Could Moving Back to Your Hometown Be Your Best Career Move?

After graduating from The Juilliard School and dancing for nearly a decade with choreographers like Lar Lubovitch and Aszure Barton, Banning Bouldin was ready to slow down and live near her family in Nashville.

“The more time I spent at home, the more I got to know the small, passionate, local dance community who were hungry for the information I had to share,” she says.

So, in 2013, she launched New Dialect, a nonprofit dance collective through which she presents collaborative, improvisational work ranging from dance theater to gallery installations.

Despite its success, she still feels the stigma of working in the South. “At times I find it frustrating that people look at where I’m based and make assumptions about the quality and relevance of my work,” she says. “There’s this belief that being based in New York or a similar dance metropolis means the work itself must be superior.”

Bouldin acknowledges that she misses frequently seeing live dance performances and the communities she found in larger arts cities. However, Nashville has allowed her work to develop away from the constant pressure and hustle.

“There’s more space and time to reflect, brainstorm with trusted colleagues, and try out new approaches for how dance companies can operate,” she says.

https://www.dancemagazine.com/dance-career-hometown/?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1

Banning Bouldin, artistic director of New Dialect