“Sometimes words just don’t do it. You’ve got to move it. You’ve got to dance it. I have to move it. I have to dance it. And it’s great when I get to move with other people, understanding that there is something that’s happening in a body-to-body transference.

So, when I’m teaching, I’m like, ‘I can give you these words, but you’re not learning from the words. You’re learning from my body. You’re learning from the energy that’s being conjured in me, the emotions, the dynamism, the expression from my body to your body.’

We know through mirror neurons, that we experience similar things. Like if you are sad and I’m seeing you having a sad feeling, the same neurons in my brain fire so that I experience sadness. It’s all the same thing. That body-to-body transference, that energetic resonance.

Often, we forget our bodies. People live in their heads. And because they live in their heads, they’re disconnected from the possibility of connecting for real. I can’t connect with you just through my brain. No, I’m looking at you. I’m seeing your body. I’m seeing the way that you’re sitting, the way that you’re holding yourself, the way that you move and the way that you vibe. That I love. I love to watch people move.

You can tell so much about a person by how they carry themselves, by how they walk, their rhythm, the cadence of their step, if their hips are moving, if their backs are stiff. If their backs are stiff, it’s like, ‘Oh, what are you holding onto? Are you allowing yourself to be vulnerable? Are you closing yourself off? Are you having an open heart? Are you being vulnerable?’ And knowing that, yes, that’s a risky place to be, but it’s still available where life is the richest in the vulnerability.

So many students, so many people think that they have to be what their parents want them to be, what society tells them to be and that they have to fit in. Then they get burnt out, they lose their joy for life, they lose their curiosity for life because they’re trying to be somebody else. And if you’re trying to be somebody else, then you’re not there. I’m like, ‘Just be you, boo. Whoever that is, be you because I want to see you. I’m not interested in you being me. Oh my god, if it was a whole bunch of me, that’d be pretty interesting, but I want to see you because that adds color to my life.’

I just want people to be themselves. That’s it. Just be you. That’s the gift. Being you is the gift. There is no one like you, there has never been anyone like you, and there will never be anyone like you.

You were not created it to fit in, you were made to stand out.”

— A. Raheim White, assistant professor, Department of Theater