Meet Grayling Walker of Grayling in East Atlanta

Grayling, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I got started dancing at the young age of 8 years old. I definitely credit my family’s musical background as to what first initiated my interest in music. My grandfather was apart of a band and my mom would often bring me to his band’s shows and rehearsals as a kid. I was apart of my Church’s praise dance team, growing up we were always surrounded by music. Even trips to grandmother’s house would turn into house concerts. My brothers and I would take turns imitating the artist and performing in front of family. I played drums growing up and had admirations of being a musician and never considered a life as a dancer. I didn’t start seeking dance training until I was 13 years old. My parents brought me to audition for New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) where I was accepted but never attended for financial reasons. From then on, a lot what I learned as far as dancing was all self-taught. I didn’t have access to classes and would spend time dancing with friends at the park or at our houses. After graduating from college, I went back to NOCCA, this time to work as an entry-level Dance instructor. I auditioned and was selected to perform in what would be my first professional performance under the direction of Choreographer Kesha McKey. This experience led to me wanting to pursue dance more seriously. I finished college and moved to Florida where I started taking classes regularly at Spectrum Dance Factory. There, I met an instructor named Amari Marshall who was one of the first people that really inspired me to dance professionally. Not long after I moved to New York, from New York back to New Orleans, finally relocating to Atlanta where everything else became history.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It definitely has been a long time coming! Pursuing a career as a dancer/choreographer is definitely one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in life so far. A lot of it involves finding yourself first and then deciding your place in the dance world or what you’d like to accomplish from dancing. Whether you’re an underground performer or dancer in the commercial world, there are many obstacles involved that range from financial struggles all the way down to self-confidence. I feel like I had to confidently decide this is what I wanted to do and then build myself up to actually go out and do it. My experience pursuing dance in Atlanta has been a journey for sure. I’ve been everything from homeless to being robbed at gunpoint leaving class. I’ve never shared that with anyone publicly until now. I couldn’t keep a job that was flexible enough to support my dance schedule. I didn’t have money to travel to auditions or even take classes. I credit a few people at the studio I work at Dance411 for really helping me sustain life in Atlanta my first year here. I wanted to pack up and move every other day, haha. I got accepted into the Studio’s internship program where I started to learn more about the business and ultimately began building a family type support system. I joined a Dance company that taught me more about being a professional in the industry. Those decisions have been some of the best decisions I’ve made in a career so far. I’m not sure where I’d be today if it wasn’t for some of the mentors and friends that’s helped me in the past.

Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
I’m a dancer/choreographer in the Atlanta dance community. I train and work as a dancer as well as train and teach kids through adult dancers beginner through professional. I teach hip hop as my base style although I plan to expand in the future. As a teacher, I’m most proud of my teaching style and my ability to relate to others. I teach about the importance of intent while dancing and my biggest aim is getting dancers to realize their strengths ultimately building their self-confidence. I aim to build strong dancers both physically and mentally. Atlanta has a host of amazing teachers and I take a lot of pride and apart of this community. I think what sets me apart is my message. Every teacher has a different philosophy about dance and what they share through their teaching lessons. I teach more about real-life rather industry standards. I’ve learned more about dance through life experiences versus the time I’ve spent training at Dance studios. I’ve used those lessons through my experiences to help me through this journey, I think my students and any person that’s danced with me really appreciate that I challenge them to do the same.