Caroline Calouche
Artist Statement
I believe that art can be entertaining, insightful and inspiring – all in one. While my main medium of expression is dance and circus arts, I do not limit myself to those forms of expression. Rather I find great value in integrating music, poetry, theater, technology and visual art into my work.
My brothers hated going to my ballets and dance concerts growing up to the point that they stopped. While I knew that dancing classical ballet and modern dance created a good foundation, I did not want to create dances that only a select few people could enjoy. From the generous coaching of my first dance teacher, Pat Wall, at Gaston Dance Theatre in Gastonia, North Carolina, I was taught to be open to any style of dance and art form. Furthermore, my father is Egyptian and mother white American. Since I was young, I was exposed to a different culture and found kinship in diverse circles. I believe these experiences have helped shape my value in a diverse community on and off the stage.
I strive to create performing art works that are personable for those who do not consider themselves avid theater attendees. The audience experience is of the upmost importance to me when creating work followed closely by the creative process with the artists.
The change I seek to make in this world is creating opportunities through my shows for people’s hearts to beat as one for a brief moment in time. This helps create common ground for us to stand on as empathetic human beings.
The Charlotte Cirque & Dance Center (CC&DC) is the school of Caroline Calouche & Co. At CC&DC, we offer classes after school for recreational to pre-professional students from ages 4 to adult in a variety of dance and circus arts disciplines such as contemporary dance, hip-hop, juggling, stilt walking, aerial silks, trapeze, acrobatics and jazz dance. We teach students not only about dance and circus arts, but also social-emotional learning (SEL) techniques to build compassionate and well-rounded people.
During school hours, we provide dance and circus arts residencies at schools or students are bused to CC&DC. We offer a Dance and Circus Throughout History in-school performance that gives a history of 8 dance and circus disciplines with accompanying demonstrations to create a multi-faceted educational experience. And the CC&Co. family-friendly shows like Clara’s Trip in our season have Educational Shows at the Booth Playhouse. With our focus on helping students interpret our performances, we provide educational materials in advance to their teachers to prepare their minds for the live thematic experience. All our educational programming aligns with the North Carolina State Standards of Education for Dance and Performing Arts.
Representation matters and so we value diversity not only in skin tone, but body size and age because the company wants to inspire people of any age and ability that they can accomplish incredible feats as part of a community. For every show, we create a Know Before You Go digital document that is emailed to all ticket buyers. We include historical information on the company, the show, the art forms and artists as well as parking, how to find the theater and what to expect when they attend one of our shows. Educating our ticket buyers on who we are and who they are investing in is important to us.
To continue to improve, we develop program evaluation criteria to assess the short- and long-term success of programs. Through surveys and observations, we make changes to improve our programming and processes to align with our mission, vision and accessibility goals. Our staff and artists participate in professional development trainings to improve their skills on a regular basis. Education for all ages is at the core of our mission.