Meet Elliott Trahan

Today we’d like to introduce you to Elliott Trahan.

Elliott, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I am currently a professional dancer based out of Tucson, Arizona, where I will be completing my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance at the University of Arizona in May. Originally from Lafayette, Louisiana, I began my professional dance training once in the University of Arizona School of Dance, and have had several opportunities to travel and perform for the dance program. Besides performing in our seasons’ performances, like Arizona Jazz Dance Showcase, Premium Blend, and Spring Collection, in 2015, I traveled to New York City to perform José Limón’s “The Unsung” at the José Limón International Dance Festival alongside many other top dance programs in the country. I have also been given the opportunity to travel to Germany and Italy to assist and perform under Sam Watson, one of my jazz professors, at two dance festivals: one in Kiel, Germany and one in Bolzano, Italy. Most recently, I performed in DUMBO Dance Festival in Brooklyn, NY for Tammy Dyke-Compton, performing a solo she choreographed titled “If You Don’t Like Me Today, Come Back Tomorrow.” I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to learn more about dance inside the university setting while also traveling outside to learn more about dance by actively performing for and with the dance community.

I also began working under Shelly Hawkins with Hawkinsdance, a Tucson based contemporary dance company. As of September, I have performed smaller, pop-up dances at the Tucson Museum of Art and The Drawing Studio, both structured improvised works. Tucson Museum of Art’s “Biennial Bash” was where I had my first official performance in the company, performing a site-specific piece titled “The Well.” Most recently, I traveled to Tempe to debut a new work, “The Crystal Cave” at Breaking Ground Dance and Film Festival in January.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
In the language of dance, there are many forces that influence one’s work and the way that a dancer communicates to the outside or even to themselves. As a performer, I try to absorb as many different outlets of dance accessible to me, from commercial jazz to classical ballet to structured improvisation. Everyone has always said that the most successful dancer is a versatile one, one with many hats– the phrases probably go on for centuries. For me, I find a lot of my training in the art of dance is influenced by as many outlets as possible to compliment and contrast each other.

Dance has always been more of a selfish passion of mine. The decision to pursue dance professionally was one that I made myself and did so stubbornly. I decided to not let myself remain static in southern Louisiana, and I wanted to go out and push myself to find dance that I liked and let myself grow around it. I become obsessed with different dancers or choreographers and completely give in to my obsession and try to move how they move, let that information sit with me for a while, and then adapt it to my own personal style.

Though I am more of a dancer than a choreographer, I do push myself to choreograph about twice a year. It is not a strong point of mine, but one that I always enjoy and complete dive into with open-minded dancers willing to collaborate and produce beautiful work.

On social media, I primarily share smaller clips of myself improvising in my free time. I have found a lot of self-awareness in improv and found it to become a strength of mine. I use improv to warm myself up for a show, cool myself down after a four-hour rehearsal, or research new movement ideas that I’ve seen from various outside sources. I have found that sharing myself so openly has provided me with more confidence and less shame in what I’m doing. Plus, the great thing about social media is that they work as time capsules, so I can track my progress and growth over time and go back and see how much I have changed from as short as three months.

What do you know now that you wished you had learned earlier?
One lesson that I have learned is that when you’re lost, or you’ve lost something, you have the opportunity to find it (whatever “it” is) again or completely start from scratch. I recently had a stress fracture in my tibia and was out of dance for the first three months of 2018. Before this, I questioned my relationship with dance and with myself. Once I was able to walk again, and eventually dance, my body had changed drastically. I used that to reinvent myself as a dancer, and I am grateful for my forced break from dance. I may have lost three pivotal months of growth, but because of it I became inspired and driven in a different way than I had ever been before–and it is definitely benefiting me significantly.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
I post a lot of my dance related work on Instagram (@shmelliottt), including some sketches and artwork I produce in my free time. Any work I have choreographed or created is on Vimeo and YouTube under Elliott Trahan. Other than that, I am with the University of Arizona School of Dance until May and have a show “The People Electric” with Hawkinsdance in March, so look into their performances for the season to catch me on stage with both!

Contact Info:

• Website: vimeo.com/elliotttrahan
• Email: elliotttrahan@gmail.com
• Instagram: @shmelliottt

Image Credit:
Headshot image: Megan Garcia
Dance shots: James Jin (all four)

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