A Broadway Choreographer Who Gets Ideas on the Subway Platform

Raja Feather Kelly uses the time spent waiting for the train to center himself and observe the movements of others.

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Interview by Coco Romack

Something that’s unique to me as a choreographer is that I don’t prepare or prestage. Occasionally it gets me into trouble, but I enjoy interacting with the people with whom I’m collaborating. Together, we find out if the movement fits who they are or feels inspired — not by the way I’ve imagined it but by the way I’m seeing it play out in real time.

This is how I’ve worked since 2009, when I came to New York City. My husband and I recently moved to New Jersey, but the apartment I lived in for 10 years, in Brooklyn’s South Slope, which is now my office, is off the F line. I have good luck with that train; it always gets me where I need to go. I like the Smith-Ninth Streets stop because the platform is aboveground and has beautiful views of the skyline and the Statue of Liberty. I watch the sun rise through that station in the morning and see it set in the evening.

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