Members

Daniel Broxton (Director)

My first interview to introduce the members is the director of New Genesis, Daniel Broxton. While interviewing I asked him a little bit about himself and he responed, “I have been dancing all  my life and professionally for six years. I am the founder of New Genesis, a dance and creative company from Austin Texas. My main style of dance is hip hop and fusion. My goal is to help the Austin dance community, make ideas come to life, and make a positive change.” In the next series of questions I asked him what New Gensesis is all about as a whole for the Austin dance community.

The first question I asked,”What made you want to create this group?” To which he replied, “I wanted a group that was different than what was in Austin at the time. I wanted everyone to feel included and really work together to create something unique. New Genesis was a way for people to come together and connect rather than just dance together.” The next question was, “Why name the group ‘New Genesis’?” Daniel responed,”It stands for New Beginnings. This name came to me because I wanted to start fresh and everytime you start something new it has to begin somewhere. Whether it’s a new piece or a new adventure, it’s gotta start where. In order for change to happen, someone’s gotta start it.” This was a great reposonse to hear from him knowing this reflects everyone in the crew wanting to start somewhere in the dance community whether it be a dancer, teacher or performer.

Later I asked him, “What goal are you hoping to accomplish for the crew?” He stated,”The goal I am hoping to accomplish is an overall change. People seeing the messages we bring to light  and the positive outlook we have. To elevate ourselves and continue to grow overall as a group.” Which I believe he is wanting the crew build a connection with the people so they can know who we are and what we stand. The following question I asked was, “Are you looking to add new members in the near future?” His response, “We are looking for new members. Our audition process is very different than most auditions. We focus on little more on teamwork.” So if anyone is intrested don’t be afraid to try it and gain the experience.

As far as what New Gensesis can do about the Austin dance community I asked, “What do you want to offer in the Austin community?” Daniel responed, “More opportunity! I would like to create more ways for the community to grow and come together more. Whether it’s hosting a free event or providing more gigs for dancers in this community, that would be what I would want to offer.” For people to have those type of opportunities would surly be a good thing for the Austin community to take notice and allow other cities to come too. The last question of my interview with Daniel was, “Would you consider working other dance companies within the Austin community?” To which he responed, “Yes I would! We have before and it was a great experience. We would love to work with other companies. We are never about just us, but how we can work with others.” Overall, Daniel has a good mindset of what he wants to do with this crew and its future. I had the pleasure to learn from over the years and I am eager to show you more of what New Genesis will be doing soon.

McKenna Putnam

The next member of the New Genesis family is our most recent addition and her name is McKenna Putnam. She is currently an ABA therapist and dance teacher in Austin, Texas. She’s been dancing since she was six years old, but it was in high school when she joined the dance team and decided that was her passion. She always loved the feeling of being on a dance team and being surrounded by the people that love the same thing she do. New Genesis is happy to have a person like McKenna to be a part of this community to be able to have fond memories with the rest of members but to also learn and grow as a dancer from everyone in New Genesis.

That is one of the biggest reasons she wanted to join New Genesis is that had missed the feeling of community, that feeling of being a part of something. What she hopes to take away from being in New Genesis a new perspective. She wants grow and learn from others that inspire her to able to a better dancer and choreographer. From being in New Genesis, I asked her what she learned from being a part of this family and she replied, “I have learned how to really work as a team and how to support and build up one another.” Hopefully this will give a good impression for her to continue to grow with us and continue to expand to more opportunities for New Genesis.

I have learned how powerful it can be when you surround yourself with passionate and inspired people. Next I asked McKenna what are her favorite moments being a part of New Genesis. She stated, “My favorite moments from being in New Genesis are always when we perform live. We feed off of each other and you can just feel the energy!” She loves to be a part of a new project together because she gets full of excitement and that everyone always has so many ideas on how to make it the best that we can. She made one comment that I like from her is , “I’ve learned so much from being on New Genesis, and I continue to learn more with every practice.” And that is what New Genesis is all about to make everyone old or new members fell welcome and to be able to enjoy these opportunities to grow and create great memories with each other.

