The multi-faceted Yoshi Sanders has studied psychology and his dance interests extended to teaching and choreography as well as performance. His mom was a dance educator in the NYC public schools as he was growing up, so he was always around dance (and dancing around) at her studio even as a baby, though he only started taking it seriously in 7th grade.
His family first lived in New Jersey, then moved to South Hadley, Massachusetts, where, at the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts School, he began real training. To start with “it was solely hip hop with an incredible teacher” named Shakia Barron, who gave him a great grounding in all the basic moves. Later, in high school, his horizon widened out to include jazz, ballet and contemporary forms. He also started dancing at a competitive studio, to which hip hop was a perfect avenue.
He went to college at Vassar. “I had always been very academically oriented, and the college had a small but robust dance department,” Yoshi says. He studied both Psychological Science and Dance and graduated last year as a member of Psi Chi, Ppychology’s International Honor Society.
Yoshi’s interests and passions intertwine in the connections he makes between psychology and dance. “With my studies in psychology, I definitely relate it to both my personal dance practice and my teaching practice. With dance education, knowledge of developmental psychology and other principles can help me plan classes that are inclusive, engaging, and accessible for different ages and learning styles. I have also always been very drawn to the therapeutic potential of dance and movement that draw from psychological frameworks related to healing and connection. Finally, I feel I have used my choreography to merge dance and my interest in psychology, trying to create dance works that reflect intimate internal psychological states and human behavior.
In college, he recounts, “My senior thesis was titled ‘I dream in the color blue’ and explored themes of performativity, masculinity, and nostalgia. I wanted the dancers to explore the tension that lies in the space between who we are, who we are expected to be, and who we dream to be. I built three Olympic-inspired podiums that brought into mind the theme of competition and striving to be at the top, a sometimes toxic mindset that was drilled into me as a boy. I used a lot of nostalgic music, including songs by Frank Sinatra and Bobby Caldwell.”
After graduating, Yoshi moved to New York City, where he freelanced and taught. Teaching has always been in his blood. “I’ve been a teacher as long as a dancer.” He did dance education residences in public schools, “finding connections, when they were studying about weather, say, or Maya Angelou, making art accessible.” He also taught “creative movement with little “ for New York City Ballet in their public school outreach program. Yoshi loves the freedom of contemporary dance. “It gets me out of my own head and into a magical space of where I am.” He also likes seeing that joy growing in others, especially very young kids in public schools, where they haven’t had other contact with dancing. “Just seeing them moving their bodies and smiling.”
Along with the teaching, “It was always with freelancing and random jobs dancing,” he says, “and I did lots of auditioning as well and thinking of what I wanted to do with dance.” Yoshi feels he has a “long connection” with Whim W’Him’s style. He loves “the way [the company] can use the musicality and rhythm of hip hop, the precision and strength of ballet, and the articulation and musicality of jazz in contemporary dance, to combine it all in a free art form.” He sees WW as an incubator of all these qualities. When he auditioned for Whim, “I didn’t necessarily think I’d get asked,” especially after a challenging call-back session that was all partnering. But he found Olivier’s coaching particularly intriguing.
This summer Yoshi danced with HT Chen at Jacob’s Pillow. Since college, he says, “I’ve taken a bit of a break from choreography,” although it’s barely been a year and the Contemporary Floorwork class I watched him teach last week, for the Whim W’Him Summer Intensive, made it clear that his choreographic juices are still running strong. This is Yoshi’s first time in Seattle. “I’m a total East Coaster.” He calls it “a beautiful city,” and says he has always appreciated the natural world, relishing yearly camping trips with his dad, one in Northern California. Yoshi lives now in Queen Anne, where he likes to go to a small beach park and watch the sunset. Coming to Seattle after the crowds and frenetic energy of NYC, Seattle seems very calm. “There must be five times as many people on any street in New York.”
Yoshi is a quarter Japanese. Many years ago, he says, “My great great grandfather and grandmother first came from Japan. My great great grandfather came in the 1890s, and my great great grandmother came shortly after as a ‘picture bride.’ It was my great grandfather who relocated his family to a US army base on the east coast during WWII while most of his family was being interned..” His great grandma came back to Seattle and he thinks some relatives must still exist here, though he doesn’t know them. “I might want to research it,” he says, “but even not knowing, I like to think of part of my heritage coming from here.”
“The transition here was rather crazy,” he recalls, “only a day and a half after arriving until the first choreographer started working with the company.” He likes it a lot about WW is that everyone is very adaptable, a necessity for a company that changes choreography and choreographers continually. And everyone was extremely helpful helping to make the transition. Before becoming part of Whim W’Him, Y says he always felt insecure because of his relative lack of ballet training, since he started later and specialized in other forms. But now he sees that a still rigorous but less traditional path “can be a form of good training too.”
Yoshi’s Favorites:
Color—blue
Music—R&B and pop are his main genres—anything with a nice beat, especially in summer
Food—Japanese food, particularly the little inarizushi pockets that his mom makes. He’s enjoying the cherries this summer. “But I’m not picky,” he says.
Drink—cold brew coffee, nice to make in the morning; mint lemonade with mint he picked.
