MEMBER FOCUS: Damien Chaney
“SO MUCH CAN BE SAID without one word being spoken,” says Damien Chaney, a company dancer at Chattanooga’s acclaimed The Pop-Up Project. He describes how movement can articulate what language cannot. As the world continues to grapple with the indescribable—socially, politically, and economically—visual art forms such as dance have become even more critical to communicate important stories that shaped (and continue to shape) the era of COVID-19.
This past year, in collaboration with local artists and his fellow dancers at The Pop-Up Project, Damien created and co-choreographed a film about letting our collective actions speak. “It is very much told from the perspective of a Black man,” Damien describes his soon-to-be released film. “My main goal was allowing people to make something where they could be unapologetically themselves in a safe way where it can help someone else.”
Right before the pandemic hit, Damien and The Pop-Up Project were organizing a festival-type show. However, when large person gatherings were cancelled and people began sheltering-in-place, their plans pivoted and the team relocated their resources to new creative projects, including Damien's film. He talked with The Pop-Up Project’s co-founders, Jules Downum and Mattie Waters, about his idea. They supported his vision and his drive to champion diversity and inclusion. Shortly thereafter, he got started
Since 2017, Damien has been with The Pop-Up Project, which is a non-profit performing arts production company known for site-specific films on Chattanooga’s cultural history and on social justice advocacy. He has appeared in such seminal videos as HOPE (a re-telling of the city’s MLK BLVD), 2020 (a stunning piece of resilience and strength), and many others.
A Georgian native and star basketball player, Damien first became interested in dance while attending Covenant College. As he notes on The Pop-Up Project’s Artist Spotlight Series: “I signed up for my college’s annual talent show with 10 of my teammates, long story short – we got 3rd place and one the judges happened to be Ludacris’s drummer. He put me in contact with a dance studio in Atlanta and the rest is history…I’ve been dancing ever since.”
When he’s not dancing, Damien works for Syntrio—an innovative provider of compliance training via e-learning to businesses of all sizes. Whether Damien is on Zoom meetings or at the studio, he brings forth a strong work ethic and a creative outlook; “Personally and professionally, I love to create and do things that spark conversations, change narratives, and make you go beyond your surroundings.” His forthcoming film is in direct alignment to those same core tenants of evoking new dialogue and perspectives that have a lasting impact.
Damien credits The Pop-Up Project and Chattanooga’s gifted community of costumers, videographers, musicians, designers, directors, and other artists who, together, brought his vision to life. He notes how the diversity among the production team and the dancers was invaluable, with each person bringing their own talents and life experiences into the project while holding true to the film’s underlying narrative. “There are words by the brilliant and amazing poet Erika Roberts, but there’s no actual dialogue. It is a project that is very much meant to be seen.”
Damien describes the blood, sweat, and tears that went into the process, and how grateful he is to those who played a part. In talking with Damien, it becomes clear that passion and effort is what gives art—like his film—its power; it is what makes creative work transcend everyday speech and what ignites a new kind of discourse that has the potential to uplift, inspire, and heal. “Art is inside every one of us. It’s just a matter of finding it,” he concludes. “The world is art, if you see it through the right lens.”