Exclusive Interview · Contemporary · Where Are They Now
JoVonna Parks: Finding Stability — From a Young Company Dancer to a Commissioned Choreographer
In 2016 she was a young dancer with Elisa Monte Dance, speaking honestly about the mental, emotional, and financial stability the dance life demands. A decade later, she found it — by building a career on her own terms.
By Dance Mogul Magazine | Originally featured June 2016 | Updated and expanded 2026
JoVonna Parks — contemporary dancer, choreographer, and educator. Photo Credit: Jamy Hsu.
Artist Spotlight · Where She Is Now
JoVonna Parks danced with Elisa Monte Dance from 2014 to 2019, then built the very stability she spoke about in this interview. She is now a New York-based freelance dance artist, choreographer, and educator — a founding member of CLYMOVE Dance, where she serves as its first commissioned choreographer and rehearsal director — and a recipient of NYFA and UMEZ / Schomburg Center grants for her own creative work.
When Dance Mogul Magazine spoke with JoVonna Parks in 2016, she had just joined Elisa Monte Dance, one of New York’s storied contemporary companies. But instead of a glossy success story, she offered something rarer and more useful: the truth. She talked openly about the parts of the dance life nobody puts on a highlight reel — the emotional toll, the mental discipline, and the financial tightrope of building an artistic career, especially fresh out of college.
The interview was titled “Finding Stability” for a reason. A decade later, JoVonna has found it — not by luck, but by building a multi-dimensional career as a performer, choreographer, teacher, and arts leader. Below is her original 2016 conversation, reproduced in full, followed by where her path has taken her since.
The Original Interview (2016)
As it first appeared in Dance Mogul Magazine. Photo Credit: Jamy Hsu.
Dance Mogul: What has been some of the hardships you have encountered while pursuing your dreams?
JoVonna: Well, pursuing your dreams will always be hard no matter what, but if you want it you’ll work for it. Honestly, I think finding emotional and mental stability is one of the struggles I face while actively pursuing my career as do other dancers. It will be ok even if it seems like all hope is lost. An old teacher of mine once said the mind and the heart must be calloused if you want to make it in this business. Another big struggle is keeping finances in order, especially during the offseason. I’m sure every dancer struggles with this one especially when you are fresh out of college or just starting out, balancing a “regular” job while pursuing your dance career. Although the “regular” job is probably where the bulk of an artists income comes from, sometimes it’s hard to make time for pursuing your dream especially if the dream isn’t paying enough to sustain.
“It will be ok even if it seems like all hope is lost.”
Dance Mogul: Despite those hardships, what motivates you to keep pursuing your dreams?
JoVonna: I cannot imagine my life without dance and I think that is what motivates me the most. It allows me to explore and find myself and to be myself.
Dance Mogul: What advice do you have for the next generation of dancers?
JoVonna: I would tell he/she, if this is what you want, to be a dancer, you have to fight for it. It’s going to be fun, but it will be hard. Stay confident and be a helping you person. Never lose sight of yourself, besides you should be the most important person to yourself. Also to have a plan b, if you realize dance isn’t for you explore your other interests, it can’t hurt.
“Never lose sight of yourself — you should be the most important person to yourself.”
Dance Mogul: Is there anybody you would like to thank for helping you on your journey?
JoVonna: The one person I would like to thank is my mom. She put me in dance and she had supported me through my entire journey into the present day when I joined Elisa Monte Dance. I know that she will continue to support even when the day comes that I decide to pursue other interests. No matter what she is there for me and I couldn’t be more grateful.
The Foundation Beneath the Stability
JoVonna’s candor in 2016 made more sense once you knew her foundation. A Philadelphia native, she began intense formal training early in ballet, Horton, and Graham techniques — the bedrock of American modern dance. She went on to the Ailey/Fordham BFA program, graduating in 2012, before stepping into the professional New York contemporary dance world.
When she spoke to Dance Mogul, she was early in her tenure with Elisa Monte Dance — a company founded in 1981 by a former Martha Graham principal, with a reputation for daring, athletic contemporary work. It was demanding, meaningful, and, like most company work, financially unforgiving. That’s the honest backdrop to her comments about stability: she wasn’t being pessimistic. She was describing the real economics of a young artist’s life — and quietly signaling that she intended to build something durable.
Where Is JoVonna Parks Now?
She found her stability — and it looks like range. JoVonna danced with Elisa Monte Dance through 2019, performing under both founder Elisa Monte and choreographer Tiffany Rea-Fisher, including a featured solo from Rea-Fisher’s The Best Self Project. When that company chapter closed, she didn’t chase a single institution to feel secure. She built a portfolio career instead.
Today, JoVonna is a New York-based freelance dance artist, choreographer, and educator. She is an original member of CLYMOVE Dance (since 2019), where she served as founding board secretary and now works as the company’s first commissioned choreographer and rehearsal director. Her performing and creative credits span Konverjdans, Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Company, Brooklyn Ballet, Ballet Vero Beach, and South Dakota Ballet, plus theatrical work with Ty Jones and the Classical Theatre of Harlem in productions including Macbeth, The Three Musketeers, Antigone, and A Christmas Carol. She has even appeared on screen, in Season 2 of HBO’s Random Acts of Flyness.
Crucially, she now makes her own work. JoVonna has choreographed world premieres for Brooklyn Ballet and CLYMOVE’s spring seasons and shown pieces at the all-female CounterPointe festival. Her creative practice has been backed by real institutional support, including a NYFA City Corps Grant and a UMEZ grant through the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. And she teaches ballet, modern, and contemporary technique across the New York and New Jersey area — passing the foundation forward to the next generation, exactly as her own teachers once did for her.
From company dancer to commissioned choreographer, board member, grant recipient, and teacher — JoVonna built stability not by narrowing her career, but by widening it.
Why It Matters to Dance Mogul Magazine
In 2016, JoVonna gave the next generation two pieces of advice: fight for it, and have a plan B. Her own life shows what that really means — not a backup in case dance fails, but a wider definition of a dance career so that it can sustain you. She never left dance. She grew into more of it: performing, choreographing, teaching, and leading. That is the difference between chasing a single job and building a life in the art form.
That’s why her story belongs in our exclusive interviews archive. Dance Mogul Magazine exists to show young dancers the full map — not just the spotlight, but the sustainable, multi-lane careers that keep artists in the field for decades. JoVonna’s honesty about mental, emotional, and financial stability, followed by the career she actually built, is one of the most practical role models a young artist could ask for. And the through-line she named herself — gratitude to the mother who put her in dance and never stopped supporting her — is a reminder that stability is built on community as much as on grit.
Keep Exploring
Explore more contemporary and modern artists across our Dance Styles Hub, read our full archive of Exclusive Interviews, or trace the roots of the movement in Street Dance.
The Story Continues
“Finding stability” is a modest title for what JoVonna Parks actually accomplished. She took the honest anxieties of a young company dancer — money, mindset, the fear that the dream might not pay — and answered them by expanding her craft until it could hold her weight. Performer, choreographer, teacher, arts leader: each role reinforcing the others.
The young woman who told Dance Mogul she couldn’t imagine her life without dance never had to. She simply grew a bigger life inside it. We’re honored to have captured the beginning of that chapter, and we’ll be watching what she creates next.
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