Meet Aubre Hill: Dance Artist & Event Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Aubre Hill and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Aubre, Let’s talk about principles and values – what matters to you most?
Community is at the heart of everything I do as an artist, educator, and event producer. We are social creatures by design, and I have always been fascinated by connection, communication, and how we build relationships. What makes something profound or inspiring is often based in some aspect of seeing ourselves or being seen. And it is through that experience we can heal.

After so much political upheaval and global pandemic, we are in need of much healing, reconnecting, and rebuilding. Over the past few years, my core concept of community has expanded from simple social connections to nurturing opportunities to celebrate our strength as a community through our diversity. To find new ways for people of different backgrounds, experiences, and identities to share stories through art. This creates opportunities for us to build bridges of understanding outside of news coverage or our own cultural-socio-economic identities and develop the compassion we need to move forward together.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am a dance artist exploring the spaces of identity and our current world through transcultural movement and an advocate for Arabic dance and cultural arts. I am intrinsically a lover of cultural expression through movement and how we create bonds and connections by dancing together, unifying in rhythm and breath. My career has been a wild ride of performances, touring, teaching, film projects, research travels, experimentation, business creation, and guerilla style art making for a subculture of movers and shakers on the fringe. None of it was ease, but it has been deliciously fun and constantly humbling. There is no particular path for a dance artist. You are creating it as much as you are your art. And when you work in more fringe elements, there are less examples, less peers. So you find your way. I am deeply grateful that dance has been my career and also my grounding force. When in doubt, dance. It breathes new life and a new perspective into those hard days. That joy has to be shared, so you find new ways to build community and create opportunities nurturing dance art. I have produced huge theatre shows as well as small monthly showcases and I love them all. After a year of quarantine, I am super excited to be bringing my LA Haflas (a celebration of Middle Eastern Dance where dance artists get a chance to be inspired by a theme to create new work) BACK! I am teaming up with DanceGardenLA for four great performances this year where our dancers will be filmed and the show will be streamed live for the world to enjoy safely from their own homes! It’s a great combination of how we can use the technology that has saved us through the pandemic into a re-imagined future of accessibility.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Los Angeles is an amazing city for art, food, people, and inspiration everywhere. For friends visiting, I immediately look into what exhibits are up at LACMA, MOCA, the Norton Simon Museum, and the California African American Museum. We pick up lunch at Lemon Poppy Kitchen and head over to Ernest E. Debs park to hike up to the tranquil pond and enjoy vast view of the city. We will spend a day downtown at the fabric district and a short drive away Little Tokyo for all the little shops, eateries, and the Japanese American National Museum. If it’s summer, we will head over to the California Plaza for one of the amazing free Grand Performances and then grab late night dinner and cocktails in Chinatown. Hit Trails Cafe in the morning for great coffee and some phenomenal quiche or pie and hike Griffith Park to enjoy the iconic views, happy puppies, and a slice of LA. Head down hill and stop in at Skylight Books for those great independent book finds you won’t see elsewhere. We will peruse our new books over some french delicacies at Figaro Bistro while watching the world go by. Then head east to Atwater Village and wander the artisan shops along Glendale Blvd before heading over to Momed for a whole new take on elegant Mediterranean cuisine. Spend a day exploring Highland Park by walking along Figueroa Street, don’t miss the Historic Highland Park Bowl, and then pop over to York Blvd (highly recommend dinner and cocktails at Sonny’s Hideaway). Eat along the way. You cannot go wrong. Oo a day at the beach, drive a little north to enjoy Paradise Cove off the Pacific Coast Highway. There’s a fun cafe there too. Check out any of the amazing farmer’s markets around the city, but truly the Santa Monica market takes the cake. Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would like to send a shoutout to Kristina Nekiya of Fit&Bendy for being an awesome and dynamic leader of inclusive fitness.

Website: www.aubrehill.com

Instagram: aubrehill

Twitter: aubrehill

Facebook: aubrehill

Youtube: aubrehillproductions

Image Credits
Michelle Niellose Star Foreman Carrie Meyer Marcos Adrian