Meet Coley Curry

Today we’d like to introduce you to Coley Curry.

Coley , can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I received my undergraduate degree in dance from Minnesota State University in 2008, however when I had initially enrolled in school I had the intention of getting my major in Mass Communications. At that point in my life I hadn’t really been dancing that long and it felt like something I was supposed to leave behind. My sophomore year of college I took a dance class that probably fulfilled some kind of required arts credits. Soon after taking that class I switched to my minor to dance and eventually changed majors. Dance wasn’t something that I had to leave behind, it became a lens for me to better understand how to interact with and live inside the world. My dance career has taken many different forms: company member, back up dancer, independent artist, teacher, facilitator, event coordinator and more recently filmmaker and storyteller.

Has it been a smooth road?
It’s all relative. Recently, I had the honor of giving one of the commencement speeches for an online graduation ceremony that was hosted by Pinayista for femme and non-binary Filipinx grads throughout the United States. Those of us giving speeches were invited to write a letter to our younger selves and share that with the graduates. I’ll share a portion of that letter here, because in terms of considering the contrast between a smooth road and the struggles I’ve encountered it seems related: “Because when I look back at my life, I see the ways our success’ and failures have folded into one another, how heartache and joy are actually really good friends and to love one is to love the other. So, all I can really say is: lean in to life. Find ways to embody liberation and live inside of moments that feel expansive and absolutely alive. Let that help you to co-create movements towards something better for all of us.”

Please tell us about your work.
I recently received my MFA in dance. So, I suppose I’m mostly known as a dancer and I’m currently working as an adjunct faculty member at a local community college within their dance program. However, my art takes on many different manifestations; I am a dancer, but I’m also a filmmaker, facilitator a storyteller and I enjoy exploring the multitude of ways that I’m able to express myself and invite other people to do the same.

Earlier this year I created a community event, Mix Mix Tayo, where I screened my first documentary, which was a half hour long film entitled, Carried Across the Water. The ideas behind these works were centered in storytelling, Filipino American identity and community. These works were imagined in response to a call that I felt from people actively searching for healing, community and ancestral knowledge.

What are your plans for the future? What are you looking forward to or planning for – any big changes?
As I’m exiting the academic bubble of graduate school, I feel the call to deepen my commitment to my communities.  Throughout my master’s program the signature at the bottom of all my outgoing emails read, “seeking equity, empowerment, justice, truth and love – one revolution at a time.”  My research around storytelling was part of the exploration for revolution.  Over the past few years, I sought out ways to tell stories.  I carry this work forward because in telling our stories we are creating pathways to remind us of how we can be in relationship with ourselves, each other, and the planet.

Toni Cade Bambara said, “The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.” I’m carrying these words with me, because, even though looking towards the future creates a lot of questions in this moment – these words help remind me that I have been putting in this work because it has helped give me a place to stand and allows me to create art and space so that others can do the same.

Contact Info:

• Website: cocurry.net
• Instagram: aynako.curry https://www.instagram.com/aynako.curry/

Image Credit:
Tim Madril, Coley Curry

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