As part of the APT Peer Conversation Project, Ryan G. Hinds meets with Julie Tomaino to discuss artistic visioning, pushing through, and change making in the performing arts. You can see all of the responses that have been released to date and read more about the ATP Peer Conversations Project here.
Ryan G. Hinds x Julie Tomaino
Director, Choreographer, and Former Performer Julie Tomaino and I have worked
together twice, both times with her as Choreographer and me as Actor. In our
conversations for Generator, we covered a lot of ground, named a lot of names, and
spoke openly about our successes and challenges.
On Having A Clear Artistic Vision
JT: “You have to ask for what you want. You can’t just sit around and expect that everyone’s gonna be like ‘Oh, Julie Tomaino you should do this’. It doesn’t work that way. There’s too many people in this industry, especially if you’re an emerging artist, not to be clear on your goals”
RGH: “I wish schools would be more honest and say ‘there’s no work out there and there’ll be a bunch of you going for a handful of jobs’. You have to know how to push for an opportunity you believe in, or know how to make your own opportunities.”
Photo of Ryan and Julie provided by the artists
On Pushing Through
JT: “I can hear ‘no’ a thousand times and still say ‘...but what about?’ I have so much persistence and resilience.”
RGH: “I find it really hard to let go of challenges and ‘No’. If something doesn’t happen, I’m going to keep trying and keep trying to make it happen in the way that I want it to.”
On How To Be A Change-Maker
JT “That’s how you incite change: playing the game until you’re in a position where you can make structural change. Every time I have a little ounce of power to make a tiny bit of change, I make little steps towards the industry being a bit better.”
RGH: “Big changes don’t happen overnight, but there’s more and more of them happening because more and more of us are getting into these positions that affect the decision-making. We’re not just artists anymore.”
