Shamond talks about health and positivity. Follow him at https://www.instagram.com/shayminking and https://www.facebook.com/shamond.powell.
DanceTalks with Shamond Powell: Full Transcript
Hosted by Andrea Cody, Director of Dance Houston. Originally released April 21, 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 Houston b-boy Shamond Powell, a member of Dance Houston and FLY Dance Company who also dances at EZ Bar Mitzvahs parties. Shamond started breaking in an after-school class at West Briar Middle School, then joined Westside High School’s Inertia Dance Company, where Sharon Roberts and Joel “Judo” Rivera taught him the discipline of a professional performer. He looks back on competing outside of Texas, teaching a class in Haiti, a grueling Seven to Smoke battle, and the bar and bat mitzvah parties where he hypes up the kids. He describes how FLY Dance Company’s Kathy Wood and Jorge Casco build choreography, FLY’s school tours on the elements of hip-hop and the four pillars of breaking, and resetting choreography to live music on symphony tours. He also remembers performing in Dance Houston’s 2017 musical Swing, Baby, Swing! with Norma Miller, swaps stories with Andrea about mosh pits and swing music, and shares his COVID-19 stay-at-home routine and his advice to stay active, keep a schedule and stay positive. Recorded April 19, 2020.
Key takeaways
- Discipline makes the performer. The push-ups, the laps and the tough love at Inertia taught Shamond what it means to be a professional in his craft.
- It’s how you do it. Teaching isn’t about rushing through the steps, but about making sure each student takes the knowledge with them.
- Breaking has a deeper history. On school tours, FLY shows kids the elements of hip-hop and the pillars of breaking: toprock, footwork, power moves and freezes.
- Live music changes everything. With an orchestra, the dancers spend the day resetting their choreography to what the music actually sounds like live.
- Make time to do something. Shamond’s advice for staying home: build a schedule, stay active, hold yourself accountable and stay positive.
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 and first steps
Andrea: Hello and welcome to DanceTalks. Today is April 19, 2020, and my guest is Shamond Powell. Shamond is a member of Dance Houston, EZ Bar Mitzvahs, Life Time Athletic and FLY Dance Company.
Shamond Powell: The things that inspired me to hop into this world were movies like You Got Served. The first year that I started breakdancing was with the after-school breakdancing class at West Briar Middle School; we were called the Break Monsters. All the years I was there, I just kept on practicing. I didn’t take it as seriously as I do now, but I was like a young lion, just trying to learn everything that I could. By the time I was a freshman, around 2011, I already had a good understanding of body placement, weight, movement, stacking and transitions. I had an overall better knowledge of hip-hop, jazz, contemporary, all the dance styles, but mainly breaking. So freshman year rolls around, and that’s when I tried out for this team called Inertia.
[2:27] Inertia Dance Company
Shamond Powell: At that time, Inertia was super big. I’m talking Inertia was picked to represent the USA for the Chinese delegation big. So being on that team, I had no idea what I was stepping my foot into, but I can definitely say it gave me some of the best years of my life as a performer, as a dancer and as a movement specialist. I can’t even explain it. All the time I spent there, my teachers, the legendary Ms. Roberts, killed it. I know she was probably a little harsh on us, but it was all out of love. It was just a little tough love. We all felt it, and it all made us better. It was a little shell you had to break through at first, and then Ms. Roberts was the best of friends. And then for the male side, we had Mr. Joel “Judo” Rivera. That man right there is a jungle beast. The kind of training regimen he put us on every year was ridiculous. We’re talking 50, 55 push-ups, sets of push-ups, and then we had to run around the entire school. It was a whole thing. So I definitely cannot thank them enough for the man I am today, because I know without all that training, discipline and due diligence, I wouldn’t understand what it means to be a performer, to be a professional in my craft, and to know what I’m doing from the outside looking in, instead of just trying to look like a newbie who thinks, “Oh, I’m hot stuff.”
There’s a breaking proverb that’s been passed down: it’s not what you do, how you move, how you get from A to B or even how you teach; it’s how you do it. It’s how that individual walks away with that knowledge. How do you actually take the steps to benefit their needs, instead of speeding through the whole thing and only giving them one-on-one time afterward? So I thank them for helping me know my limits and know when to look for more knowledge. Sorry, that was a whole story and a half right there.
