Alexis Hawkins

Get to know Alexis

Why did you become a professional dancer?

I am obsessed with how dance and movement feel like a never-ending unfolding. Every day is a new experience learning and honing your craft, you never know what you’ll find because the possibilities for exploration are endless. I have enjoyed this loop of searching, unknotting, unveiling, and rewiring for years and it has led me to become a professional dancer. I am grateful for how my natural way of working is to process life through movement research. I feel most at home while I sift through movement explorations and elements as well as different artistic approaches and perspectives, to be an in tune and versatile artist. I dance because is so many ways nurturing my love for the art has become both my greatest responsibility and pleasure.

What is about NDT that inspires/challenges/deepens your artistry?

NDT provides a space where versatile and thoughtful artists convene, share, and develop with each other. I look forward to sharing the space with tenacious and passionate artists who possess rawness and vulnerability as well as incredible ability, which is inspiring and opens opportunities for everyone to be challenged. In this space of individuals dedicated to authenticity and growth, we explore every facet of who we are as artists and human beings.

How do you think art impacts your personal life, and the way you view the world?

I believe that art is essential for survival because it creates spaces where truths and stories can be shared and provides an opportunity for communities to come together. Being an artist is to be vulnerable, conversational, and open to many perspectives while still sharing our own. By staying in touch with our humanity and empathy, we constantly reevaluate how we are showing up each day to maintain a thoughtful and considerate presence. Over time, I have realized that my dancer self and my personal self are not separate, they continually inform one another. Movement is something I choose to share openly with the world, but there are also artistic parts of me that remain private, growing quietly in the deeper, more shadowed places. I once thought I had to keep them apart so I could have a life outside of dance, but my movement-centered way of understanding the world shapes my values, intuition, and sense of self. Likewise, who I am as a person influences how I show up in rehearsal, in performance, and in daily life for others and myself. It often feels like balancing scales, and I have come to embrace that.

What do you hope to bring to the audience as an artist?

I want people to see and feel that many things can be true at once. When watching artists onstage they will see a myriad of beautifully different dancers skillfully navigating each moment and each piece. I do not want to be perceived as just one thing when I move. I am a culmination of every version of myself I have ever been and the lessons from each of those versions are stored inside and present when I’m dancing. Every version of me has chosen movement because I feel too chaotic not to crave it and I need the release that movement provides; it is the artistic language I have chosen for myself. I hope audiences can feel the constant evolution and wildness of my love for dance.