Today we’d like to introduce you to Donna L. Jacobs.
Hi Donna L., thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
As a young child, I trained at the Bernice Johnson Dance Studio in NYC, which produced many wonderful dancers and choreographers with lasting impact. I attended the NYC High School for the Performing Arts, followed by Wesleyan University, where I was invited as an undergrad to teach dance. In every phase of my life, including during my career as an attorney and in healthcare administration, dance has stayed at the center. In 1992, I founded the Morton Street Dance Center in Baltimore in order to create badly needed opportunities for young people to experience dance. More than three decades later, the school has grown and flourished. Our students gain the skills that open up opportunities–for college success, for balanced and creative lives–whatever their goals may be. Then, in the year 2000, I founded Full Circle Dance Company, which has developed into one of Maryland’s premiere professional nonprofit dance companies. Having a truly professional company in residence is a tremendous advantage for our Morton Street students, providing unique artistic opportunities and important role models.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Working in the arts is not without its challenges, and mentoring young people requires commitment and focus, but I truly believe in the power of dance to change and enhance lives. I am fortunate to have a nationally recognized faculty of dedicated teaching artists at Morton Street to travel this journey with me. In 2014, our entire studio suffered a devastating flood just weeks before our annual student production. Our space, the costumes–everything was severely damaged. But our faculty and our community pulled together. We scrambled to find rehearsal spaces donated by local public and private schools. The students rehearsed in gymnasiums and classrooms. They had been working all year toward this performance, so it was unthinkable to me that we would cancel. The show went on. It felt like a miracle, and it made us a stronger artistic community.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Both of my roles–Director of Morton Street Dance Center and Artistic Director of Full Circle Dance Company–combine elements of management, teaching, and creating. I am developing curriculum, hiring and coaching faculty, and planning every aspect of major productions while also teaching classes and creating choreography for children and for the professional company. I am a mentor to more than 250 young students, and I take that job seriously. Morton Street is known for producing dancers who are versatile and expressive, with strong grounding in technique. The level of professional accomplishment of our faculty is unmatched, and our students are learning about the history and cultural context of the genres they are studying–ballet, modern, hip hop, tap, West African–from highly qualified teaching artists.
Full Circle Dance Company is known for digging deeply into a single theme each year, bringing together choreographers from different backgrounds to explore the theme from multiple angles. It is an essential part of the cultural fabric of Baltimore, providing free community workshops and performing throughout the region. I am so proud of the way this work impacts our audiences. They tell us that they feel empowered, transformed, inspired, and that we’ve helped them to understand the world differently. That fills me with gratitude.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
Perhaps the most effective way to find a mentor is to simply ask. Observe someone you admire, someone who inspires you and then simply ask if he/she will be your mentor. That very thing happened to me, perhaps 10 years ago. I was impressed by the then-young attorney’s confidence to simply pose the question and equally pleased to say yes. We’ve been in a mentor-mentee relationship ever since. Networking is very similar. I find most professionals open to self-introductions and quite willing to communicate about their area of expertise, business, or the like. Think about bringing something to share of yourself or your business to the table when you connect with people.
Contact Info:
- Website: mortonstreetdance.com and fullcircledancecompany.org
- Instagram: @mortonstreetdance @fullcircledance
- Facebook: Morton Street Dance Center and Full Circle Dance Company
Image Credits
Brion McCarthy
Dorret Oosterhoff