Andrea: Amen.
[5:24] Community, friends and family
Shamond Powell: Ever since I graduated in 2015, I’ve been blessed to be a part of so many different things involving the Houston community, being involved in Houston, being involved in companies like this one, pretty much taking my feet anywhere I can, and competitions. I definitely think that experience got me to where I am today. Especially my friends and my support along the way: my old crew, my friends, and my big supporter Samantha, who’s been my homegirl ever since middle school. She’s helped me get back to the level I was at before, because I’ve had some days where I’ve been down in the dumps, and sometimes you just need that little positive feeling to get back in the saddle. So I definitely have my friends to thank, my family to thank, and my teachers. Even you, Ms. Andrea. Even if I’ve never told you before, I just want to say I appreciate everything you’ve done for me. I appreciate you looking out for me, helping me through my ups and downs, and just being there. This ride has been phenomenal. It’s awesome.
Andrea: I love you, and I’m so glad I know you. The very thought of you makes me burst with joy. So many blessings. I know, what was it, last summer or the summer before, at summer camp, he started calling me Mom.
Shamond Powell: Oh yeah. What a bond. It’s so awesome.
Andrea: For sure. So you mentioned China, and I remember when that happened. It was like a friendship festival or something, right? I want to say Sharon and Joel, God bless them, they’re so amazing, I just have to take a second to say that. They needed a video to submit. I think y’all had already done the Mavericks, so they had videos, but what they needed and used was the video from a Dance Houston production at the Wortham, with the company on this big stage with full lights and sound, giving it that artistic, professional, theatrical look. Maybe they submitted a Mavericks video too. But you guys were just so ready to represent the United States.
Shamond Powell: Oh yeah. They definitely wanted us to be on our A game. Don’t slouch at all.
Andrea: Right.
Shamond Powell: That was definitely a big opportunity.
[9:09] Milestones and a Seven to Smoke battle
Andrea: Were there any other really major milestones for you that you feel have defined your career in dance so far?
Shamond Powell: Definitely. Off the top of my head, I would say winning competitions outside of the state is one: going out there, proving my skill and actually coming back with a W. That puts a smile on my face every time. The time we got to go teach a class in Haiti, all of that was dope. That was killer. Going to New York, that was killer, just seeing the bright lights for the first time. That’s insane. Going to Florida was insane. I’ve only been there twice, for competitions. I got lucky on one of them; the other one, not so much. But the overall community out there is welcoming, lively and very engaging, much different from other communities I’ve been to. That’s an important milestone.
There’s this jam that was thrown a couple of years back called Living the Five Elements, and there was this format called Seven to Smoke, where one person has to battle six or seven people and consecutively rack up eight points. Depending on how long it goes, it could be 30 minutes, or it could last for an hour. Whoever ends up with those eight points is the winner. In my experience, I had to go ten rounds. My early rounds were good enough, but I started getting a little tired, so I gassed out early so I could have more energy for later. I made sure that the next time, I was not losing. I was going to stay in my spot, because one person was one point away, and if I lost, he would be the next one up, and I was confident that if he went up next time, he would win. So I didn’t let that happen. I did everything in my power to make sure I stayed at the top, and for the last four rounds, I won all of them. I almost threw up when it was over.
Andrea: I remember that. Oh my God.
Shamond Powell: They had to bring me to a corner and take off my shirt and everything. It’s funny looking back at it now, but at the time it was stressful.
Andrea: Oh yeah, I love it. I’ve had my days sweating through clothes and running out of breath. It’s the best feeling. But almost throwing up, that’s when I realized how hard what you were doing was. So, just a correction: I think Living the Five Elements was not a Dance Houston event. Was that the Ether with RAD Crew?
Shamond Powell: Oh no, that was a separate event. That was the one where DJ Flake came from out of town.
Andrea: Okay. I just thought you said the Seven to Smoke thing was a Dance Houston production.
Shamond Powell: I don’t want to take credit for that. I don’t think it was part of it. I think it was part of the first day, the prelims for H-Town Get Down. That was one of the categories.
