Kansas City Ballet’s artistic director Devon Carney praises the “incredible intensity and fantastic, grounded quality” of Caroline Dahm’s work, as seen in this shot of Dahm performing. (photo by David Pugh )
Long in demand as a talented dancer, Caroline Dahm gains success as a choreographer
Caroline Dahm has been a fixture of Kansas City’s dance scene for more than a decade, but her launch into choreography is more recent … and gaining national attention.
In May, Dahm created a work for the Kansas City Ballet, the first time a local choreographer was commissioned for a mainstage show by the company, setting her work up among established contemporary creators.
But her budding career as a choreographer was not her intended route when she arrived at UMKC Conservatory in 2011.
“I never thought I would be a choreographer ever in my freaking life. I didn’t even dabble in it,” said Dahm. “I love being a vessel in other people’s work. I love being in processes and learning new voices and being a part of that.”
Dahm is originally from San Bernardino Valley in California and still considers herself a “Valley Girl.” As a young child she was severely pigeon-toed, and doctors suggested ballet or soccer to fix the issue. Her mother had danced in her youth, so dance it was.
“I felt very behind because of how hard it was for me to accentuate this turned-out position, but I was really into the challenge of it. And then, it started to become more of a passion as I grew up,” she said. In addition to training in classical ballet, she learned modern dance and flamenco, in honor of her Chilean grandfather.
“I guess I never really knew where it was going to take me,” said Dahm. “I trust my gut a lot and I just felt that this is what I was supposed to be doing.”
She traveled to different states for summer dance intensives, and she knew she wanted to go to college out of state for dance, even though she didn’t know anyone else who had done that. An ad in Pointe Magazine mentioned UMKC Conservatory’s dual emphasis program in ballet and modern, and that students could have opportunities to dance with the Kansas City Ballet, so she applied, having never heard of the school or visited the city. After a snafu with her application, she was asked to overnight an audition video. A few days later, she was accepted, with scholarship.
While still a student, she was invited to dance professionally with Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance Company and performed with the Kansas City Ballet corps in “The Nutcracker.”
It was in those performances that Kansas City Ballet’s new artistic director Devon Carney spotted Dahm. “What always struck me about her performances from the very first viewing … is her dedication to the choreography she was asked to execute and her total immersion in the movement on stage,” said Carney. “She brought incredible intensity and a fantastic, grounded quality to her work which was and is palpable from an audience perspective.”
After college, Dahm made Kansas City her home base for a freelance career. Along with her work with Wylliams/Henry, where she’s grown from company member to assistant director, she’s performed with companies including Owen/Cox Dance Group, Quixotic, and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, as well as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Chicago-based Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, San Francisco Dance Works, and San Diego-based Malashock Dance. “I love project-based work just because it shakes it up — new voices, working with new people, new energy,” said Dahm.
A Choreographer is Born
Early in 2020, she ran into Carney at a coffee shop. “We were just talking, and he said, ‘When are you going to start choreographing?’ And I just laughed and said, ‘Probably never, I like being a dancer, I don’t really see that as a part of my future.’”
“And he said, ‘I really think you have something to say … whenever you do choreograph, I want the first ticket.’”
“I just had a gut instinct that she had more to say than what I saw within the works that she was cast in,” said Carney. “There was an innate connection with movement that jumped over the edge of the stage and made connections with the audience … there was something there that needed encouragement and nurturing.”
Of course, shortly after their chat, everything shut down due to COVID-19, and dancers were looking for different ways to present their work. Dahm choreographed for a trio for the first Creative Intersections performance in Hyde Park. “We performed in the grass, in socks. There was no stage, it was full out in the grass. And there was Devon in the back, filming my entire thing.”
Afterward he came up to Dahm and said, “I’m ready for you to do something on KCB.”
That something was “Misguided” for KCB’s virtual New Moves series, filmed at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, and she choreographed three more works for the series in subsequent years.
“With each work there seemed to be more maturity in the content of what was communicated through her works,” said Carney. “It is very rewarding to be able to be a small part of this growth trajectory towards a national and international scale.”
“Devon has so much trust and belief in me. He doesn’t ever manage my creativity … he just lets me go,” said Dahm. And through her KCB connections, Dahm was commissioned to create work for the Cincinnati Ballet.
Dahm has also taught extensively; she is currently adjunct professor of dance at UMKC Conservatory and instructor with the Kansas City Ballet Trainee/Second Company. “I’m working with the people that taught me, which is so crazy. But they’ve seen my journey as a student to artist, to professional, they’ve seen the trajectory of my career, and they are like my family here, one hundred percent my family.”
She balances all these creative responsibilities with one of her newer roles: mother to a toddler.
“I’m very much in the moment, and I’m just gonna do what I’m doing and be very present in that. I think sometimes when you get too into dreamland, you miss what is right in front of you. And especially now that I have my son, I feel more present than I ever have because you just don’t want to miss out on what’s right in front of you… I want to be a part of the growth journey of whatever I’m doing.”
Working with many different companies and many different choreographers is Dahm’s passion, and these varied experiences inform her work as a creator. “It just expands my way of thinking about movement. You’re not in your own comfortable element the entire time,” said Dahm.
“As an artist, you’re always growing, and you’ve never arrived. Once you think you have, then the art is done.”
Kansas City Ballet performs Caroline Dahm’s “hold on tight” for Midwest Trust Center’s New Dance Partners at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 19 and 20; for tickets, www.jccc.edu/midwest-trust-center/events. Learn more about Caroline Dahm at carolinedahm.com and the Kansas City Ballet at kcballet.org.
