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creative communications
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A man with a plan, Wilbert Davis seeks to improve his community starting from the body up. His philosophy: DANCE YA HEART OUT.
PUBLISHED BY MG STUDIOS
THE VISION
CREATIVE COMMUNICATIONS Issue 01 | April 2020
OUR STAFF Photographer & Managing Editor
Dear Artists,
Megan Guzik
Editorial Staff Blake Phillips Josh Propst
Contributors Sarah Williams
LET'S COLLABORATE! Want to become a part of this growing publication and share your creative voice? We are now accepting inquiries from artists and art related companies to be a part of our Summer Catalog!
Welcome to our first issue of Creative Communications: an artistic publication in collaboration with local artists. Our hope for our readers is that with every turn of the page you gain inspiration towards your ambitions in your creative life! Dive into the deep world of 'The Arts' and get to know your local arts community!
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& Megan Guzik ff a t S e v i t a e r C
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It's a Dancer's World, It's Bigger Than Life
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Wilbert talks about what it's like to be a part of the dance world and how to make the most of following your passions.
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The Lonely Life of an Artist Sometimes prusuing your ambitions means learning to live with yourself.
All About Ellen (and Opportunity) Learn to take advantage of every opportunity that presents itself!
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The Five Year D(r)ive Ask yourself where you want to be in the next five years and plan for it! Wilbert shares his five year goals. 2
Wilbert Davis The Bio Wilbert Davis grew up in Aberdeen, Maryland with his mom and sister: to whom he attributes his dancing career. "She taught me the rhythm and then I developed the movement," he said, "she was always throwing me into dance battles on the streets, and that is where I started to gain my reputation and passion for dance." Starting at the age of five, Wilbert danced in the streets of Aberdeen with his friends and family. He accounts childhood memories of visiting his grandfather's house with the entire family; they would gather together and dance outside. Since those moments, his family has always been major supporters of his craft and has encouraged his pursuit of dancing. "I was always watching the people dance on TV, and I thought: hey, I could do that, so I started to develop my movement from watching others dance."
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Once Wilbert got to High School, his dancing started to gain him some recognition, but it wasn't until he was a bit older that he found his style. "I didn't realize my potential until I made my way to the Baltimore club scene where I started shaking off." * From the club scene, he developed his own dance crew: KOC (Kings of Club). His group traveled Maryland competing in dance competitions and shows, recording videos, and creating their own unique style, but this was not enough for the "king of the club". He later branched out to New Orleans, attending workshops with well known dance crews and taking his craft to the streets; performing in public places to gain visibility in a dance community that didn't know him yet. Through this experience, he gained skills in hip hop and improvisation which he uses heavily today in his technique.
*Shaking off, or "Rocking off" refers to a style of dance that is popular to the Baltimore scene for club dancing.
"It's about knowing your body and feeling the music. You listen to the rhythm, you build beats, and you catch them." Since Will's time in New Orleans, he has moved back to Lynchburg, Virginia to be alongside his mother and support his family. He currently owns his own dance company WPD3 [see on page 16] which produces dance videos and preforms locally along the east coast. Not only does Wilbert support his own dance business, but he is also employed at DanceLynchburg as a hip hop instructor and mentor for the dancers of the next generation. As Wilbert continues his passion he hopes to be able to branch out to other cities and inspire the younger generations as they tackle the dance world, step by step.
"Dance got me there, but MY dance got me THERE."
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"Dance has been my passion throughout all of the trials and tribulations of life. It's what I use to cope with when I am feeling away; mentally and physically." Through all of the hardships in Wilbert's life, he uses dance as a mechanism to cope and build relationships with others. "Dance is a feeling," he says, "I dance to make people feel, whether it be laughing, crying , or just surprising them!"
Wilbert is a firm believer that dancers are storytellers, creating imagery through movement instead of words. Whether it be something completely made up or a personal experience, dance gives storytelling a visual level that reading can't. When starting a piece, he sets a mood for himself and with that, promotes that mood onto his face and body. Working with Wilbert in the studio, I have noticed him going step by step to match his face to his movement and continuously assessing the quality in which he moves to create levels of intensity to match feelings of anger or adding softness to show off a more intimate side of himself. The movement that he creates becomes an extension of his internal being into space.
