Meet Chelsea Wood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chelsea Wood.

Chelsea, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
“You’re a dancer?? ..You don’t really look like one..” said a huge majority of everyone I ever encountered when I was a very impressionable teen and still as a grown-ass adult. They’re all wrong because as far as I can remember I am a dancer, who has been choreographing one-woman shows from the time I could stand. The thing you must know about my family is that we’re all artists and creatives. Our dinners always end with a full-on jam session, mom on the piano, dad and brother on guitar and me on drums.

For the longest time, I thought everyone’s family did that. Everyone could play a musical instrument and so could their parents and siblings. Of course, years later I find that this is absolutely not the norm and that I had quite a unique upbringing.

All of my early memories are associated with music. My mom never really let us watch too much TV or movies, instead, we danced around and listened to records and CDs. I know that’s why I stuck to dance class, after trying every sport imaginable. Something about being in a room where you can listen to music for a whole hour, and then perform for a captive audience on a giant stage had me hooked. It wasn’t until I reached the age of ten when I realized I was different, my body didn’t look like everyone else’s, but that never stopped me, dance made me so happy that no matter what anyone said, I persisted.

Dance became a way of life for me by the time I entered Middle school. Bullies were adamant to make me aware of how different I looked and dance was truly a place where I felt safe and I knew I had solid friends. By this time, I was on the Studio Competition Team, which meant more classes and even more opportunities to perform! I couldn’t wait to get out of school and go straight to dance. That eagerness continued all throughout high school, but the bullies got louder in my head and even the doctors said with the insane number of hours I was dancing, “she’s morbidly obese, you’ve got to do something about this,” and I actually started to doubt myself.

After graduation, I had an opportunity to study abroad in London and it was there, I finally silenced the voices and decided that I couldn’t do anything else, and to be completely honest, I had no backup plan. After I returned, I scheduled an audition with AMDA (The American Musical and Dramatic Academy), knowing very little about this college except that I could audition with a tap solo; I was sold! Rewind for just a sec, I forgot to tell you when I fell head over heels in love with tap.

I had taken tap all my life (since age three) but it wasn’t until I met Cindy Littlefield who introduced me to Laurie Johnson, who then introduced me to an entirely different type of TAP. I was always good at tap, I’ve just got good rhythm, but this style, this hoofing and a rhythmic tap was so foreign to me and so challenging that I had to work for it, and I loved it! Fast forward to me asking for Cindy’s help with my audition solo, the like most important solo of my life. She was so busy, I just decided to take the matter into my own hands and choreograph it myself, which at the time was unheard of; you always had a teacher give you material to audition with. That’s when I knew I loved to choreograph, and that’s when it really dawned on me that I could do it forever.

I was accepted into AMDA and without hesitation, I went. That was the best decision I had ever made. I felt like I really proved all my bullies wrong, and the doctors and anyone who literally looked at me sideways when I told them “I’m a dancer”. It was at AMDA that my head was finally clear and I was open and ready to learn about everything. I learned so much about myself, about the industry and about dance. After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance Theater, I felt compelled to share the knowledge, and I started teaching and choreographing, back at my old childhood studio.

Since 2015 I’ve been teaching and choreographing and raising young artists and it’s been so rewarding. I’ve been choreographing a lot for the competition circuit and by doing so I’m slowly but surely trying to put artistry back into dance, and its working! Now my latest adventure is judging dance competitions. I love giving feedback and it feels good being able to give constructive criticism, especially on Tap pieces! My next project is venturing out and choreographing and teaching wherever I can! I feel a big responsibility to spread the joy and love of dance to anyone and everybody who’s willing to embrace it!

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I’m a choreographer! I make stories with humans and music and sometimes no music.

As someone who grew up in a studio and had grown up in a competition world with tricks and techniques and more tricks, I decided that I would focus on the one thing that people forget about: body language. Body language and imagery is so important, and much more powerful than we remember. In a society obsessed with words, typed out words, comments, text messages, phone calls, listening to podcasts, we often forget to look up and be observant. Actions truly speak louder than words and nothing is more satisfying than creating a piece to an instrumental song (or any song really) and having the audience actually pay attention.

It’s even better when they come up to me after and ask “what was that about?” One thing you should know about my work is that I won’t create unless the song or idea gives me goosebumps. I will also have songs and ideas stored away for years until I believe it’s the right time with the right dancers. My whole goal is to make people look up. I like to evoke emotions whether they be happy, sad, a “WTF?!” or give them goosebumps. Storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to get a message across. Attach an image to that with a song and you’ve got something that will resonate forever.

What do you think it takes to be successful as an artist?
With today’s climate, I think art and artists are needed now more than ever. We have a unique job in the world and a lot of power, too. We can bring awareness to what’s going on; we can also bring joy and light to help ease the darkness that surrounds the news media. I try to bring the joy and light, If I can make someone forget about all the negativity and bullshit that’s happening, then my job is done!

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
As always, dance is best consumed live and, in the flesh, BUT since my pieces only go up live semiannually the best place is to visit my Instagram, or my YouTube channel or even Facebook! I post videos as often as I can!

Contact Info:

• Email: chelseataps@gmail.com
• Instagram: instagram/ay_yo_red

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