Andrea: I see. Okay, I believe it.
[14:47] EZ Bar Mitzvahs
Andrea: All right, cool. So tell me about EZ Bar Mitzvahs and what you get those kids doing.
Shamond Powell: All right. So with EZ Bar Mitzvahs, at first I didn’t know how to approach it, so I was kind of just being the hype man. But now that I understand the system and how to get the party moving, I totally get it. We’re like the party enhancers. We keep the crowd moving and keep the party going. If it’s dead for a little bit, we get the kids hyped. Some of us are poppers, some of us are breakers, and the MC will hype us up and introduce us. Then maybe we’ll have a line dance going, just to get everybody involved, and everybody ends up stepping in.
Andrea: Just to explain it for our listeners: it’s a coming-of-age party for young Jewish people.
Shamond Powell: We have them dance up on the chair and everything, and do the dance in the circle. It’s all a fun time. Sometimes I forget I’m not Jewish, because I know the lyrics so well. It’s a real good time. The fact that we get to go there and inject party fuel into everybody and have everyone turn up to level 10, it’s dope. It makes me look forward to my Saturdays every week. I feel like not a lot of kids are able to see breaking, or they’re just not able to get out of their comfort zone a lot, and it takes a lot for them to do something with you. So you need to have that goofy factor in order to have them step out there with you. And it always makes me feel good, because I’m a goofy person, so I like doing goofy stuff. If it puts smiles on people’s faces, I’m going to turn it up to level 20 and make sure everybody’s comfortable and having a good time. I don’t want anybody to feel like they’re the cool kid or the nerdy kid. We have dance circles where we point at everybody and they freestyle and do whatever they want to do. If someone wants to rap during a song, we let them do that. We get really creative during these parties, and pretty much it’s all about letting the kids have fun.
Andrea: Awesome. I can’t wait for my kids to be old enough to get invited to a bar mitzvah we can attend, so I can see all this go down.
Shamond Powell: Definitely. Oh man, it’s going to be something. Probably the best one yet. I’ll see you on the dance floor.
Andrea: Right on. Good thinking. Preparation. Now is the time.
Shamond Powell: Always. You’ve got to stay ahead of the game.
[18:51] Traveling and sponsorship
Andrea: So it sounds like traveling has really been a big highlight for you.
Shamond Powell: Looking at me today, it’s crazy. I never thought I would be in half the places I’ve been to, especially in the amount of time it took me to get there. It’s definitely a blessing. It’s something that was unprecedented and that I guess just came with the territory.
Andrea: Is your travel being sponsored, or are you earning your money picking up dance jobs and then spending it to go to dance events?
Shamond Powell: It’s kind of half and half. If there’s a competition outside of the state, that’ll probably be a full sponsorship, unless I get a group of us who want to go and we all pitch in together; then that’s a different pace. Other than that, I’ve been blessed enough to be sponsored for my trips, like with FLY Dance Company. We have a little FLY van that we use. We all bunch up in that and take it to town. Or if something’s fairly close, I would probably just Uber there, and luckily whoever’s working with me would stay on the same side of town, and we would carpool back. So I’ve had a nice balance between being sponsored and doing it on my own. It’s a healthy little balance.
[21:00] In the studio at FLY Dance Company
Andrea: Great. What’s it like in the studio at FLY Dance Company?
Shamond Powell: Oh, it’s a very creative room of individuals. Sometimes everybody wants their ideas to be heard, but not all of them make it to the floor. That’s mostly because the ideas we want to use for a specific part, we’ll save for a later part. That way we already have something in store whenever we need an oomph factor, something to transition, or just a nice little filler piece. It keeps you on your toes and keeps you alert: knowing when the next eight count is coming and being spatially aware of where everybody is. It definitely helps.
Andrea: How do you describe their artistry?
Shamond Powell: Kathy has a vision, and she presents us with a skeleton. She gives us the bones, and we provide the meat. That’s the best way I could put it. We provide the flavor and inject our own little style into it, because she gives us the way it’s supposed to be done, and we put our own little flair into it. And then there’s the creative director, Mr. Casco, Mr. Jorge. He also does his own pieces, and if he sees one of our strengths, he won’t hesitate to use it there, or save it for one piece. They always know what they’re doing and what steps to take. It’s always a nice little progression.
