Meet Nicolette Emanuelle | Performing Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Nicolette Emanuelle and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nicolette, how has your background shaped the person you are today?
Risk can have a lot of different meanings, and can vary wildly from person to person. I often encounter people who ask about my risk in working as an artist, and the risk in performing aerial arts. Aerial arts never felt risky to me because I feel like I’m in control, but taking that leap to rely on nothing but the arts to support me, that felt like a risk. For most of my life I had a “day job” that varied from slinging coffee to Corporate America and it wasn’t until 2014 that I decided to take a leap into working full time as an artist (I say “full time” loosely, because I was always working full time as an artist, it was just that I had 2 full time jobs). It was a scary decision to make and there was a level of risk involved. You’ll often hear artists and entertainment workers say “feast or famine” and that is very true. Either the work is rolling in and you can barely keep up or you’re struggling to find anything. I have no regrets about choosing performing arts, and it was a lifestyle choice. If anything I feel incredibly grateful to every theater, producer, and studio owner that has hired me over the years and allowed me to continue down this path. The other type of risk I feel I face on a regular basis is the risk you take when creating work. You can challenge the audience to think about something that will make them uncomfortable, or you can focus on entertaining them. For most of my artistic career I feel like I played it safe, and it wasn’t until recently that I made the decision to start creating work that promotes social and racial justice. That decision was probably harder than the one to be a full time artist! To be clear, entertainers do an amazing service, especially now. If I didn’t have the distraction of beauty and skill that performing artists offer I would lose sight of what I was fighting for, there is great value there. My decision to shift gears was personal and something I felt I needed to do. To me it felt like risk, but that the risk of not shifting gears was greater.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My art is often described as “fierce” and I love that people get that out of the works I create. As a singer songwriter I used to draw parallels to Tori Amos and Nick Cave, (I learned to play piano by listening to Tori Amos Albums back in the 90s). But over the last decade I feel I’ve really honed in on a sound that is unique to me, which is very exciting. There is so much joy in creating something, looking at it and loving it. More recently I’ve been doing composition and that’s been a lot of fun, I enjoy the challenge of taking an emotion, scene or movement and assigning sound to it. My biggest inspiration there is John Cages’s “Silence.” As an aerialist I would say my movement is definitely more lyrical. I have such a long body compared to my artistic peers it’s hard not to stand out, and I’ve worked to find a style of movement that compliments my body type. Aerial brings balance into my life, it gives me focus and instills a sense of discipline in my life that keeps me grounded. It reminds me to stay humble, to work hard and through that you will see results. It has also given me access to an amazing community of individuals (mostly women), we work hard and play hard. As a producer I try to make space for other people’s voices. The reoccurring event I do, Dead Artists Lounge, is a wonderful mix of everything that I’m passionate about. It’s an evening of collaborative performance art inspired by the works of dead artists. It has collaborations across multiple artistic disciplines between multiple artists, it dark and whimsical, and it gets people excited about new pieces from local artists while making them curious about pieces from deceased artists. If I had to give a descriptive about all of my work I would definitely say “dark and whimsical.” I naturally gravitate towards the dark, but I try to not take myself too seriously and that’s where the whimsy comes in. If I had to boil down the lessons I’ve learned in being a working artist for 20+ years, I would say be fierce. Create the things that you want to create, don’t hold back. You’ll be surprised how many people will connect. When I took that leap into creating a piece about me I felt vulnerable, naked. I’ve been on stage before with no clothes on, but I didn’t feel naked- this made me feel naked, and I wasn’t even there, it was an installation piece! I created a piece about what it’s like living as a mixed race Lumbee in America and I was surprised at how well it was received. I thought at the best it would disappear, and at the worst, people would judge me harshly, and because it was me I was putting on display- not a character that it would hit me hard. But instead I found a voice, and permission (from myself) to dig deeper. I’m now expanding on that project and I’m currently in the process of interviewing mixed race individuals for a larger project. It is my hope that through this project we can explore how important racial and cultural identity is to someones self image and how damaging it can be when it is constantly put into question.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
That’s tricky in these times! Oakland Cemetery is a favorite spot, it’s beautiful and full of history. I recently stumbled upon Summerhill, it’s a great little find if you’re a foodie (which I am) and all of the businesses are doing outdoor seating, no touch ordering etc. Always a fan of Little Five Points: Junkman’s Daughter, Java Lords, Rag-O-Rama, etc. But I imagine in these times if a friend came to visit we’d make some art at home, go on a hike at Sweetwater Creek State Park, and lay low.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
7 Stages (Heidi and Mack) for continuing to support me and other artists in the area and finding a way to continue to support us through these times. Challenge Aerial for doing the best they can for their instructors to keep us safe while also keeping us working. Every other theatre/producer/entertainment company that has given me work over the years: Element, The Off Centered Project, Paul Rogers (Buck’s Sports Barn), Katya, Sadie Hawkins, Out of Hand Theatre, Alliance Theatre, and more. A million thank yous!

Website: www.nicoletteemanuelle.com
Instagram: nicoletteemanuelle
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NicoletteEmanuelle/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfJIA0NfyyIMHU5GRVPQyIg
Other: artisdead.co

Image Credits
Chris Burk Chris Goller Vivian Kyle