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"It's a dancer's world! It's bigger than life!" Dance is a unique mode of living, not taken on by the light hearted.
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"Once you start dance, you can't quit it! It becomes a part of you and moves and changes with you as you move and change through life. In order to become successful, one must live and breathe dance! It takes a lot of dedication and sacrifice: socially, mentally, and physically. " "It is a constant battle of you against yourself," Wilbert says, "you have to be in competition with yourself at all times [as well as with others]. Ask yourself 'how far can I go?' and then you have to reach BEYOND that!" In order to learn more about themselves, dancers have to have constant awareness of their bodies and how it moves in space. A great way to practice this and get a feel for personal movement is to make videos and watch them.
This is exactly how Wilbert develops the majority of his movements. He started making dance videos with his friends in Maryland on his phone and uploading them to YouTube. What started out as homemade dance videos with friends quickly turned into professional videos in collaboration with friend and cinematographer: Tevin James [owner of company Dreamshottz]. With this exposure to video marketing, Wilbert has been able to reach a wide range of audiences across the world and has gained relationships with others in collaboration. "You make stuff, you put it out and start getting hit up by collaborators and get introduced to the dance world [or whatever world you're trying to reach] and that's when you start working with other companies, teaching, performing, etc."
Follow Tevin on IG @dreamshottz
READY. SET. DANCE. Of course, when we're born we start developing our own personal movement naturally: a little wiggle here, maybe a spin and we fall down; either way you choose to move, dancing is an innate quality that everyone possesses. How you develop that movement depends on you! When you start dancing you're always watching at others, that's how you begin to learn more about yourself. Once we learn what type of movers we are and how we can manipulate the movement that we see others do then we can start to experiment and push the boundaries of the movement that we have learned. Wilbert uses this philosophy in his current dancing. "I didn't train myself to dance, I went to places to find knowledge about something that was already there; that I already had." "I want to continue the cycle of dancers learning from dancers, although, I have never been the teacher type."
"You have to be intuitive with your dancing if you want to get somewhere," says Wilbert. "Life is all about energy, so use it, and bring positive energy into your movement." Once you start to learn how to harness this energy, you then start to notice your potential. Encourage yourself and build your vocabulary of movement; because once you recognize your potential, then you experience your passion to its full capacity.
What advice do you have for people who want to start dancing? "Just keep going and never say that you can't. Don't lose your passion, because if you're gonna dance then you need to REALLY dance. Don't be afraid to take chances because chance is what its all about. You never know the outcome of it so go out and take chances regardless. You'll learn from them! Keep learning, keep positive people around you and motivate others and you'll end up motivating yourself. Another thing I would like to add is: DON'T COMPLAIN ABOUT STUFF YOU CAN CHANGE. It's common sense, but it’s just what people don't feel like doing because they don’t want to put in hard work and their faith or dedication into making something of themselves." 8
With TikTok becoming one of the biggest influencers for dance on social media. we start to see multiple trends for 15 second dances that get played over and over again. These dances are produced by a diverse group of people who all have one common goal: they just want to dance!
T I K
Watching these trends happen on social media platforms such as TikTok, there becomes a common vocabulary for popular movements. It has quickly become the new lingo for today's youth, gen z, and millennial generations.
Wilbert has taken these trends and implemented them into his dances along with using his own style. "It's important to keep up with the popular moves in the dance world, but you always want to make the movement yours; put your own spin on it and make it unique! This is the advice I give to dancers who are trying to 'make it'." 9
L E T S
T O K
Follow Wilbert on TIkTok @dubpd3
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"The artist life is a lonely life..."
THE LONELY LIFE "Dedicating yourself to your craft can be a lonely process. Artists tend to be lonely people, but you don’t want to be alone sometimes. You start to form relationships with other people, but you always have to put your passion first‌. and I think that is one of the biggest problems or issues with being a dancer and trying to pursue your passion."