[23:43] School tours
Andrea: Tell me about your tours with them.
Shamond Powell: All right, so the tours. I think one of the first tours I did with them was a school tour, which I had never done before, so it was something different. Pretty much, we get there early in the morning, meet up with the school counselor and get ourselves set up for the day. Then there’s a little education. We give them the full elements of hip-hop and the background, and we show them the four pillars, the main things in breaking: freezes, toprock, footwork and power moves, all that good stuff, just so they have a better understanding that dancing isn’t just what you see on TV. It also has a deeper meaning and a deeper history. The things you saw in Step Up, So You Think You Can Dance or America’s Got Talent are different from what’s presented in the media. I think it’s dope that we’re able to peel the curtain back a little and show that there’s more to it than just doing all this flashy stuff. There’s organization to it as well. You’ve got to come correct; you can’t just come out there doing whatever.
And I like that at the end of the presentation, we always take a couple of kids from the crowd and go over everything they learned. They want to stay on the stage a bit longer; they gain that confidence, and they just go out and wild out, doing things they saw on TikTok. It’ll be something we didn’t even tell them to do. Sometimes we need to get off the stage, and they just keep killing it. We can’t do anything about it, but it’s amazing. It’s a nice opportunity to get everyone out of their comfort zone, just vibing with everybody. It’s a blessing.
[26:17] Symphony tours
Andrea: Did you perform with symphonies, or just the company? When you went out of town, you said Lufkin. Did you perform with a symphony, or was it just you guys?
Shamond Powell: Oh yes, those were different tours. There are school tours, and then there are symphony tours, and the symphony tours run a little different. There’s communication with the orchestra, setting things up with them. [Shamond steps away for a moment because of a sound problem.]
Andrea: You’re good. Everything better?
Shamond Powell: Yeah, yeah. I had to step outside, but we’re back. Orchestra shows definitely run a little different. We set up early in the morning, get our placements down, get our corrections and pretty much get all of our cues right. Then throughout the day, we’ll be hammering different sections of choreography, because what we’ve noticed is that the clips they give us to practice to and what it sounds like live are two vastly different things. So throughout the day, we’re transferring what we heard on the music file they gave us to what we’re hearing live. There’ll be specific hits in the music that we pick up on and want to hit for stylistic purposes, and maybe some things that didn’t work, so we’ve got to readjust and reconfigure. It’s really a planning type of thing whenever it’s a symphonic or orchestral show, because you want to come correct.
Andrea: Yeah, you’re resetting your choreography to the live music.
Shamond Powell: Yes.
Andrea: And how do you share the space with them?
Shamond Powell: They generally take up the larger back half of the stage. We only take up the first two quarters of the stage, not too much. So we base our dances around going lengthwise instead of depth-wise, because we have more room going outward.
Andrea: Right. More like on the apron?
Shamond Powell: Yeah, definitely on the tip of the stage, that little oval point.
Andrea: Yeah, that’s the spot.
[30:29] Swing, Baby, Swing!
Andrea: All right. What was it like being in a musical theater production? We did Swing, Baby, Swing! in 2017.
Shamond Powell: Oh yeah. That was definitely a new experience for me as well, because the only other theater production I’d really been a part of was in school, where I only had a little singing part. I think I was somebody off of Hairspray; I can’t remember. But I just remember the dedication, the diligence and the discipline, because there’s a lot of repetition. You have to nail that specific part correctly, or it’s not going to look good. It’s not going to be what it should be. So that was a very new experience for me going into Swing, Baby, Swing!, but the more I did it, the easier it got. At first I wouldn’t say I was getting upset that I couldn’t get the footwork right; I was more bothered and annoyed, because I felt like I was doing all the steps, but for some reason I just looked different from everybody else. Maybe it was because I was putting my own style on it, and that was something I didn’t need to do, because it came with a style of its own. I was probably forcing it too hard. So I had to take a step back, listen to everybody and take everybody’s input, especially Ms. Norma Miller, listening to what she had to say.
