You may have noticed that in my first blog (the continuation of my homepage story), the word “REFUSE” is a link to Stefanycottonchoreography.com. Of course if you did a little looking around on that website, my reasoning was probably pretty clear. However if you didn’t, I want to explain a bit. Stefany Cotton is one of the most fun, talented, creative, beautiful humans I know. We met either through community theater or dance classes. I can’t remember which came first but we were inseparable for years until she went away to college and following that, moved halfway across the country. Despite the distance we have always had the type of friendship that can pick up exactly where it left off. Of course I still ask when she is moving back home whenever we talk but she needs much more than this small-town, in-the-box, suburbia can offer. Stef has an amazing talent for communicating stories, thoughts and feelings through choreography. Her first project was called “Tether” and was inspired by the story of The Giving Tree. She designed movement for the songs she chose to narrate, in her words, “community, perseverance, and resiliency”. Her newest project, REFUSE, which opens tomorrow, is the same idea in composition but is “a narrative of self discovery and independence”. Her tagline reads “What happens when we start to question everything that’s expected of us?” Stef’s vision for REFUSE hits so close to home for me as I have always been the first to say “what if i just didn’t do it your way?”. I am so excited to fly out to visit her and see the show this weekend. The way she goes after her dreams has always inspired me to want more out of my own life and finally have the courage to make my own dreams a reality.
We were about 15 and on probably our 15th back to back sleepover that summer ❤️