple of seconds, see what kind of personality, attitude and dynamic we were bringing to the movement, and then adapt to it. That’s always a great experience, because usually the dancer has to adapt to the music. Having the music adapt to the dancer is really pleasant, and I wish there were more of it. It’s great when you get that.
Andrea: It takes live music.
Joel Aguilera: It does. I’ve also done a dance film with my sister. She has a master’s in clarinet. I recorded her playing to the movement I was doing, so that was an interesting experience as well.
Andrea: Awesome. I’d love to see that.
Joel Aguilera: I’ll send it. I haven’t posted it anywhere yet. I want to do a better version; it was quick because it was an assignment for school. It’s definitely a film I want to go back to and spend more time on before I post it publicly.
Andrea: Okay. Where can we see you?
Joel Aguilera: You can find me on Instagram at aguilera_joel. I also have a website, aguilerajoel8.wixsite.com/mysite. I’m currently trying to get a little more publicity, working on the website and finding more places where you can find me. You can also find me on my YouTube channel, Joel Aguilera, or my Vimeo, Joel Aguilera, where I post a lot of dance content, whether it’s pieces I’ve choreographed or a class I’ve had. I’m definitely trying to post more there.
[33:05] Latin jazz, breaking and the Bronx
Andrea: Can you give us insight into the history that’s informed you? You mentioned José Limón and old school hip-hop. Where do you come from?
Joel Aguilera: I definitely try to tie all of that together, and I’d go back to my upbringing. I’m Colombian, so I bring a lot of Latin roots to my choreography. Like I said, I’m a resident right now for Dance Source Houston, so I’ve presented my Latin upbringing as well as the modern technique I learned at U of H and my experience in b-boy culture, and I try to find the connections between them. I originally picked Limón for its fall and recovery technique, but I also feel that connection of being Latino. And of course breaking started in New York; it’s African American dance, but it was heavily influenced by Puerto Ricans in New York. And Latin jazz, the music I incorporate into my choreography, also started in New York. It was a combination of jazz music with Latin composers like Machito and Mario Bauzá. A lot of Latin composers really influenced jazz in their own way and took it on its own route. So I try to find the connection between all of it.
Andrea: Really cool. With your Latin heritage, did you grow up dancing with your family?
Joel Aguilera: Of course. I grew up mainly doing salsa when I was younger. I didn’t want to, and my sisters would pull me in and make me, but now I’m very open to it. But I think the main influence growing up was the music. My dad would play Latin jazz or salsa nonstop, blasting, wherever I was. Even if I was trying to sleep, there was a lot of jazz playing. It was happening all the time. Anytime we got in the car, Latin jazz was blasting. There was no reason to ask if we could put something else on the radio; we knew when we got in there, we were going to listen to Latin jazz or salsa. Family events, Latin jazz and salsa. Breakfast, lunch or dinner, Latin jazz and salsa. He’s a painter, so he was home constantly, and I guess that’s what kept him in the zone while he was painting. As a kid it was just there, but as I grew, I realized how much I love the music, so now I’m trying to tie it into the choreography I’m making. I also think it’s a genre that doesn’t have a lot of dance. Not many people dance to Latin jazz specifically, because it is jazz and it’s hard to choreograph to, but I like that challenge, and I like the connection it brings to my background and my life.
Andrea: Awesome. How old were you when you first wanted to dance, without your sisters dragging you?
Joel Aguilera: I’d say 14, when I was starting high school. My interest started the summer before high school. My sister was part of a salsa dance team, and there was a guy in there who knew how to breakdance, and I remember thinking, “Whoa, you should ask him to teach me.” He told me about YA, Youth Advocates. They do a lot for the community, and they have a Thursday community night where b-boys go and practice, with a DJ and free food, a free space for people to dance and be accepted, stay out of trouble and just have friends. I remember going there and seeing a guy who taught at my middle school, and I was like, “Don’t you work at my middle school?” He said, “Yeah, I teach dance,” and he told me about Westside and what they had to offer. So it fell right into place. I was surprised there was that bridge through those small connections. That’s why I enrolled in breaking when I went to Westside; without that, I don’t think I would have known it was a class.
Andrea: Wow. Were you zoned there?