Andrea: Hold up. Out of the whole cast, Norma Miller picked only you. She loved your personality. So you may have stuck out, but that’s what she loved. You made her laugh so hard. I think you were onto something, and it might have just been too much to deal with, because we were very limited on time, and we had Hurricane Harvey. I feel like we’ve got to try something like that again soon.
Shamond Powell: Oh yeah, definitely. I think all the minds in there provided a great atmosphere. Everyone was getting along. It was fun.
Andrea: Yeah, we loved it. We loved watching it, and I loved watching you. I’ve reviewed the videos to focus in on a particular dancer, like Le’Andre, and I didn’t catch the majority of what he had done; I think I was watching you most of the time, or just taking it all in, or honestly dancing with my kids in the front row. It was fun. But I need to keep reviewing that to see what you guys really did, so we can move forward with a new mindset.
Shamond Powell: Oh yeah, for sure. About that creativity. That would be dope.
[34:33] Why do you dance?
Andrea: Why do you dance? Dance can be an art, a sport, a mating ritual, historic preservation, a personal expression. I know it doesn’t have to be one thing to you, but what is it to you?
Shamond Powell: Dance is everything. I don’t know how I got so far into it or why it’s so big in my life, but it just resonates with me so well. The energy that swells up every time something’s about to happen, whether it’s rehearsal, a performance or teaching, it’s just overall fun. I barely have a bad day when it comes to that. Even when I’m trying to teach and I can’t be heard, that just lets me know everyone’s having a good time. I’m doing my job, putting smiles on everybody’s faces, and everyone’s enjoying themselves. It’s hard to be mad when it comes to dance. I love it. It’s incredible. There’s so much movement, so much excitement, everything at a high level, everything at level 10. And the community events around it are always top notch. There’s never a bad event. I love it. I wouldn’t trade it for anything else.
[36:38] Mosh pits, punk and swing
Andrea: Awesome. You said you can’t be mad, and you just reminded me of heavy metal in the ’90s. I love music, and I would go to these heavy metal shows. Maybe I was there to see Guns N’ Roses, but Megadeth was going to open for them. In that era (I mean, we still have things like Austin City Limits) there was a lot of that around town, at an arena or in places you’d never heard of that were just a field, with no chairs, and people would be up close to the band in a mosh pit. I got in one of those a couple of times. You really come out banged up. And I went crowd surfing, which was super cool. Then heavy metal kind of went into punk rock and ska, and everybody was either into punk rock, pumping their fist, or into ska, dancing like a goofball. I was into punk, but God kind of swung me away. This local band, the Suspects, had one swing song in their set, and I wanted to dance to that song, so I went exploring for more swing moves. I was dancing by myself, or with the person I was there with, twirling around, just having fun. And I thought it could be really fun if we learned a bunch of moves. So we started doing that, and then boom, I don’t know where ska went, but swing came up, and I was ready. I already had all the moves. It was so, so fun. And I think it was Mustard Plug that had one of the ska anthems about the dance… mosh. It was just moshing.
Shamond Powell: I’ve been in some mini mosh pits, but to experience the real thing, that’s a whole different experience.
Andrea: Angry men. You wouldn’t dare at some of those.
Shamond Powell: Oh yeah, I’ve seen them get rowdy, a state of fistfights. Is a mosh pit like Fight Club? Some people have to work out some differences in there. I’m glad you came out, though.
Andrea: Thank you. Because good Lord, I’ve seen some nasty ones. Sweaty, shirts off.
Shamond Powell: That’s definitely a thing of its time, those epic moments. In real life, is everyone just forcefully shoving, seeing who can shove harder? It seems like more of a competition, but it still seems like an overall fun thing to do. Personally, I don’t know if I would get into that. I’ll probably be one of the people on the side. That’s how I feel about breaking, too.
Andrea: You want to be my partner?
Shamond Powell: I’m okay with that. Does everybody have to watch? Jeez, please, no. I don’t even know what the band’s about to do. All right, I’m sweating now.
[42:00] Life under the stay-at-home order
Andrea: So let’s talk about our cultural revolution. We are in week six, day two of a stay-at-home order. I have lost track. What’s it like for you day to day?