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"I don’t have time to build a long lasting relationship, and often feel like I am putting my life on hold for my passion, but I’m starting to learn how to balance this." As he learns to balance out his personal life with his dance, Wilbert leads a very introverted life with a small group of companions by his side. He says that he always makes dance his main focus. Because of this, he can't worry about other people, and sometimes that includes himself. "You can never know what is going on in a person's mind, because you’re not that person. They are probably going through something bigger than what they tell you," says Wilbert. In order to get around these feelings of being unheard Wilbert tries to let people in through his dance. This idea of dancing out emotions stems from Wilbert's past. "I use dance to emote because I was taught not to hold it all in, so now I use dance to compensate for that." "I want to get people's minds off of the bad. I'm here to promote good energy." Wilbert's advice for keeping clear mental health is to surround yourself with positive people who are always willing to help and support you. Don't live a life filled with toxic people that just take from you; that's just going to hold you back. He also says that in order to live a happy life, you have to be content with what you
"I got a lot of dreams I want to accomplish and I won't let my life go to waste."
have, be positive and stay humble! Keep following those passions and never give up!
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If you start something someday, someone will discover you out of the blue! And that’s when you don’t stop. Dancing out your passions will land you a job when you least expect it and that’s what happened with the Ellen Show; getting out there and not giving up!
WILBERT DAVIS
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Back in 2019, WIlbert Davis entered a competition on EllenTube: Dare to Dance at Work. He never expected it, but he won! "My mom had called me at work telling me I was gonna be on Ellen and I said nah, I ain't doing anything like that, but sure enough they announced my name on the TV." Wilbert remembers working at the waffle house at the time and being called from the producers to plan a skype meeting in order to set everything up. "She flew me out to LA and I got to be on the show and dance with Twitch! I've never experienced anything like that before! My family and friends supported me when I went out and I really appreciated it. "
"Ellen Show was such a blessing."
"And that's how you know you have talent: you start with nothing and end up with something." What was one thing that you wanted to happen with the Ellen Show that you didn't get to do? "It was very straight forward: I interviewed, I flew over, did the show, and left. I wish I got to talk to Ellen and Twitch. It would’ve built my motivation more. She gave me the publicity and motivation to know that I could actually be somebody and get notcied! I want to thank her for that opportunity." 14
FIVE YEAR D(R)IVE "I got a lot in store for the next five years," says Wilbert, "personal and business, but mainly personal." In the coming years, Wilbert is looking to gain some independence. "I didn’t live my young adult life until my 30s. What most people accomplish in their 20s I’m doing right now and it’s hard, but I am pushing through it because I want to become independent and support my family. I had my first kid at 18 so it was always about supporting him and now I want to be able to support both him and myself."
"I feel like once I can gain independence, then I can truly be happy with myself." - Wilbert Davis When I am finally on my own and have some stability I really want to start to figure out the balance between my work life and my personal life. I want to settle down and I've been thinking about marriage and kids lately....I want that to become a possibility for me in the next few years. I want to help others and give back; not only work on myself. I want to support people who are struggling because I know how that is! I've lived it! When I become famous, one of the first things I am going to do is buy back my grandfather's house in Aberdeen and restore the place where everyone grew up. 15
"In terms of the future for the dance community, I wish to move on from Lynchburg, but I want to make sure that I make my mark before I leave. I am focusing on providing a positive place for kids and teaching the younger generations; make it worth something to them. " Wilbert hopes to create dance communities for all dancers in the local area that provide a positive source for their ambitions. He also wants to encourage local communities for kids to reach out to him in order to create a united front for youth programs in Lynchburg. Through this encouragement Wilbert wants to bring all opportunities that he can for every kid in the area that wants to have a chance to be heard through their creativity!
"I want to be an icon for Lynchburg." In the meantime, Wilbert has been working on new dance video content run through his company WPD3, that will be shown in a series:Â Arts that Rise: A Dancer's Story. This mini series gives an insider's view to the dance world and into the lives of multiple local choreographers and performers in the Lynchburg area. This series has been made to promote diversity in movement as well as provide motivation to other fellow dancers.
Check out Episode 1: https://www.facebook.com/wpd3dancefever/vid eos/358777445047999/ 16
ISSUE NO. 01 | APRIL 2020
CC
CREATIVE COMMUNICATIONS
Dance Meet Wilbert Davis Get to know the dance world
Artist Life Sacrifices you make as an artist How to stay positive
Setting Goals Reach to your full potential How to work towards your dream job