Today we’d like to introduce you to Temria Airmet
Hi Temria, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Well, I started dancing when I was little. I was a typical studio rat competition kid doing all styles of dance and I couldn’t get enough of it. I started taking it more seriously in high school when my teachers helped me realize that it could be a career path so I auditioned for college dance programs. Right after high school I went on to study dance at the University of Utah where I received by BFA in Modern Dance. After graduating I spent the next decade working as a freelance dancer, teacher, and choreographer in Salt Lake City. This is where I made a lot of mistakes and successes as an artist. I was able to work for a few underground dance companies, s/o Transfusion Hype, and teach with Millennium Dance Complex as they started their chapter out there. I also found a home with Ballet West and learned the impact dance can have on humanity because I was working and teaching with their out reach programs. I was a Co-creator and Artistic Director of Myriad Dance Company which was a beautiful success and still thriving under the direction of the incredible, Kendall Fischer. Basically, I fell in love with the dance community on a local scale and felt in a non-pretentious way that I had out grown my beloved city and needed to move on to the next chapter. I decided to audition for graduate school in Los Angeles. In 2017 I moved out here to attend Cal State Long Beach where I received my Masters in Dance. Upon graduation I’ve been teaching in higher education with Valley College and Santa Ana College. I’m just recently beginning to start choreographing in the company setting again within the hands of my project based dance company, Temria Dance Haus, which is really exciting because I think it took a lot of growth, study and years to get to this point in my dance practice.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I think the biggest struggle as a dancer is knowing your worth and not being afraid to demand your worth. I’ve battled this in myself and I see this across the board in the dance community. Dancers are the most passionate artists! It’s a beautiful thing. We will do anything for the opportunity to dance because we love it. But the issue with that mindset is that passion doesn’t pay rent if you’re willing to do a job for free. Many people in all facets of the industry take advantage of dancer’s passion and don’t pay or pay way less than the work entails. It’s only been in the past couple years that we are starting to see a collective shift with this mindset and changes being made from organizations like Dancer’s Alliance and definitely from messaging around the SAG strike last year. But still, dancers are often last on the ladder and it was early in my career that I noticed that and wasn’t having it. I knew that in order to survive with dance being my paycheck I would have to set clear guidelines and stick to them. There have been plenty of gigs and jobs that sounded so fun and that I really wanted to be involved with but I turned down because there was “no pay”, or it was “great exposure” or the pay didn’t meet my personal expectation. That is the biggest and constant struggle in the dance world, and I think collectively if dancers would stop working for free it would benefit all of us.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Currently I am most known for being an educator and a choreographer. I teach a range of dance styles; ballet, modern, contemporary, jazz, dance history, and hip-hop. I currently teach in higher education, private studios, and occasionally an open class setting. Growing up I had some amazing teachers and I had some who really caused that classic dance trauma that I wish didn’t exist in the dance world. I wanted to be the type of teacher to make a positive impact. I see the power dance and dance teachers have. Dance has the ability to give you confidence, strength, resilience, and to build your creativity and artistry to face the ugliness of the world with the tools to turn it into something beautiful. I love teaching because I want to help give students those capabilities. I fully believe that everyone deserves to have trust in themselves and rise to their own power and have the faith to accomplish all their wildest dreams and goals and I love that I have that platform as a dance teacher. Being in the studio, is my lab, I am able to choreograph daily. This is a gift and a blessing I am forever grateful for. Choreography for me is how I communicate to the world. Most of my work tends to be political in nature, I’m forever an activist. I love to take on complex topics, or complex questions, and use the creative process to dissect answers or solutions in some way. I believe art can save the world. My latest work, “Not your Soul”, is being presented at Santa Ana College as a part of their Fall Dance Concert November 21st-23rd at 7pm. Tickets can be found at Sac.edu/dance This particular work deals with my ongoing struggle of depression and the hopeful realization and perspective shift that the same world that brings us down has the ability to lift us up.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
Too many! I need more hours in the day, I’m a forever learner and I love that we live in a space of time where we have so much knowledge right in our pocket! First, I am obsessed with the NY Times games, I’m such a nerd for the daily crossword and wordle and I’m fully convinced that brain games make you smarter. I also love the Journal app by Intelligent Change, I use it morning and night. I listen to so many political podcasts currently and cannot wait for this election to be over to give my mind a break! Anything by Crooked Media has my vote. But of course I’m going to take this opportunity to rep some fellow dancer’s podcasts, Jason Pickett is doing great things with “No Starving Artists” and J. Bouey’s “The Dance Union”, another mover and shaker doing their thing. For books, I am always reading multiple books at once (ADHD). So right now I am listening to Ta-Nehisi Coates’ latest “The Message” on audible, and reading Steven Pressfield’s “The War of Art”, and Roxie Nafousi’s follow-up, “Manifest in Action” and I would highly recommend all of them!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.temriadancehaus.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/temriaairmet
Image Credits
Courtesy of Temria Dance Haus.
