Today we’d like to introduce you to Dana Sokolowski.
Hi Dana, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
When I was a child, I wanted to be an author and a Spice Girl (still true). I made up stories before I knew how to read. I cartwheeled everywhere I went. I launched myself off of stages. My world was both a fantasy and an amphitheater.
Growing up my writing and dance worlds were separate parallel universes. I fell for film in college and it opened a portal. It made sense to me to merge my passions in narrative, music, movement, and design. After I graduated, I was fortunate to build my skill set in producing, editing, and audio engineering films for global Fortune 500 companies at BCG/BrightHouse, and brought those skills to collaborations with fellow dancers for short dance films. While there, a documentary I produced and edited about Needlz, a Grammy award-winning music producer (Bruno Mars, Cardi B), helped start a local movement for social change in African American communities impacted by Autism.
On nights and weekends I trained rigorously across dance styles in Atlanta studios and with companies past and present, from Dance411 to Xcel Studios and Kiki Ely and Sakinah LeStage’s ATLA Connect and Anthony Burrell’s Company A. Ensemble pieces I choreographed toured with RAW Artists in Atlanta and Charlotte, NC.
For the past few years, I’ve launched fully into freelancing to catapult my creative leadership skills as a director and connect with my community. I’ve been grateful to support the launch of non-profits with films that brought in $2 million. As of May 2022, I directed my most ambitious narrative dance film to date in partnership with Dance Canvas, titled “Who Sits Beside Us in The Bath”. The film is a surreal bedtime story about trust, safety, and protection after the death of a parent. Thanks to my partner Khadijah Sayyid, we held a premiere at our partner studio Ambient Plus Studio on May 13th. I’m excited to submit this work to festivals and hopefully share it with more audiences.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Right around the time that I was presenting stage work with RAW and finishing up the documentary, my mom died very suddenly. It completely shifted my life. That’s when I left the safety of my corporate job to dive headfirst into aligning my creative talents. COVID-19 hit shortly after. I am very supported and grateful, but these past few years certainly haven’t looked anything like I would have imagined. Without the hearts of so many people I’ve known throughout my life, I would not be where I am today. It’s with their support that I was able to make my most recent film to process my grief. Being an independent artist is a very strange path and I’ve had to confront a lot of my fundamental beliefs and unlearn what doesn’t serve me daily. But I feel navigating this journey is essential to become the person I aspire to be.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My purpose is to create safety and belonging in dream worlds. My commitment to play is driven by my desire for connection and belonging among strangers. I now seek engagement and creativity with others as a lifeline to designing a more free and just world. I trust that people have a desire to share themselves, be heard and seen, to play and be celebrated—and I encourage that. Every individual can find the freedom to express themselves and empowerment in identity and community.
As a writer, choreographer, and filmmaker, I subvert expectations and reinvent tired structures. I strive to bring people together, to tears, and to their feet. I am playful, surreal, graceful, and raw, and the work I seek to create embodies these characteristics. Some of my creative heroes are Aronofsky, Boots Riley, Melina Matsoukas, and Tim Burton.
My goal is to merge the innovation, movement, and physicality of dance film with surrealist narrative work that defies genre to bring dance as a language to the commercial screen. To me, dance translates between cultures and beyond words, and film is the perfect vehicle to show each other the strength of our dreams. I aim to create short films and music videos to hone my craft as I build towards writing and directing a feature-length work.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Build relationships early and often and don’t shut yourself away (for long). I love written correspondence and making authentic connections with anyone I meet. And I’m not saying this as a way for you to “network” I’m saying this because people matter first and foremost. That’s why we should want to work in the first place, to impact people and make their lives better. Get to know what other people are doing and support them. Show up. The fact of the matter is doing anything on your own is hard. Having a community makes it worthwhile, and it’s why we’re here.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.danasoko.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dc_soko/
- Other: https://vimeo.com/danasoko
Image Credits
Alec Robertson; David Bunzey; Crystal Alexis Photography
