Rodney Veal, a former dancer and Resident Choreographer with Gem City Ballet serves as adjunct faculty for both Stivers School of the Performing Arts and Sinclair Community College. He is a graduate of Eastern Michigan University with a B.S in Political Science and Visual Arts. He currently attends The Ohio State University where he is entering his third and final year as M.F.A. Candidate in Choreography. Rodney serves as the representative for the dance department on the Council of Graduate Students and was recently appointed to the Faculty/Student Senate representing the Fine Arts Graduate Students.

Rodney is the recipient of several MCACD grants and fellowships. Several of his works performed as a part of the Ohio Dance Festival. Rodney was one of twenty-six dancers chosen to participate in the William Forsythe workshop and Choreographic Objects Symposium conducted in collaboration with The Ohio State University Dance department and the Wexner Center for the Arts. Mr. Veal was recently appointed to the Board of Ohio Dance, a statewide advocacy and support organization for dance.

As a choreographer, Blue Sky became a golden opportunity to experiment and make my first moves toward independence as an art maker. As an independent choreographer there are very few opportunities for the level of experimentation in art making that Blue Sky provides. With resources being as limited as they are, choreographers have an even harder task finding other people who willingly want to become our “living“ canvases. It is incredibly easy if you belong to a company to set your works and not so easy if you are going it alone.

Because of my experience as a high school educator, I thought I would have easier time working with the youth participants. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I don’t think anything could have prepared me for what occurred over the summer. The youth participants changed me.

I had the pleasure of working with these incredible young people, some of the whom had dance experience and some who did not. What they all brought to the final project was level of commitment and passion to making art that completely caught me of guard. They showed me that my approach to my contemporary art making does not have to be an isolating experience. I have always known that art making is collaborative at many levels. This is nothing new for dancers, it's the only way we can work in our art form. Blue Sky challenged me to look at it differently. Collaboration as a challenging, intense and ultimately rich experience. The fact that in eight weeks we went from a sketchy outline of what would occur to an performance art installation with video projections, choreography and space filled with sod and pool of water, none of which would have been possible without the incredible input of the youth participants.

I had the immense joy of working with my fellow Blue Sky resident artists, all who encouraged me to work outside of my comfort zone. I got the amazing opportunity to work with Katherine Mann and explore a new way of creating and presenting work.

The idea of creating a “process as performance,” in which dancers become a massive, mobile canvas while paint is being thrown on them, is something that could have only come to fruition at Blue Sky. I worked with Lisa Nonken on a series of public art projects that was incredibly enjoyable.

Blue Sky became the catalyst for a new way of creating and presenting my work. It was an incredibly moving and exciting personal experience. Katherine and I are looking to expand upon the collaborative projects that we created at Blue Sky.

I am still sorting through the impact of the Blue Sky experience. I feel invigorated and emboldened to challenge myself as an art maker. “Collaboration” as a liberating action, what an incredible idea.