Folks tend to associate it with New York City’s clubs, but it’s been around as long as they’ve been around in the US: there are a lot of people who think it’s about the crowd dancing. It’s more of a live performance than you are seeing in a club. For a long time, I thought that “Modern Dance” was simply about having fun. It’s an all-out performance of music and dance that is part of the culture.
But then the last couple of years things started to happen to me. So the term “modern dance” that I was using is now being replaced by the term “dance music.” If you look at where the music is headed in the US, it’s heading toward a lot of different audiences. I saw the term “modern dance” become synonymous with the idea of pop-culture-infused music, and I think that’s the thing it needs right now: people are so attached to it, and they can’t shake this thing that they just can’t shake anymore.
I’m the kind of person who thinks it takes a while before you think about the way things happened a long time ago when there was something to feel good about. It’s a process. But we have a lot of time to change it. If you ask me what I want to hear when I sing on stage, I’m more or less satisfied with what I’m hearing that night, but sometimes there’s something new to hear. And I think that the people who are on the stage with me — that, to me, is what is really exciting.
Do you see dance music as a genre?
It’s more of a mindset, it’s less about genres. It’s more about the way our brains process music, and trying to recreate that when the world’s at your feet and people are yelling stuff. If you watch a show like Saturday Night Live, you see a lot of people dancing. It doesn’t mean that there’s a genre out there. It’s about what we’re feeling and what we are thinking and what motivates us. When we get together and we watch some music and it gets exciting, it’s usually from a place of, “Oh this is so exciting,” and that makes me want to do more.
Are you working with the big festivals?
It’s hard to say. I’m interested and I’m happy to take it all on the road with me, but right now, as
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