Joel Aguilera: Yes. I lived literally one street over from Westside, so I’d hop the fence from my apartment complex, cross the one street, and be at Westside. It worked out great while I was in high school. I’d try to walk home for lunch when I had the chance, and I’d even go to the apartment complex gym at lunch and work out with Jeffrey Louis. There’s always this idea that you don’t use dance as your workout; you have to work out to dance. So we were trying to be the best dancers we could be, and we’d go work out next door. We made it work no matter what.
Andrea: Oh, that sounds so fun.
Joel Aguilera: It was great. I didn’t have to wake up early to get to school. I woke up literally 15 minutes before school.
[39:08] Youth Advocates’ Thursday nights
Andrea: You were talking about Youth Advocates, which I’ve been to and it’s incredible. For our listeners, can you tell us about the environment?
Joel Aguilera: It’s amazing. Like I said, Youth Advocates has that Thursday night. I know they also do things with soccer and have other ways of helping the community, but as far as the b-boy aspect, they open up a space, normally at a church. I can’t remember the exact name of the church they’re at right now. Every Thursday for a couple of hours, they open the space and have a live DJ playing music, and there are tons of dancers in there: b-boys, krumpers, poppers, lockers, all styles. And of course they have free food, so they’re there to feed everybody, with water and refreshments. And they host battles. Every person I’ve ever brought to YA had a brand new experience and loved it. They’re like, “Whoa, I’ve never seen anything like this before,” because people don’t know how impactful the hip-hop community is, especially in Houston. Dancers from different cities and states come here and say, “Man, I wish my city had something like this, a night where all the dancers show up every week.” When you actually see it and how many people are there, you’re like, “Wow, I had no idea this existed,” especially at this volume. So if anybody’s interested, definitely check it out. Go to their Facebook page, Youth Advocates; I think it’s also under Houston reVision. Go there on a Thursday night. You won’t regret it. I think the only Thursday they don’t have it is the week of Christmas.
Andrea: Okay, cool. For another city that might want to replicate this concept, I think it’s structured as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and they host it at the church. I’m not sure how they’re funded. There’s food, there’s a DJ, there’s air conditioning, and there’s no admission. Someone’s definitely doing it out of the goodness of their heart.
Joel Aguilera: Oh, for sure. Charles started Youth Advocates. I don’t know how long ago, but he’s been running it since, so shout out to Charles. He’s been doing a great job. As far as the details of Youth Advocates, I have no idea, but I’m sure a lot of work goes into it.
[42:12] Dance as a reflection of culture
Andrea: How do you think you, as a dancer and an artist, are a reflection of our culture? Your identity, why are you who you are?
Joel Aguilera: Obviously, it’s where I come from and what I’ve been impacted by, and thankfully that has so many connections with where I live. What I’m pulling from specifically is my Latin family, breaking and modern technique, and I try to turn that into something new, a new harmonious style of dance. In that way, I’m also reflecting all the cultures I’m pulling from and expressing that back to the same city I got it from. So as a dancer here in Houston, I might be something for other dancers or people watching to pull from, whether it’s Latin jazz or breakdancing or modern. Being that same source I was able to pull from is how I go about it.
Andrea: Cool. When I watch you, I feel connected to you, and I feel like you’re expressing a part of me that I could never express. I don’t have the technique you have, but I feel a little Latin, because I’m in Houston and I speak a little Spanish and have Latino friends. And I feel a little hip-hop, because I grew up in the ’80s and ’90s. And I feel a little modern, because it’s very contemporary, diverse and cosmopolitan. That’s the culture I feel like you’re bringing together in one body and one mind, expressing yourself in choreography. It’s really awesome.
Joel Aguilera: Well, thank you. I really appreciate you saying that. That’s honestly one of the main reasons I’m doing what I’m doing with my residency. The first half was mainly research-based, and I realized there are so many connections between feeling a little Latino or feeling hip-hop or feeling modern. I realized I feel all three, and they’re so closely related; I had no idea. So part of the message I’m trying to get across is that we’re connected, much closer than we think. Every culture, every gender, whatever you might label yourself as, it’s all really connected. I found an insane connection between Latin jazz and breaking, and how much both came out of the Bronx specifically, where breaking started and where rumba was played. And rumba has a big impact on Latin jazz. Seeing that connection was astonishing for me, because it makes my connection to the two feel even closer.