Camille Priour

Our next new member in the New Genesis family is Camille Priour and she from a small town in Texas, and I got the chance to interviewher and ask her something about herself. Which she responded, “I was a curiouskid and remember always being hungry for a variety of artistic outlets andcreative breaks from technical structure, which definitely showed in my dancejourney. My childhood also fed into that curiosity. My parents made theirliving running a children’s home/treatment center for abused and neglectedchildren, so I grew up with a bunch of foster brothers and sisters with deepstories. I’d say they have been the source of a large part of my inspiration tocreate. The children’s program had a rich focus on the arts, so as a teenI would teach an expressive dance class over the summer, drawing from my ownexperience of using dance to express my story and process emotional pain orjoy.” I found this interesting about her and her lifestyle of how she has this driveto break through her creative side and use that to make something good indance. As I continue asking about herself this interested me the most becausethe lifestyle change she did which she stated with, “I studied kinesiology andminored in dance at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, took an internship inSan Francisco and enjoyed the vibrant modern dance scene there, then headed toLA for the next three years to participate in the certificate program atMillennium Dance Complex, where I trained mostly in contemporary and hip-hop(and eventually found a calling in visual arts, but thats another story; Ispend a lot of time painting and sketching). I’d say the highlight of thatdance experience was a music video with one of my favorite music artists! Inthose total 7 years residing in California, I would often visit Austin and takedance, even took a dance history course at ACC one summer. l loved the familyfeel to Austin dance. In almost every class, people seemed pretty warm incomparison to other cities. I made some of my favorite memories here. EventuallyI found my way back after a pretty tough year, and currently reside in SouthAustin.” To live from California to Texas must been a huge change but I knowfrom what her goals there is no doubt she would make something of herself.

I asked her what made want to join New Genesis andbe part of this family. To which she said, “I found out about New Genesisactually last year, 1200 miles away in LA, because I was familiar with some ofthe members from classes and noticed the name start to emerge on their socialmedia platforms. I am a very concept driven person, so I loved the visualcontent they put out, and was drawn to get a gauge of they were all about. Fromwhat I had seen, the energy and purpose behind New Genesis seemed to be one ofpositive growth and compassion; their mission in their Instagram bio read thatthey are a group of leaders, creators, and artists creating moreopportunities for each other and the community. Yes, all for it! I hadbeen looking for people in Austin who cared about dance and I liked the group,so when I got a notice about an audition form Daniel (the founder), it wasjust that light at the end of the tunnel I think I needed to pep my step upagain.” I was really surprised by the statement about her hearing about us in LosAngles which we locally in Austin but it was a good thing to hearing that maybethere might be people in Los Angles or other cities that might know about ustoo. Continuing during myinterview with her I asked what she hope to see from New Genesis and what shehas learned so far being with the crew. She hoped, “mainly to enjoy like mindedindividuals and build relationships with fellow artists. I hope to improveperformance skills, to challenge myself to learn more about hip-hop and howit’s expressed here, and to fine tune areas in my dancing where there’s slack;to work hard but also enjoy the fruit and have fun with new friends! I’min awe and humbled how uniquely talented the other members of NG are, so lastlyI also hope to just create some cool/beautiful art!” And what she has learnedfrom New Genesis she stated, “I’m very new, but so far I’ve learned a fairamount about how the group cares for each other, handling minor issues andsupporting each other with compassion and honesty. I’ve learned differentstyles of choreography. I’ve learned about resources available to create,learn, and improve. Just from observing the different forms of leadershipand work ethic, I’m looking forward to learning more from everyone.” Hopefullyshe does learn a lot from us and be able to build a family bond with us tocreate great memories in the future.

Ashley Sikes

The next member to theNew Genesis family is Ashley Sikes and she is twenty-two years old that has been dancing forsixteen years, and it continues to be one of her biggest passions. She stated, “WhenI’m not dancing or spending time with my friends and family, I am teachingPre-K in Bastrop ISD. Dance has brought me so much happiness, so manyfriendships, and countless memories. I truly believe I will be dancing for therest of my life.” Which I believe that is amazing to see from her that she canbring all that joy and passion towards dance and the kids she teaches.

 I asked what made her want to be a part of New Genesis and what she hoping to learn from being in the crew. She explained, “I wanted to be a part of New Genesis because I love the feeling of being surrounded by wonderful people who share the same passion as you. I joined to create and build friendships with others on the team, to strengthen my dance ability, and to have fun doing what I love!” And that is what New Genesis is all about for not only bringing around people who you know from different backgrounds when it comes to dance. This brings to us to build a unit and later create it to a family in the crew. What she is also hoping to learn from New Genesis is to “take a lot of dance knowledge and skill from being in NG, but I also really want to always feel like New Genesis is a place I can call home, and call the members my dance family.”

When it comes to New Genesis I asked her what some of the things she has learned thus far are being a member for so long as she described, “I have learned so many things from New Genesis. Some are obvious, like: dance technique, showmanship, performance quality, etc. but I have also learned a lot about communication, leadership, and building relationships with others.” Thus is how well we all try to do so in a positive way in order for New Genesis to keep growing and driving for more success. And lastly I asked her what were her favorite moments of being a part of New Genesis. She said, “Some of my favorite moments thus far have been the times that my friends and I have bonded and grown together as people and dancers. The simple moments like laughing at an inside joke, dancing crazy, or sharing stories, are my favorite. I also had a really special moment while free-styling on stage this year while performing at RAW Austin. It gave me such a special and precious feeling pouring all of my emotions onto the stage. I’ll remember that moment forever.”