1. Tell us a little bit about your dance background.

I began my training in public schools in Los Angeles, before attending the Lula Washington Dance Theatre School – training in Modern, Jazz, Ballet, Hip Hop, West African, Tap and Tumbling in a non-hierarchical fashion. Continuing on to the Ailey School, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and graduating Idyllwild Arts Academy. My concert dance performance credits include Lula Washington Dance Theatre, David Rousseve/REALITY, Doug Elkins Dance Company, Jazz Antiqua Dance and Music Ensemble, and founding member of TU Dance. Other stage credits include “Letter to a Man” with Mikhail Baryshnikov, “Treemonisha” (choreographer and performer), Los Angeles Opera’s “Aida,” titular role in Nike’s “12 Miles North: The Nick Gabaldon Story,” and the Kennedy Center’s Masters of African American Choreography, as répétiteur and performer.

2. What can audiences look forward to seeing in your work at PUSHfest?

The audiences at PUSHfest can looking forward to meditative work following the winding paths of two travelers seeking liberation in a foreign land.

3. What are the major sources of inspiration for your choreography? What are you curious about?

This work is concerned with the tenacity and dedication of the patterns of migration for people leaving their homelands to cross invisible borders.

4. If you hadn’t chosen this career, what might you have been doing in your life?

Interestingly, I wanted to be a history teacher. As a choreographer, an educator and embodied storyteller, I believe I am a type of teacher of history. It’s woven into my work.

5. What does your work respond to or activate, within this world or within yourself?

My work, at large, is inspired by the inevitable liberation of all people, and will be part of the recording of the stories of our communities until that moment occurs.

6. What advice would you pass on to an aspiring choreographer?

Stay in the practice of the craft. Your unique voice cannot be replicated.

TIX: https://pushdance.org/festival

DISCOUNT: Support Bernards’s performance by buy $20 tickets to PUSHfest with the discount code: PUSHBERNARD

MORE: https://www.pushdance.org/bernard25

FULL INTERVIEW: https://www.pushdance.org/conversationbernard