Andrea: Go deeper into that rumba thing. What’s the factoid, or the video, or the person you feel was the crossover or the link?
Joel Aguilera: I wish I had certain dates memorized, but I know that in New York, hip-hop started with people literally dancing in the street, and that was how breaking started. Rewind to years before that, I want to say the 1950s, and the same thing was happening with rumba. People were playing rumba on the blocks and at the barbershop, and rumba has a heavy influence on Latin jazz, with that same rhythm. It’s interesting that the same location and the same setting had such a trademark foundation for each. The famous Latin jazz artist Tito Puente actually went there, playing his drums, and he’s an icon and a pioneer of Latin jazz music. Him being there, knowing that b-boys were there too years later, it has a very rich origin.
Andrea: Is there a specific rhythm or orchestration that makes it rumba?
Joel Aguilera: I don’t know a lot about rumba, but Latin jazz has the clave, which is a rhythm. It goes pop, pop, pop… pop, pop, and it has its own rhythm, its own anticipation. I don’t know what the rhythm might be called for breaking, but each has its own rhythm and its own percussion, and they pull from the same place. So it’s very interesting.
[48:06] The Dance Source Houston residency
Andrea: Cool. How did you get your residency with Dance Source Houston?
Joel Aguilera: I did a couple of shows for Dance Source. I participated in Barnstorm Dance Fest and Mind the Gap, and I think that’s how I started getting noticed as a choreographer. This was back when I was still a student, so I did as much as possible. I went to a lot of their info sessions, where I learned what they were looking for in an artist in residence, and I thought about it all the time: what can I bring? I also thought about what I’m trying to create as an artist, what hasn’t been seen before, which is hard because almost everything has been seen. But I want to create something original, and I asked myself how I could do that and how I could explain it. I went through an application process with Dance Source: you create an application online, they interview you, and after all the steps, I was finally one of the three. There are two other residents. Getting that news, I was like, this is an amazing opportunity. I’m going through it right now. I spent a lot of time choreographing a 20-minute work, 21 minutes to be exact, with 14 sections and seven or eight dancers including myself. Now I’m figuring out how to turn that choreography into a dance film for the end of the residency, so there’s a lot going into the works right now, a lot of moving pieces, but I’m excited to see how it goes. The residency has been an amazing opportunity for me as an artist, I’ve grown a lot from it, and I’ll use what I’ve learned for my art in the future.
Andrea: Great. What kind of support have they provided?
Joel Aguilera: They helped me with studio space, which is so helpful. I’d been rehearsing at Hunter Dance Center before things had to halt. They also guided me through a lot of meetings and workshops they provide. When I’m writing a grant or applying for anything, I get their advice a lot. I can call them and they help me out; it’s someone to look to when I need guidance and advice. They taught me a lot and gave me a better idea of how a show works, what’s needed and what’s not. We’d meet at least monthly to go over where I was in the process and what I might need to do next. So they helped me a lot.
[51:14] Teachers and role models
Andrea: Great. And who are your teachers, in general, growing up, in college and high school?
Joel Aguilera: I’ve had so many to look up to that if I named them all, it would take at least an hour. Off the top of my head, of course there’s Sharon Roberts, director of Inertia Dance Company for 20-something years; Jesse Jordan; Joel Rivera; everybody in my crew, whether it’s Jeffrey or Kenny Louis. At the University of Houston, of course Karen Stokes, Teresa Chapman, John Beasant and Becky Valls. Now I have Jhon Stronks and Mollie Haven Miller, and my girlfriend Lizzy Woodson. All these people inspire and motivate me, so I’ve been able to learn so much from so many people. And my family, of course. I’m very blessed to have so many different role models to talk to and learn from, so I try my best to be that for others. I think that’s what really got me into teaching: I had so many people to look up to that it only feels right to be that person for someone else. There’s a saying, especially in the breaking scene: each one teach one. I had a teacher, and now I’m going to be that teacher for somebody else.
Andrea: Awesome. Each one teach one.
Joel Aguilera: Each one teach one.
Andrea: How often do you find yourself blasting Latin jazz?
