Natifah White

Please find the podcast transcription below if you need it.

Transcription

Hello, I hope that this message finds you well. 

So, my name is Natifah White and I would say that I am an individual who is currently going backwards to move forwards. Now the reason I say this is because I'm currently in a space where I'm figuring out what I want to do and I have found that I am doing a lot of backtracking in order to move forward instead of always going forward. So, I would say that I am trying to build a practice with this idea in mind and I would say that I am currently doing this from my hometown which is Nottingham.

So, in terms of my dance life so far, going backwards to move forwards, especially in my dance practice, I would say that where my dance journey began was definitely in Nottingham and it was actually thanks to a few individuals and groups that I came across, especially within the hip-hop umbrella. And I would say, obviously within the hip-hop community - it's extremely fast, there's so many styles that obviously fall under that term - so I'm going to use it loosely. But I definitely was introduced to styles like house for example, hip hop freestyle for example and choreography which were more kind of commercialised. So yeah, this is commercial dance you could say, I wouldn't say it's hip hop as such that's my opinion but yeah there was a lot of you know hip hop influences let's just say within the kind of things that I were was engaging in.

So yeah, I began working in improvisation and freestyle as well choreography and I would say a few people who helped me explore this realm include Gareth Woodward and Jasmine Echols and Rebecca Roberts and these three people for me were pivotal in my understanding of especially freestyle and improvisation because it really helped me to explore hip-hop in a new lens and as well as this Gareth and Jasmine were really helpful in providing young people with opportunities to choreograph or to yeah meet like-minded and current choreographers at the time. Of course, being in Nottingham there wasn't much opportunities in terms of dancing then but yeah. I feel like for me Gareth and Jasmine were really really helpful in that because they were able to bring people from London and Manchester to basically yeah share their knowledge with us and as well as Rebecca really bringing a really progressive style and also progressive approach to hip-hop. So, I feel like these three were really pivotal in my kinds of beginnings of my dancing practice and I would say working with Dance4 in the next few years after that just really furthered my interest within the dance community, which of course was now expanding and was moving obviously outside of East Midlands region.

And I feel that I really want to thank Dance4 for their support and their continued support because again they were also very invested in pushing young people to not follow one idea but also just to be open to many ideas and many approaches. And I feel like that also reflected in the CAT program because they brought so many different choreographers and practitioners and we went to see so many performances as well and yeah just many opportunities really to really understand that yeah this this dance thing it's pretty huge in terms of the branches and yeah I've definitely say yeah combining Dance4 and work I did with Rebecca, Gareth and Jess and I would say collectively really helped me. And I would say again thanks to Dance4 again, I was actually able to be introduced to obviously institutions now looking at dance in a wider context in an educational context and I guess through that I actually ended up attending London Contemporary Dance School and yeah I actually graduated last summer. 

So yeah, my journey has kind of gone in so many different directions so far already which is why I want to keep reiterating and going backwards to move forwards because I really had a lot of information, especially at the place, that really pushed a lot of my ideas, consolidated some and deconstructed a lot of other ideas I had around everything really. And I feel that, once you get to a place . . . such as. . .  or actually any kind of university institution, you are in a space where you're encouraged to yeah completely question what you know and I feel like yeah The Place really did that for me really pushed me to question what I know, to question my sources, to actually unlearn a lot of the things I have picked up and to just kind of yeah realise a lot of my habits.

So yeah, by the time I left Uni, I did have a bank of approaches and ways I could continue deconstructing everything I knew. Because I think that this is actually really important. It really helps you become more independent and it actually helps you to yeah basically control your own life. I mean it sounds super cheesy like ‘control your own life’ but no I feel like really you need to do this. I mean it's great! And I actually I just want to add with that since leaving University I mean I definitely was challenged in this area because I decided that I wanted to live abroad after finishing the University and I feel that you know you can say something and then you can do something completely different. And I definitely feel that when I moved abroad my idea of deconstructing everything you know and being independent was challenged and I emphasised challenged. But I feel like three things I want to share with you in relation to that experience with something that will like stick with me forever and that includes; fixation for me is inefficient. I mean of course it's great to have an idea of what you want to do but you know the way you get or how you get to that idea of course you know there's so many ways, so many branches, so many pathways that obviously occur and I feel like I had to keep open to just having no idea how I was gonna get to my idea or how I am going to get to some sort of target or aim in life. So I definitely feel like moving abroad definitely did that for me. And also just like in the mis-deconstructing your whole life the way dance organically crept back in for me into my own practice and just life was surprising and this was something that I think I missed. Especially going towards the end of my time university I definitely became complacent and I wasn't really you know motivated or stimulated by anything really. And so I was pleasantly surprised by being surprised or the feeling of being surprised. And yeah I also like that because you know within the idea fixating on an idea I was completely thrown off when actually dance, which is something I'd been doing for three years, well more than three years but I guess in an institution for three years came back. And was like ‘wow okay hello dance nice to meet you’ ‘haven't seen you in a while’ and so yeah this is what I mean by like going backwards to go forwards I just feel like I'm reconnecting with everything. 

And yeah I guess I feel that just yeah adding to that I feel definitely on the topic of like just not knowing I feel like when life puts you in very challenging situations of course again you never know when they're gonna happen. These situations are obviously here for a reason and they definitely help you. I mean of course we know that but one thing I definitely realised through that was how… if you put yourself in a situation and you don't like what's happening in that situation that is just as valuable as if you were in situation which you liked because actually what's happening is now you know ‘I don't want to do this’ or ‘I don’t like what this is what's happening here’. So it's actually completely redirected you into a place or a perspective that's obviously different but has cut off a whole section that now you don't have to worry about because you now know for sure that's not we want to do. I feel like yeah not liking what you thought you would like it's just as valuable as finding something you like. So yeah these are some things that definitely living abroad like came at me with like full force but definitely things I would definitely just keep with me.

And I guess and that kind of just leads me on to just my advice for graduates who are in this place right now. You know for some people going into work is what they want to do or not going into work is something they wanna do. I think everyone has their own ideas and their own yeah their own approaches and paths but for me I definitely want to reiterate and advocate for gap years just because I feel that some people think just you're lost or that it indicates someone doesn't know what they're doing but I definitely can say that you're actually doing something because you're giving yourself you know space; physically, mentally, geographically, spiritually all these. Because actually you are yeah you're figuring things out and of course that might work for someone who's in a job and that comes at a pace for them when they're doing something. But you know sometimes it's with someone else who actually just wants to travel for a bit. So I definitely would like to advocate for taking a break and if that is through a gap year or if that is to just doing something else (a job related or creatively or something you know whatever you want to do) I definitely advocate for that. And so I would definitely say, just to end this message for anyone who is in the position of graduating, I would say to remember that everything (absolutely everything) is subject to change. And as much as fixating is something that, of course can help you in terms of focus and help you to work towards something, just how that happens remains flexible, remains limitless and yeah that's everything I want to share with you today.

Good luck and I hope that this message helps someone.

Thank you!