♪♪ Arnold: Dance used to be the central part of my life, but faith in Jesus ended up prevailing over.

And I think my dance has grown tremendously since I made that switch.

♪♪ ♪♪ My dad is from southern Virginia.

My mom is from Panama -- Colón, Panama.

I was born in Maryland.

My dad was heavily into academia.

He ended up going to Fuller Theological Seminary, and then he ended up going to Temple for another master's and PhD in psychology.

And so, we ended up going to California and then Philadelphia for some years.

And then after he was done his academic journey, we ended up going to Bucks County, the suburbs of PA, very white environment.

I kind of consider myself a nomad.

I was discovering dance even when I didn't recognize that I was discovering it.

We were in Maryland.

I was about 4 or 5 years old, and my dad had bought a CD called "Gospel Gangsters," and one track comes on, and I start just like bobbing the head.

And so, then I start going off.

Watching the video, I'm like, "Wow, where did I learn, like, these gestures?"

I kind of attribute it to some ancestral memory.

The next time dance really was foregrounded in my life was in Philadelphia.

I was allowed to go into sweet-16 parties.

And so, that was really huge for me because my parents are pretty strict Christian Baptists.

So, being able to actually go out to a party was, like, unheard of until then.

I was one of three black children in the school.

And so, when I was getting down, it was like -- it was hailed as, like, some of the best stuff ever.

And from there, like, me and my friend Seth were getting invited to sweet 16s, like, every weekend, people coming up to me and like, "Hey, like, we would love to get you "and hire you to to dance for these different parties that we got going on."

And I was like, "Yo, what?"

Like, "This is crazy."

Like, "Thank you so much."

I go to my dad, and I'm like, "Dad, like, this is crazy.

I get $100 to dance at a party?"

And he's like, "No."

It kind of got shut down again at that time.

Then, it came back up once I got out the house.

And so, when I got to Penn State, I wasn't getting into my studies.

I was doing so much dancing and so little forensic science, which I went into school for.

Ultimately, I ended up choosing to switch my major to an integrative arts major.

The focus on dance was a bedrock from there.

I feel that sense of need to accomplish something.

And I'm really choosing not to listen to that.

One of the main things that I'm focusing on through this, searching for a true-move process and in life, is like, I don't need to shift.

And that's the cool thing about the New Directions Choreography Lab is that it's an experimental space.

It's a lab.

And so, all I'm doing, all we are doing, is showing who we are, who we've been cultivating.

♪♪ There's no need to accomplish anything.

We already are accomplishing by just being in the space and doing the thing.

There's no moment in time that has led me up to this.

It's been everybody who has led me up to this moment, who has influenced me and impacted me to be thinking how I'm thinking right now.

So, yes to my parents who birthed me.

Yes to my sister.

Yes to my family.

Yes to high school and football and sports.

Yes, people at Penn State.

Yes, people in grad school at Ohio State University.

And yes to my professional career and the street and club-dance community.

Everybody who I've engaged with, I am a product of that.

Yes to it all.

♪♪ ♪♪