We had the good fortune of connecting with Camille Jones of (CA)^2 Dance Crew and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Camille Jones of (CA)^2 Dance Crew, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.

Risk-taking was the first ingredient in the establishment of (CA)^2 Dance Crew. (CA)^2 Dance Crew was founded from a collective decision to leap, head first, into a dance career that centered and empowered our voices as black women in the Hip Hop dance space.

As teammates and founders, Chenelle, Anaya, and I have always shared an innate passion for creativity, collaboration, and confidence-building. Dance was the vehicle for strengthening these traits and during a time in our lives when we realized that these qualities weren’t being fostered by those around us, we decided to nurture those strengths for ourselves. Therefore, (CA)^2 Dance Crew was born from a necessity to empower ourselves and, hopefully, others through dance.

The risk was stepping away from our comfort zone as members of a larger team. By facing adversity as young women of color in a male-dominated realm, we knew our best strategy was to bet on ourselves. To invest in ourselves by choosing the road less traveled and forging a path that would allow our wings to spread wider than we knew possible.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?

(CA)^2 (pronounced see-ay-squared) is a creative street dance troupe founded by black women driven to uplift latent passion within all people through dance. (CA)^2 is an acronym for confidently creating active achievers.

As teammates, Chenelle Jones, Anaya Ni’Kole, and I (Camille Jones), perform street dance, a fusion of authentic Hip Hop and contemporary original choreography/freestyle.

Over the years, we’ve been blessed to perform on major stages and platforms with amazing collaborators. Most recently, we were blessed to work as collaborators for Blink with WARMTH Culture which paved the way for both WARMTH and (CA)^2 to become grantees for the 2023 Black and Brown Artist grant presented by ArtsWave.

As we move into the new year, Chenelle, Anaya, and I of (CA)^2 are most excited to elevate our work as choreographers and performers to new heights in Cincinnati and beyond.

At our core, we always want to shine a light on the local talent in Cincinnati. As we continue our collaborative efforts with creatives in the city, we hope to nurture more investment in the artists making huge waves to positively advance the arts scene in Cincinnati.

Please find (CA)^2 Dance Crew on Instagram and Facebook.

IG: @ca2dancecrew

FB: CA2 https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=ca2

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

Cincinnati is buzzing with cool, eclectic, hideaways and spots. If a friend were visiting the city for the first time, we’d recommend visiting a free museum like the Cincinnati Art Museum or walking along the water at The Banks.

If a friend wanted to try something new, we’d recommend dropping in to an open mic at a cool bar like Nostalgia, Somerset, or Comfort Station where they’d meet AMAZING local artists that would love to connect over fashion, music or art.

In Cincinnati, if you run into artists of any kind, you are sure to learn quickly about all the cool events happening all over town like fashion shows, poetry slams, gallery openings, live music performances, sewing workshops, etc. That’s key! Connect with the people!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?

(CA)^2 Dance Crew would like to dedicate this Shoutout article to the most important women in our lives, our moms. Our moms and dance moms were so instrumental in empowering us as young women to see ourselves as change makers, leaders, and trailblazers. To our moms and dance moms, we say thank you!

Thank you to Elementz Hip Hop Cultural Art Center for providing the space for us to deepen our love for dance. We’d also like to shout out enterprising women in Cincinnati that have personally helped empower us through relationship-building during our time developing our craft at Elementz.

Thank you to Duwaup of Cincinnati Poetry Slam, DJ Apryl Reign and countless other women who have offered encouragement, laughter, and love. There are so many incredible women to name here, and we wish that we could name them all. Still, we hope that those that aren’t mentioned know how much we appreciate them.

Instagram: @ca2dancecrew

Facebook: CA2

Image Credits
Ja’Van C. (Photographer) (captured the photo of Camille in a ground pose and the photo of Anaya with the fish-eye lens wearing yellow) Monsta Audio and Video (MAAV) Pixxel Designs (CA)^2 Dance Crew (the photo with all three of us in light blue hoodies was taken by us)

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