Dancer’s Leap: Interview with Sophie Thiel

Q: What gives you inspiration?

A: “My inspiration mostly comes from music. Usually, a song surprises me out of nowhere, and I’ll see people dancing in my mind. I go up in the dance studio, close my eyes, and begin choreographing the dance.

“As far as creativity, my one desire for dance is that it be excellent. When I choreograph, I want the dance to be where the world can look up to it in the church, and not down to it.”

Q: Would you say that you have a favorite style of dance?

A: “I like modern because it incorporates all the genres into one with a lot more variety. A lot of times in the dance studio, we teach ballet. As far as technique, I would encourage anyone to take ballet at least for the first couple of years because it lays the foundation. With modern and contemporary dance, there is so much expression. The end product of choreography is when everything comes together: the costumes, the movement of your body, and your facial expression.

“When I teach in the dance studio, I’m all about excellence, being perfect on timing, and positioning your body the same as the person next to you. It’s not just about being perfect, but it’s about unity and being together as one. I’ve learned a lot from taking dance in the past. I’ve been at three different studios besides Firestarters, and have taken a lot of things from them. I’ve also have learned a lot from those classes what I would change from them. I like having unity, although I do feature different dancers, and we’ll have different solo parts and duets.

“Some different styles we do are African, Irish, ballet, jazz, hip-hop, and then modern. If you’re a skillful dancer, then that is the gift that God has given you, and that ushers in the anointing. We also dance with flags, and use different colors that mean different things. Sometimes we use props like hula-hoops, streamers, and even butterfly wings. One part of creativity is costumes, and that is what helps to set the feeling for the dance.

“We’ve been teaching little kids, focusing mostly on choreography and learning the dance. But I’m all about skill, so we’ll do ballet warm ups, across the floors, and we work out too. That’s an important part of it, working out our calves, arms, and learning to point the toe. Even with flexibility, make sure you can take care of the little things. Even if you’re not a flexible person, you can still continue to work on it.”

Check out more photos of our Firestarters dance team:

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