“All of our voices are valuable. That’s something I want to push in everything I do going forward so that the things I do don’t feel like work—they’re a passion and going toward something of value,”

Jamison Curcio ’19 will be a community-engagement summer intern for Jacob’s Pillow, a dance center, school, and performance space in Massachusetts. Coming into college, Curcio knew her identity was rooted in more than dance, which is why she created a program that incorporated her many interests. Her individualized interdisciplinary major is performance art for social justice, and her second major is in women, gender, and sexuality studies. “I think there’s something really beautiful about dance in that it’s not a one-track, single-narrative field,” Curcio says.

She hopes to use her knowledge and degree—products of her privilege—to set the stage for others, she says. Dance should be available for everyone as a performer and audience member, but it is often politically charged and European-centric, which makes it less accessible for minority groups and those of color, Curcio says. “All of our voices are valuable. That’s something I want to push in everything I do going forward so that the things I do don’t feel like work—they’re a passion and going toward something of value,” she says.

Curcio co-founded Goucher’s Dancers of Color Coalition, which has helped fuel her sense of responsibility to create spaces for the underprivileged and underrepresented. She hopes Goucher’s Africanist dance genre—a hybrid of many dance styles and a pushback against more traditional forms of dance—will make the stage in Kraushaar Auditorium and the Dance Program as a whole more diverse.

In addition to her social justice efforts, Curcio has danced with three companies while at Goucher, including Christopher K. Morgan & Artists in Washington, DC, this past spring. She knows herself as a dancer and will continue to perform after graduation, but only with choreographers who are working toward a similar dance narrative. 

Her advice for herself is the same for others: Appreciate the little things without losing focus of a bigger goal; use everyday experiences to build your career in dance; and be yourself, especially in a field as competitive as dance. “You have to handle whatever’s thrown at you,” she says, “and if you can’t, well, you’re a dancer—you can finesse anything,” she says.