Dancer's Interview - Bianca Stephanie Mendoza

When I was doing my semester in San Francisco, I had the chance to meet a girl that is practicing a lot of dance. Here is my interview.

Her profile :

Bianca Stephanie Mendoza, 24 years old, from the Bay Area, Redwood City.

1. Since how long are you doing dance?

I have been practicing dance since the age of three.

2. What is your course/experience?
My experience with dance has been a constant evolution. With each new style, with each new year, and with each new teacher there is a new experience. Dance never stays the same. I think once you feel, as a dancer, that you have hit a dance plateau it is time to step out of the picture and really ask yourself if you love dance anymore because there should be no such thing. There is too much to learn in the dance world to ever feel slumped. This has been my experience.

3. What style do you practice?

I practice a variety of styles of dance. I started off studying classical ballet and then emerged into the classical modern Graham style and from there took jazz and hip hop. My base is still Modern/ contemporary and ballet but I love hip hop, I am presently in a Samba dance company called Amor Do Samba, I take Bollywood when I can and I grew up dancing salsa, Bachata and Ballet Flocorico because I am Mexican and Guatemalan and I grew up around that Latin culture. So I guess you could say I practice what I can when I can.

4. Why did you choose to practice dance?

When I was three years old my Mother had put my two older sisters in a jazz class and when I saw them I begged my mom to put me in a dance class too. From that day on I never quit. It was a passion I was born with I guess, I don't really know. But I do know that right now I choose to practice dance because it makes me feel good. It makes me happy.

5. Does dance occupy a great part of your life or it’s just a random sport for you?

Dance is my life. It will never be a random hobby. It is my life. I will never stop and it will always be a top priority.

6. Does dance brings something in your life? If yes, what?

Yes, dance brings many things into my life. Where do I start? It brings happiness, sadness, frustration, security, confidence, stress, love, challenges, beauty, ugliness... all of the above. Like anything that a person has sacrificed everything for, it will bring ups and downs

7. For you, what is the image of the dance in the society? Do you like this image?

I do not like the image of dance in society. I believe that Dance is loved by everyone because it is something we are born with. As a toddler you naturally move to music as an instinct. No one has to teach a baby this. But that natural image of dance doesn't exist. Everything is so commercialized and politically smart artistic dance is nowhere to be found. When I say I am a dancer I am almost always asked if I watch So You Think You Can Dance. Everyone affiliates dance with these outrageous commercialized dance shows on TV and its frustrating. There is more to dance than popular music and flexible dance tricks but no one bothers to be educated on the subject. I would like to think that my audience is smart enough to figure out what I am dancing about without having to reduce myself to cheesy literal dance moves and a song that has literal lyrics.

8. Do you think the dance in general has in impact in the society?

I think art in general has an impact on society but yes dance does. Dance is everywhere, and I guess because I am a dancer it stands out to me more. Dance is the craziest art form I have ever seen and I can't believe I take part in it. It is art creation literally from the body. I mean that has an impact! I really do not know how much dance influences society but I do know a society without dance is lost. I mean take San Francisco Carnaval for example. At 4pm Amor Do Samba (the company I dance with) goes up on stage to perform for a decent crowd. There were a good amount of people. Not too crowded but not too empty either. By the end of our performance there were so many people that you couldn't see empty ground for a good 2 blocks down. That one small performance brought the SF society together. I mean, that is power! Dance is cultural, physical, emotional, internal, external. It and can be anything!

9. Do you think some types of dance are related to a culture?

I think all types of dance are related to culture. I do not think there is one style of dance out there that is not related to or influenced by a specific culture. Dance is culture.

My feeling/impression after the interview :

I was completly impressed by this girl.... so much talent, such an history and various type of dance. She had done so many type of dance and completly different !! Her culture bring her to a certain type of dance who is latin but she had made in the same time, classical and after hip hop. She is really a passioned of dance and with passion it seems you can do everything !

She made the point that a person who really love dance should never give up and it made me realized so much... When I was 10 I was really not flexible and not good at dancing, and my dance teacher was always telling me that I was not made to do dance but I never gave up. I met a teacher who trusted me and made me love dance and at this time I had the passion to continue and that's why I never gave up. Like she said, that's some meeting in life that made the futur. And now I realize that !

With this interview we can see that dance have a really big impact in the life of Bianca. It makes her growing up,discover different people and evolved in her life. Now she can say : "It is my life. I will never stop and it will always be a top priority."

Dance makes her feeling all the feeling, happyness but also sadness. It's very interesting to discover that dance not only bring happyness but also sad feelings.

She said so many important things about her image of dance. She think that dance is too much commercialized nowadays and I agree... the only image we can see is the image of dance at the TV so it passed by some Dance Shows etc. We don't see the true story about dancing, the real heart of dance.

I loved what she said : "I really do not know how much dance influences society but I do know a society without dance is lost" and her example shows exactly the power of dance, it brought the SF society together ! Now I'm sure dance really have an impact on the society !!

This interview was so inspiring. I can't say how much but she tought me so much about dance and it's impact on people. I saw that dance has an enourmous power on her and that's all I wanted to know. I think the fact she is implyed so much in dance is also due to her culture.

Thank you Bianca !!