Shamond Powell: It’s a routine now. I wake up between 12 and 5. I’ll have a nice orange, just a little fruit to get me kick-started. I drink some water, at least one or two bottles, to stay nice and hydrated. If I’m inside, I’ll probably do some stretches. I was working out a lot before this quarantine hit, really getting myself ready for things coming up in the summer and in the future, because I really wanted to get myself in the shape I want to be in. I know everyone always tells me, “Oh, you don’t need to do anything,” but there’s a specific level I want to be at to handle all the things that I do, just to make sure I have enough energy. So after the 100 push-ups, I’ll probably rest for about five minutes, just to make sure I still got it. I walk around my apartment blocks to get some fresh air, and if it’s a really good day, there’s a trail right next to the Beltway that I walk over to. I usually take at least 30 minutes running there, or I’ll walk over and find a nice little spot and go over some dance steps, footwork and toprock, just to keep my body moving and enjoy the nice air outside. After all that’s done, it’ll generally be about two or three hours. Then I come back home. I moved into this apartment less than a year ago, and I never really got around to tidying it up, because I was always out every day. But now I have the time to make it look nice. I can hang some things up, like my trophies and the different things I’ve accomplished.
Andrea: Tell us about the rest of your day, or did you want to move on?
Shamond Powell: No, that’s pretty much it. I’ll usually whip up some lunch, and then I either take a nap or catch up on some of my shows. I’ve been getting into watching a lot of scary movies lately, but I think it’s because I watch them in the day. Don’t bother watching them at night.
[47:35] Teaching online
Andrea: How are your classes going online with your students?
Shamond Powell: Those are every week, and I feel like they’re getting better and better. At first it was a weird little obstacle, because it’s new for everybody, but now we’ve got a nice little system going. We meet up every week. We work out with them, we stretch with them, and then we teach a little something-something. That usually goes well. Sometimes we tell them to mute themselves, or sometimes they tell each other to mute themselves so they can hear us more. The cooperation and communication going on right now is smooth. I love it. I try to find something better to do every week. Even next week, I’m planning on having everybody come through, and I’ll do a review. It’s nice to know that I’m keeping everyone active during a time like this.
Andrea: Cool. What do you have on your horizon for this week?
Shamond Powell: For this week, I’ve been planning on really more of the same. I’ve been trying to have a couple of my friends meet up, not a lot of course, just a couple, where we can session a little bit. Because I don’t want everybody to slack off during this time. I know it’s a perfect time to chill, and especially if you’ve been working a lot before this happened, definitely take the time to recharge, get everything settled and take the time for you. But I don’t want anybody to get behind on their goals, get out of their habits and fall back into their old habits. I want everybody to stay active, stay diligent and stay moving, because I know no one would want to slouch back into the bad habits they had before. I’m all about progression. I want to see better things for everybody. So if I’m the person who motivates people to at least drink some water, go outside or do something to better themselves during this time, then I feel like I’m doing my part. Because we all have time to do something. We just have to make time to do it.
[50:56] Advice for staying home
Andrea: If we come to the realization that stay-at-home is forever, what would you want for us?
Shamond Powell: What would I want for people staying at home? Definitely develop a schedule, a nice little regimen: “Okay, I’m going to do this today, I’m going to do that tomorrow, maybe take a break on this day, and then get right back at it.” Kind of like a diet plan or a workout plan, something you know you’re going to stick to, something to keep you disciplined and responsible during this time. I just want people to be accountable, to be the change during this time, or to take the initiative to help someone else, if that’s the case. Or get a journal, and each day accomplish something you maybe didn’t think about doing before this happened, like finishing a page in a book, getting a good stretch, or doing one more push-up than you did yesterday. Something to keep you going and motivate you throughout this. And also stay positive and stay blessed, because now is definitely not the time to be negative. Reach out, mend some broken bones and heal some broken bridges. I’m all about coming together and seeing the greener side of everything.
Andrea: My guest today is Shamond Powell. Shamond, thank you for being a part of DanceTalks.
Shamond Powell: Thank you for having me on. It was a blessing to do what I love to do. I just hope everyone stays safe and stays positive, and we’ll get through this together.