Meet Tracy Silver | Director, choreographer and Educator

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

Hi Tracy, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I pursued an artistic career to be able to communicate. As a child I had a lot of feelings about a lot of things and didn’t have the skills or outlet to articulate my feelings. My mother put me a Ballet class at the age of 3 and it was there I learned to funnel my feelings through my body. It was safe because it was silent and I didn’t have to confront anyone out loud. I worked out my emotions physically. My career as a professional dancer evolved into theater, tv and film and acting became a necessary part of my skills. At first it was very scary and vulnerable, but as I grew as and actor it became liberating. It was another level of communication and a new channel for emotion and cultivating a strong point of view under the auspices of ‘someone else’. I could hide behind the character!
Creating a dance, a character, or a theatrical narrative is the vehicle that supports my constant search to understand myself and the crazy world around us. The goal being to communicate it in a way that others might identify.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I began dancing at the age of three and started working professionally at the age of eighteen. My goal was to become a company dancer. I was at the Ailey school on full scholarship when I got my first job in a film. That changed my career. The commercial dance world opened me up to other interdisciplinary artforms. Those skills combined with my dance practice have helped me to maintain a full time career as an artist in many different roles. I work as an actor as well as a director/choreographer and an educator. I think what sets me apart from others is that I draw from all my disciplines all the time. If I am working on choreography or as a director for a dance concert I am looking for the narrative- the thread, and the emotional connection . I am not just interested in movement. I am interested in what makes the dancer move. I direct the dancer the same way I direct myself as an actor. If I am working with actors, I can help them uncover/reveal the character with pure physical movement, before they even utter a word. The different artforms all work in tandem for me. They are all in play, all the time. The foundation for me is not technique. It is personal connection. When I am working with ‘truth’ in a moment it not only explodes and liberates physicality for the dancer and emotional connection for the actor, it creates the focus and concentration required to create and maintain privacy leaving very little space for self consciousness. Having serious stage fright myself, I realized that it took that kind of connection to material to create the liberation I needed to be free as an artist and creator! This is what also allowed me to grow and overcome the challenges so baked into a professional career. As long as I’m laying some truth down, I knw I’ve done my job. What I am most proud of being able to continue this journey inclusive of all my practices with the same curiosity and appetite that I began with over forty years ago. Being able to share the information with young artists and supporting them in finding their own potential is also very important to me. Being good at something is not easy. It requires so much work. Love of an artform can easily turn into something else when it has to pay your bills or when your success in it becomes your identity. It took me a while to define my own version of success. That version had nothing to do with bookings, resume building or money earned. What I realized is that when I was truly in love with what I was doing, truly on the journey of excavating the truth and personal point of view, the universe moved very easily and brought me to the next step of the trajectory artistically as well as professionally. If I was so engrossed with what I was doing, I didn’t have time to worry if it was good enough or what people thought of it. When it became about ‘it’ and not about ‘me’, I was free from any result and the funny thing is; that is when I started to get results!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I love the beach! The ocean really puts things in perspective for me. I think it’s the vast space and constant movement that gets me. It quiets my mind! There is a stretch of beach that is way out on PCH. You can park on the side of the road and be 100 feet away from the water. It is usually very empty with maybe only a few residents and their dogs. There are some small little places to eat but nothing very fancy. It is quiet and once you sit on the sand the sounds of PCH disappear and all you can hear is the crashing of the waves and the many different birds that frequent the area. I am also crazy for El Matador Beach! Lastly, I am also a big fan of Chinatown! When I go there I feel as though I’ve left the country…even for a few hours.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d like to dedicate my ‘Shoutout’ to my students at AMDA who for the last 20 years have allowed me to teach them, share my point of view and who in return have supported me on my own journey. It is through them that I have had to grow and learn and it has been a pleasure to witness their bravery, curiosity, and passion! Their success ,whether big or small, gives me the greatest pleasure. We have all learned from each other and I am so proud and grateful for this special community and the ability to make art and grow together! I am very lucky.

Website: https://Motioncures.com

Image Credits
Top left- On Set- Fast Forward Second from left- AMDA 3rd from Left- Margie Koch -Madmen Top right and bottom left- Solo show – Motion Cures Second from left bottom- Kitty Duval – Time of Your Life Bottom rt- W Sidney P.