This is Main Street in downtown Evansville
If you're looking for a relaxed night out, this is the place for you. Main Street is a hub of eats and evening activities
Want some world cuisine and Korean barbecue? Main Street. Want to watch a Philharmonic symphony? Main Street.
Want to play pinball and lose because you don't understand the rules?
"You're a loser!"
"Haha, thanks"
Main Street.
Make an evening out of strolling downtown checking out the shops and petting a cat
Joining me this fine evening is my guest, Mrs. Heather Himes.
Heather is the artist-in-residence and instructor in movement and dance in the theater department
She recently graduated with her Masters of Fine Arts in dance from Washington University in St. Louis
and has performed at the Kennedy Center in New York City
She is also a resident choreographer at the Black Repertory Company in st. Louis and on top of all of that
She is the mother of two beautiful children. I guess you could say, she keeps busy
Hi, I'm Parker Dean. And this is faculty at places talking about things
"Hello"?
Is this Heather Himes?
"It is Heather Himes."
How are you?
"I'm wonderful. How are you, Parker?"
I'm doing just just fine. Would you like to take a stroll downtown, Heather?
"I would love to take a stroll downtown!"
All right, sounds good, we'll meet you right by the visitor center, alright?
"Alright, see you there."
See you there.
So I I have to tell you why I chose Main Street for you to do the interview
because I asked a couple students
I'm like so when I say the words Heather Himes what like what words come to mind
and "beautiful" kept coming up. And this, like I said
Main Street is one of the beautiful parts of the city.
This is very beautiful. And thank everybody who says I'm beautiful
We love you, Heather
I love y'all! I love this job!
So tell me about about where you are from your originally: your origins, Heather
My origins. okay
I am from East St. Louis, Illinois
a small little city on the other side of the Mississippi River
So East St Louis is in Illinois in St Louis is in Missouri
Okay, interesting.
very interesting
so I grew up basically it's a little kind of hood, ghetto town
I don't know how else to explain it, but I love it.
and what happened was there was a little dance studio there
Katherine Dunham just happened... this legendary person happened to settle in East Saint Louis
and decide that's where she wanted to live yeah so that was cool for me
that's all I got
Word on the street is that you had an amazing performance at the Kennedy Center
I did. Let me fix my bob really quickly...
Yeah, performing at the Kennedy Center... my mentor Dr. Glory Van Scott
released her memoir
For those that don't know, the Kennedy Center, it's a big organization
It's huge! It's in New York
It's huge it's huge. Like the presidential awards are like at the Kennedy Center.
Like, it's awesome
Dr. Glory was an original member of the Dunham Company
and she performed this number called "Spirituals" and she writes about it in her book
And she called me in to ask me to perform the number, when she talked about it.
So that was pretty cool.
How did that feel when you got the call for that?
That was pretty awesome - It was like surreal, actually.
I was like, "You want me to do what?!" She could call anybody
Look at you! you're living high
I am. I'm kind of famous
(laughter)
Oh my... woah
"that's creepy..."
(laughter)
So my mom tells this wonderful story that I don't remember that
I was two years old and I saw this TV show Fame and
I was glued to the TV and I was like I want to do that and ever since
She put me in dance, I never stopped. I just... it's the thing that most makes me feel
Like I can be my authentic self all the time. I can be who I absolutely am who I am
anytime I'm on the dancefloor
So, that's why I do it. It's the thing that makes me feel alive.
What styles are you favorite?
Dunham Technique is my absolute favorite. Dunham Technique is life.
Mrs. Dunham, she basically went to all -Caribbean, Africa, everywhere...
All of the Diaspora and put it all together with a little bit of ballet and a little bit of modern
And made her own technique from that
My second favorite, would be Acogny technique which is a contemporary West African danceform.
So what about African Dance technique - because sounds like it's a common thread with your favorite.
What about that do you enjoy?
I feel like that is the only dance technique where you can use your mind, body, and soul
You have to invest your whole spirit into the dance
You can't just be halfway - you can't dial it in. you can't be halfway there right now all it's all connected
There's a relationship with the dancer and the drummer
There's a relationship with the dancers around you and a lot of times in other dance techniques, it's just like you
and like, a record. And you're just like "I'm dancing..."
moving like a robot
Can't do that with African dance
CANNOT
impossible
Good game, good game
Growing up in Dunham technique
Mrs. Dunham used dance as a tool for social justice
And it was kind of like embedded in us that that's what it was used for
Like I really didn't know that it was used for anything else besides to create change. So that's what I do
I create work to help create social change. It's done for social justice
My latest work was about the Black Lives Matter movement.
Basically equated police brutality to lynchings
How do you take such a powerful message like that and translate it into a set routine of dance?
a performance... what do you do? how do you do that?
I'm really big into imagery
So I literally put a noose on stage and a woman in a police uniform and we danced with the noose
Imagery is very powerful
Imagery is very powerful and it's what I find to be the most effective way to get my point across to the audience
So that's what I use my work for. I love pretty dance. I'm not, like knocking pretty dance
I'm more about dance that is impactful to the world. Something that...
you can sit in on my show and you will walk out thinking about
What you just saw and what does that mean?
That's very powerful
I hope so. I hope it works
You have an excellent sense of humor
Oh I like to think so
(laughter)
We're shopping downtown
Dr. Rochon
Oh he looks great on this magazine cover
I am a YouTube sensation...
Cut to you dancing on YouTube
Yes, and I love Beyonce songs...
Where did you go to college at?
I went to Columbia College Chicago.
And I shot that in my house...
Me and my roommate, we got a--
--That was awesome-- Me and two other roommates just rented a house in Chicago for our...
as one does
yeah, we had to because the dorms were too expensive
and we had this awesome house in Logan Park -
Logan Square - that's what it was
it was huge. And all we did was make videos
have fun, is what it looked like
Now we're getting deep
We've gotten past the first layer now we're diving right in there
So are you usually are you ping ponging between
Evansville working at USI and going back for the Black Rep?
I work part-time at the Black Rep
It is one of the largest african-american
theatre companies in the country. Yes. So I choreograph there
I act there. I dance in shows. I pretty much work there.
How did you meet Ron? Your boo thang?
My boo thang?
Your husband
We met in a play. I was cast in a play and he was the director
We began dating in a play called Tell Me Something Good
It ran for like six months or something crazy like that
And over that period, we kind of fell in love
That's a beautiful story
I usually drop my kids off to school on Monday morning
and then I get on the road. Come to Evansville.
I teach, and then Thursday after my last class
I hop on the road and get home in time to put the kids to bed
and they get very excited
"they want to see their mama"
As they should, their mom is awesome
I mean, you got a whole department of kids to keep track of now
I wasn't aware that I gained like 30 children
Well, we can find you... because this is for the new students coming in.
They can find Heather Himes usually in the dance studio, 116 in the Arts Center.
Yes. I am always in 116
most of the time
Every moment is really valuable man. Take each opportunity
that is presented to you
full force
Yeah, appreciate.
College is a fleeting time.
I know it's stressful and it's all of that jazz, but it's the only time get this moment
So take advantage of that
Because you're gonna miss it when it's gone
I promise. No lie to you. I lie to you not
Boom, boom
1, 2, 3
I'm the only professor that dabs...
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