2 minute read
Dancing Forward
ARTS&LIFE DANCE
Dancing Forward Recent University of Michigan graduate uses dance to inspire social change.
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ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER
— JOHANNA KEPLER
PHOTOS BY MICKY WEST
Professional dancer and activist Johanna Kepler has made it her mission to use the creative arts as a tool to inspire social change.
The recent University of Michigan graduate who majored in dance with a minor in Latino studies has used her platform to spark discussions about racial injustice, immigration reform and most recently, the impact that the COVID19 pandemic has had on the performing arts community. Kepler, 23, who originally hails from Johanna Boston and is now based in New York City, Kepler has witnessed firsthand the devastation that the pandemic has had on artists, many of whom are without work or turning to virtual platforms to reach their audiences. She graduated in the class of 2020, so her dream of auditioning for Broadway and Off-Broadway shows is temporarily on hold.
Instead, Kepler, who has been dancing since age 6, has used her time to interview more than 200 performing artists, dancers, choreographers and directors from around the world about how the pandemic has personally impacted their lives and careers. Her hope is that creating a collective community focused on rebuilding the performing arts industry will generate awareness for the struggles artists have faced and steps they’re taking to move forward.
“It’s continuing to share the story of the artists, not just the art we make,” Kepler explains. About a week before she graduated from U-M, she wrote to the college inquiring about 12 potential grants to pay other recently graduated students who were also out of work due to the pandemic, and successfully received a few. These grants also helped her build “The Power of the Performing Arts: Uniting Artists While Apart” and the website platform needed to make the interview project a reality (thepoweroftheperformingarts.com). Kepler conducts interviews via Zoom. When she first started the platform, she was completing up to 10 interviews a day. While at the University of Michigan, she also founded Arts in Color, a student organization committed to diversity, equity and inclusion within the arts, an endeavor Kepler received the Martin Luther King Jr. Spirit Award for in 2019.
“Being an adopted Latina woman in the U.S., my own identity drives me forward,” says Kepler, who was adopted from Guatemala and grew up in a Jewish household.
