Art brings us hope. This week’s guest, Rain Ross, has embraced an artistic approach to life in every possible way. She uses dance as a way to create community connections. Rain helps people find themselves through movement as a dance professor at Stockton University. In 2011, she participated in the first annual International Dance Day Festival in Lebanon and then became the Guest Artist Coordinator for the festival, which ran for a decade until COVID-19 shut it down.

Her most recent work with the Lebanese dance community is a dance film that just finished the editing process. The film looks at the impact of the economic crisis, revolution, COVID-19, and the Beirut explosion on everyday people in Lebanon and asks the question, “What does home mean to us when it can no longer sustain us?”

For Rain, dance has always been a pathway to creating her dreams. She joins Alan and Heather to talk about her journey towards dance and hope as a way of life and how she has manifested her dreams, travel, and adventure.

Follow Rain on Instagram and on Twitter.

• Make sure to follow this podcast everywhere you find podcasts, leave a rating and a review, and slip into our DMs at @wasitchance.
• More about Heather via @heather_vickeryandco on Instagram and Threads, @Braveheather on TikTok, and listen to The Brave Files
• More about Alan via @theatre_podcast and listen to The Theatre Podcast with Alan Seales

EPISODE TAKEAWAYS

• What happens all over the world can and does create an impact on us.
• Art, like all creation and expression, heals.
• We have to fail in order to grow. If there is never failure, you’ll stay stuck and small.
• Failure shapes us.
• The mind-body connection is deeply related to movement.
• When you have a dream or desire, look for a way to create it but think outside the box.
• It’s wildly important to follow up. The follow-up is a key part of what takes something from “chance” to creation.
• Traveling is a conduit to growth, connection, greater understanding.
• Calculated risk must be vetted and have a backup, safety plan.
• Your path doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s. If you’re living authentically and vulnerably it will be completely unique.
• How can you utilize art to create a space where all people can experience it?
• If we don’t create art, what’s the point of anything?
• Movement is a way to connect with your mind, body, and spirit as well as your community.
• Peer-to-peer mentoring is incredibly important.
• Art is humanity