A Journey of Focus, Excellence, and Mastery.
Three black concentric rings hover like Mama’s chandelier in the foyer; displaying soft light above an empty Joyce Theater stage turned midnight smoky ballroom. The beautiful Black and Brown artists flood the stage; situating themselves in a semicircle to a thunderous applause. They soak in their existence as they see each other, see themselves, smile, [...]
💥 I'm a home owner 🏠 All praise, glory, and honor to God. There’s no mistake— this is a miracle. There’s a list of miracles I could go through that led up to this moment, and I’m going through 30 of them because God deserves the utmost praise, and because y’know I just completed my [...]
Malcolm Gladwell says, “It takes 10,000 hours of intensive practice to achieve mastery of complex skills and materials.” What if, after all of that effort, the thing that you worked so hard for/on was taken away from you? What are you left with? Who are you without the activity, the ability, the gift you invested so deeply to develop. These questions are ones that have challenged me— and dancers I know— when we experience loss. My mind turmoils over understanding my body’s present state in relation to what it was and what I desire it to be. This blog post holds a story about how I first confronted these questions, and how they shaped me to be a friend for another dancing soul.
3/24/21 An event co-led by Jessica Nicoll and Quilan Cue Arnold I’m witnessing my Asian-American colleague jump, shake, convulse her body as Lizzo tells our community to “fuck it up” through her song, “Tempo.” Digital displays of bodies pop on my Zoom screen in response to the vibrations that are virally spreading through the virtual [...]
Featured Image: "The Shiva of the 5 Elements of Hip-hop" by O.T. Pasha aka PASHA I recently received some awesome questions from the BYU (Brigham-Young University) Hip-hop Club about the origins, dissemination, and current state of Hip-hop culture and Street/Club dances. I want to share it as I believe it can be a great resource [...]
Dear NYC Street/Club Dance Community, Peace and blessings to each of you. My name is Quilan Arnold, I go by Cue. I’m an Afro-Panamanian-American, an embodiment of black/brown culture, and a fourth year guest/ally in the NYC street/club dance scene. I’m writing this letter because I feel the need to re-introduce myself to the community. [...]
Donald Glover’s (aka Childish Gambino) “This is America” is one of the most genius works of contemporary art in the history of music videos. The piece’s balance between ambiguity, clarity and entertainment throughout its historic commentary on blackness in the United States is unrivaled. I have been seeing multiple responses to the video about how [...]
“I think that we, as the African-American men in hip-hop, have a greater responsibility because we have the ears of so many millions of our young people. And they listenin’.”- Steve Harvey I truly believe that hip-hop dance culture is at a critical juncture in this day in time. As Steve Harvey said, hip-hop has [...]
A couple weeks ago I traveled to Atlantic City to see an old friend, Tracey, perform in one of those celebrity impersonation concerts. I arrived late (fashionably, of course) to the performance venue, and received my ticket. As I entered into the auditorium packed with people, I was surrounded by the booming voice of my [...]
Negus- noun: Kingship, royalty. Inspired by the works of artists such as Kendrick Lamar and Kehinde Wiley, I wanted to explore different levels of identity and representation of the black male in the United States. "Negus" is a Hip-hop work that asks African-American males, where do we come from, who are we now, what values [...]
Quilan 'Cue' Arnold 