Joel Aguilera: All the time now. I can’t get enough of it, ever since I first started experimenting with it in choreography about two years ago, when I was still a student at U of H. I’m literally turning into my dad. I’m in the car blasting Latin jazz, and my girlfriend is just sitting there. I think she’ll grow into it; she’ll probably be the next one blasting it on her own, but right now it’s me, looking for new music, blasting it at home whether I’m dancing or painting or drawing something. It has such a rich quality, and I just love listening to it. It gets me motivated, and I love figuring out how I can make a piece to it, or just listening. It’s a shared love in my family, especially with my sister, who has her master’s in clarinet and loves music as well, so it’s an easy conversation to have with my family. It brings us all together.
[54:11] Teaching through the shutdown
Andrea: Yeah, cool. I feel like we’ve been on a continuum of going online since the beginning of our lives, and today is the second day of the stay-at-home order being lifted in the state of Texas. We can go out in the real world, but we can’t go to a dance studio; those aren’t open yet. Maybe they’ll be part of the May 18 lift. But seven weeks and two days ago, we were thrust forward like never before, where if you were going to share what you do, it was going to be online, unless it was for your roommate. How has it affected you as a teacher and an artist?
Joel Aguilera: A big impact. As a teacher in public education, we’re all trying to figure out how to move things online. It’s pretty crazy what the education system is having to do. We’re moving every course, all the content, every subject online, and trying to communicate with all of our parents. There are just so many students, and we’re trying to make sure they still get a quality education from home. I’m also a teacher at a studio, and we’re moving our dance classes online and starting our recital pieces online, which has never been done before. I think what’s happening right now might seem scary to some or annoying to others, but I think we might actually be progressing in a way. I think online classes, and online as a platform, are only going to get more popular, and it’s going to continue even after everything goes back to what we consider normal, like going to the grocery store without a mask on and not thinking about sanitizing your hands every five seconds. What’s happening online right now will continue, and it will be even more intertwined in our daily lives.
Andrea: Okay. I also think a lot of good is coming out of it. Like what?
Joel Aguilera: I think a lot of people are actually enjoying online classes. Some people might not feel comfortable dancing in a studio with so many people there, and now there’s a new opportunity for people who might be too shy to dance in public, and that’s fine. Now you can dance at home on your own with a teacher and still get a similar experience. Others might want to go back to a normal class with people there, and that’s what they want, but now there’s an opportunity for others not to have to do that. And there are events happening online, with people streaming dance concerts or music concerts, finding a way to use online as a platform for their art. I honestly think it’s a great thing, especially in the arts community, that people are getting so creative about posting art and videos. Even down to the challenges on Instagram or TikTok, people are still getting very engaged in the arts. So it’s a blessing in disguise.
Andrea: I think it’s going to be very interesting how much of a twist this puts on our society. The stay-at-home order was a big surprise. How do you think it’s benefited you and your students?
Joel Aguilera: I think it might help my students be a little more independent. Now that we’re not there in person to push them, they have to take the initiative to make sure they’re getting a good class out of what we put online. They’re at home, and I can only try to encourage them to move hard and push themselves. So as students and as kids, they’re getting a little more self-motivated, especially when online classes aren’t ideal for some of them. They have to do it on their own, so I think it helps them a lot. And this isn’t going to be forever; we’ll go back to classes eventually. As long as we get through this, that’s all we need.
[59:09] Hopes and dreams
Andrea: What are your hopes and dreams?
Joel Aguilera: Ideally, I want to grow as a choreographer and get my choreography out to the world, to places besides Houston. I’d like to grow and teach what I know. I want to continue my career as a teacher, eventually as a professor at a university, and really be able to teach what I know and what I’ve been able to learn in the decade I’ve been dancing. I know I have a lot more to learn, but whatever I’m learning, I want to pass on to people. So I want to continue as a teacher, and also as a choreographer. Those are my two main aspirations.
Andrea: Why is it so important to you to pass on dance to others?
Joel Aguilera: Because I had so many people do it for me. It brings everybody together. I have a true love for dance, and I know a lot of people do too. I think there’s no need to compete. Everybody can grow together. There’s enough for everybody.
Andrea: My guest today is Joel Aguilera. Joel, thank you for being a part of DanceTalks.