Meet Melissa Alexis of Cultural Fabric

Today we’d like to introduce you to Melissa Alexis.

Melissa, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I became a dancer at 13 years old because as an introvert with extrovert capabilities, I discovered that I could communicate and express myself without using words and it was transformative. Each time I returned to her studio to teach master classes, my first dance teacher liked to tell the story of how horrible I was when I first auditioned for her company. It was the classic story of the underdog. I was determined to persist and amaze myself and I did, adding teaching to my experience starting at age 16. Yet, for so long, I still struggled with something many artists struggle with – the feeling of not being a “real” artist. That feeling was compounded by my Trinidadian parents’ assertion that I couldn’t make a career in dance. So I went off to college, bound to dance, but also bound to split my energy so that I could make a “real” career afterwards. I moved to New York City and continued building myself and my work along two parallel tracks, working in nonprofit administration by day, and rehearsing and performing on nights and weekends. Fast forward many years post-graduation and my then 9-year old daughter was telling me that I needed to be a dancer full-time because that’s who I really was. Being a model of an internally aligned mama/woman in the world was my impetus to return to graduate school at Sarah Lawrence College to get my Master of Fine Arts in dance. By then, I had been married and divorced and attended the grad school interview with my daughter in tow. I (we) spent a couple years happily focused on making dance pieces, moving in the studio every day, and dreaming up the next move which I thought would be teaching at a college or university. I did end up teaching at Sarah Lawrence and Bard High School Early College and along the way, discovered a passion for food justice and sustainability too. When I moved back to Boston, I moved back to the reality that I had somehow forgotten – that the arts are less supported, translating in fewer professionally sustained arts organizations. I faced the reality once again of needing to earn a living instead of creating a life.

But that’s not the end of my story. It’s essentially where it begins. My spiritual path led me to study Buddhism and yoga/meditation throughout the years. I followed that calling to a yoga teacher training in 2015 at JP Centre Yoga through the Yoga Diversity Initiative. I am a dancer to the core but yoga practice is distinct – it is not self-expression but self-discovery. My vision in creating my company, Cultural Fabric, has been to use the power of movement to heighten awareness, combined with the force of movement to spring us into literal action, to transfer the tools for aligned action to people, communities, and organizations.

Has it been a smooth road?
Oh a smooth road it has not been. I decided to move back to Boston because one of my sisters and her kids were here, and I wanted my daughter to be surrounded by more family as we were getting ready for her journey through high school. My first challenge was affording to move into Boston or Greater Boston, to be close to Tufts University where I had secured a lecturer job in the dance department. I was frustrated when I discovered that I couldn’t afford the cost of living on my university salary and decided not to take the position. In 2016 I made the leap to start my business and as a solopreneur in a service business, became an independent contractor. By 2017 I was working to create a scalable business model that would transition my endeavors into a “real” business. The entrepreneurial realities of financial and time limitations aside, the common thread of my inner struggles has been the fight to see myself and my creations within the already created structures and realities of artist or business. Now I’m fighting the good fight to stand apart from existing structures that would have me, or anyone else, feel that our real power comes from this kind of externalized methodology or protocol. The real struggle is an existential one as we operate in these sets of systems that make it difficult to align our personal mission with how we make a living. I’ve seen through the veil and recognize that our true, authentic power lies in our sense of internal power. I truly believe that if I operate from this place, I will continue discovering joy and purpose along this journey of creating a life.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Cultural Fabric – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
After 20 years of parallel careers in dance/yoga and business administration, Cultural Fabric is a natural outgrowth of the layers of experience that brought me to my understanding of cross-sector approaches for targeted results. Since 2016, I have entered into various organizations and communities and fulfilled business and community needs using physical movement and movement-based approaches. Though it’s not what people know to ask for directly, what I do is harmonize spaces and ways that people relate to themselves and one another. Self-care is a popular term these days because we have swung so far in the other direction. Like self-care, I help people re-learn how to guide themselves, as well as facilitate in community, with compassion. I am most proud this year of supporting the young people who led March for Our Lives Boston, helping to harmonize their space and interactions during that important process. My work is unique because it brings in all of the experience I have had in administration, dance, yoga/meditation – to customize solutions to human challenges that computers can’t address – like harmonizing organizational/team culture, equity/inclusion through a cultural responsiveness framework, holistic well-being, self-care, personal and organizational mission alignment, social responsibility, and more.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I so appreciate the longstanding grassroots movement work throughout the city’s communities and organizations. Movement work is what I feel most deeply connected to and where my own work always goes right back to. I would like to see the city of Boston ramp up their support for the arts, healing arts like yoga, and community-based organizations, both in the realm of financial support, and in harnessing the power of their applications across private sector industries. I like that Boston is trying. But Boston can do more to walk the walk. In a city so steeped in academia, we talk a lot. In the most positive of ways we are forever researchers, however, the latest studies often remind us of the data that is our lived wisdom, and so it would behoove us all to be less afraid of moving into direct action.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.culturalfab.com
• Email: contact@culturalfab.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/culturalfab/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/culturalfab

Image Credit:
Photo 1 (in green tee): Jill Goldman
Photo (black tank, dance): Robert Bellinger

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