Story & Lesson Highlights with Dana Sokolowski

Dana Sokolowski shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Dana, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What are you most proud of building — that nobody sees?
This year I had the goal of developing my acting training. In this season of my life, I’ve poured everything into my dance training, but being able to step into a new space, with different thinkers, engaging with new processes, has been extremely invigorating. I feel as though I’m learning and rediscovering ways of being in the world that are bringing me back to myself. Thanks to Malik Ali and Acts of Freedom, I feel confident I’m on a path that is aligning me with what’s next.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m an artistic mutt – I live between the page, the screen, the studio, and the stage. I produce TV during the day, dance at night, direct on the weekends, and write in the in-betweens. On a typical week you’ll find me wielding a camera, interviewing talent, rehearsing material, assembling crews, designing a pitch deck, crunching the numbers, or pulling together costumes and make-up looks. I have deep gratitude for my producing partner Picture Perfect Productions with Director Willie Giles, the dance company I train with Thee Haus of London led by Lyrik London, and the acting program I study in Acts of Freedom under Malik Ali.

Because I oscillate between mediums and processes, I’m always engaged in learning. The disciplines all inform each other, and I find the more I know about each role in the creation of a work, the more I can bring to the work and to collaboration. The unifying vision is to merge movement, story, picture, and sound to create surreal worlds that shake up tired structures and set us free. I’m deeply inspired by work like Sorry To Bother You and Mother! – and my creative perspective brings dance into that fold. My most recent dance film, Who Sits Beside Us in The Bath, has won awards in a series of film festivals and premieres internationally November 2025. I’m in post-production on a shorter dance film – a film adaptation of a staged duet I choreographed last year – that will release later this October.

New and treasured friends will soon find me in NYC! After 10 years in Atlanta, I’ll now be splitting my time between the cities. I love meeting other artists – if you’re in the area, please give me a shout! Would love to talk craft, see a show, put our heads together, and support each other.

Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What was your earliest memory of feeling powerful?
I was a really brave and bold kid – without a real understanding of earthly consequences. Falling enough times taught me that I can get hurt. But, in the beginning, I had a ruthless trust that I’d be caught if I jumped. I flung myself out of my crib before I could walk. I jumped in the lake before I knew how to swim. I crowd surfed off the stage to an audience of one. I think I can be a lot more brave and a lot more bold in my adult days, but I’d be being hard on myself if I said I don’t exercise this kind of power in my daily life. I’m not afraid to go all in. And creating anything requires you to throw some vast dream into the air and harness a storm to make it exist. But I can’t say that hasn’t come with some falls back down to earth.

What did suffering teach you that success never could?
How to hold paradoxes and move forward with hope anyway. I have life to live – and while I have pain, and anger, and confusion – I need to thrive. I have a hunger to thrive. It’s kind of like – I don’t like the hand I’m dealt, but I have to grab hold of it to stand up. Success could never teach you mindfulness, or empathy, or how to get up in the morning, or when to give it a rest. Success could never teach you how to endure.

I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. What truths are so foundational in your life that you rarely articulate them?
I’ve been clear about what I’ve wanted to do since I could walk: tell stories and perform. I know where I’m headed. I’ve seen it and it’s there for me. Even if it takes time. That’s why I feel so deeply every day, and get emotional about the work. I don’t cut corners – ever. Everything I do, I do with everything I have.

Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. When do you feel most at peace?
After much exertion, coming to rest. I can work for long intense intervals. But coming to rest in the morning, writing outside, or reading at night – I feel rejuvenated doing deep thinking in the quiet, when I become most aware of the breeze, the birds, and the flowers blooming, and my heart’s direction.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.danasoko.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dc_soko
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danasokolowski/

Image Credits
Lyrik London, Bubba Carr, Michael Kelley, Raymond Scott