Jose's History

I am Jose Angel Luis. I was born in Veracruz, Mexico in 1990 and four years later I moved to Racine, Wisconsin. When I was five years old I went back to Mexico for an extended period of time and as a result did not finish kindergarten. Then I came back entering first grade and taking bilingual classes all five years and ESL until third grade. In my elementary years I was put in small dance performances, one of which I remember being a flower. I can’t say much else of it, except I was a yellow flower. Throughout the end of my elementary years I would devotedly watch S Club 7, a British pop group that had their own television series. Not only did it help me learn English quicker, but that is when I started to learn choreography and create my own when they didn’t have a dance for a song I liked. Ironically, I would hate performing anything live.

In middle school I refused to go to school dances, and refused to go on stage in my drama class. Middle school was a huge transitional moment for me, because although some of my bilingual classmates from elementary school still stayed in those classes until late middle school, I was able to progress into regular classes; as a result, losing part of the group of people I came from. High school then came, and it wasn’t until my sophomore year that I decided I wanted to pursue dance.

It was through my involvement in theater that I was introduced to improv. My teacher, Nancy Gibson was in contact with Josie Henningfield and Sofi Askenazi and brought them to do small dance workshops with us. Although that sparked my interest in movement, it wasn’t until witnessing Alvin Ailey’s “Revelation” in Chicago that I knew I wanted to be a dancer. It is least to say that improv and contact improv highly influence who I am as a mover, with of course, some theatrical influences. As I finished high school and remained in the theater program, I got more involved in choreography and eventually ended choreographing a self-written musical my senior year.

I set high goals for myself, but really I just look at these goals as daily responsibilities. I have to do the work to get something out of it, and if it is something I am really curious about I devote myself completely. If there is one trait that I would admire and hate about me is that I am a pusher, meaning that I keep going until I burn out. It pays off, but it is quite evident among my peers and mentors. Yet, this is something that I value about dancers; we are always working and learning more about our craft.