Andrew Wojtal with Melissa Bourkas. Photo Credit Dan Freeman.
Born and raised in Gorham, Maine, Andrew pursued his dance training at the California Institute of the Arts, graduating in 2011. A 2010 recipient of the Princess Grace Dance Scholarship, Andrew has been a member of BODYTRAFFIC (Los Angeles, CA), Shen Wei Dance Arts (New York,NY), ARC Dance Project (Seattle,WA), and Island Moving Company (Newport,RI). In the Fall of 2012 Andrew was invited as a guest artist to teach and set work on the BFA students at AMDA’s Los Angeles campus. Commercially he has appeared on NBC’s Parenthood, alongside Taylor Swift at MTV’s VMAs 2012, Sol Tryon’s feature film The Living Wake starring Jesse Eisenberg, as well as performing for Julie Andrew’s as she was honored by the Professional Dancers Society for Lifetime Achievement. Andrew’s choreography has been presented by REDCAT (Los Angeles, CA), Bates Dance Festival (Lewiston, ME), Arts in the One World Conference (Valencia, CA), Ruhrtriennale Festival at Pact Zollverein (Essen, Germany), as well as the Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles, CA) assisting choreographer Barak Marshall for the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s opening gala performance in September 2012.
Read about his decision making process of dancing in NY and LA. Enjoy!
"Home is where the feet are"
There is much to be said about the innate human ability to adapt. Upon her move to New York, a friend of mine said, “You just end up making friends in a new place, because there isn’t really an option. It’s just what happens.” After college, I encountered unexpected struggle with the idea of knowing where ‘home’ was, and was fervidly caught up in defining a word that simply grows more relative the more you live.
After college, I was offered a job with L.A. based company BODYTRAFFIC, a company that quickly grew into the dance family I longed for when confined to the fish tank of my undergrad. Within the company I developed a routine of friendship, humor, brash discussion, overwhelmingly frustrating times and overwhelmingly enjoyable ones too. My honest dream. But having spent 6 full years in Los Angeles, I reached a point where I desired so passionately to experience a new place. I proceeded to move to New York in the footsteps of many close friends.
Soon enough, the cultural center of the world became a haven in ways. New York brought new routines of new friendship and more frustrations and triumphs alike. A different kind of dream. I began telling everyone that I was from New York all along and I just hadn’t known it before. And it’s location near to where I grew up in Maine, allowed me the perfect escape for the days when New York played a little rougher than I’d like. I was longing for the California beaches but my insomnious new home and this abundance of work opportunity was easing the transition tremendously. In fact, to the point where I residually began to worry about the footprints I left in California, fearing that before I knew it, they would just wash away with the Pacific tides.
As I gathered my things together for my most recent trip to Los Angeles to work with BODYTRAFFIC in preparation for our Jacob’s Pillow premiere, I discovered an anxiety I’d never known before; perhaps about meeting the new members that were learning my parts for shows, perhaps about the lives that have changed since I’ve been gone, or perhaps worried, that I’ve changed myself, and maybe more than I realized. Upon arriving it seemed instantaneous the love I have for Los Angeles had not escaped me, but simply been laying dormant in this transition period. I love it here, and being with my old friends makes me feel cared for and comforted. Worried I may have made a bad decision leaving this exceedingly charming town, a feeling dangerously close to regret impended itself upon the beginning days. Reveling in “should I’s?” and “could I’s?”, I knew I had to change my mind set. I wasn’t the young one anymore, I’ve experienced life, dance, the industry, and more importantly I’m confident about my knowledge of it.
In retrospect I realized that coming back to Los Angeles to perform with BODYTRAFFIC has become more than a chance to perform some of my favorite repertoire with some of my favorite people, and coming here is especially not a time to feel regret or woe in regards to other lives moving forward. It’s so simple to forget that ours move forward too. And I see that I’m silly to worry that I have too many places to call ‘home’. And that the friends I’ve made are the friends that understand me, and that’s why we’ve chosen each other along the way. Everyone changes, we change too. And we can’t forget that new perspectives on old places can do nothing but teach us a little more about these people and places we already love. Maybe I have to remind myself of this fact, but there is no other life I’d prefer to lead than the one with all of my homes and families. And sometimes the most golden benefits of a career are just hidden under a little rubble that will occasionally coat the mind.