Holly Wilder began dancing at the age of three. After moving to St. Louis from Connecticut, she started her dance training at COCA at 14. She danced with Ballet Eclectica and COCAdance until she graduated high school at 18.
“COCA is an artistic home where big dreams can grow into big lives,” Holly says. “It fostered my dreams in a vibrant, diverse community that inspired me to chase those dreams.”
One of her favorite COCA memories was as a high school freshman, watching Alicia Graf Mack and Antonio and Kirven Douthit-Boyd rehearse Alvin Ailey’s Revelations. To her, they were superstars and seeing them in their element was a major source of inspiration to work as an artist.
After COCA, Holly studied contemporary dance at Boston Conservatory. Since then, she’s built a career in musical theatre and dance film. She performs primarily in regional theatre across the US and works as an Artistic Director for the dance film company, Wilder Project, which she co-founded. Holly also teaches the Alexander Technique, an awareness-based bodywork practice that helps people improve their posture and movement and reduce unnecessary tension in their bodies.
Holly identifies aspects of her education at COCA that have shaped and supported her career as a working artist.
“I feel like [COCA] left me full of excitement for my life as an artist. The reality of this career path is that it isn’t easy, and this excitement has carried me through in the harder moments,” said Holly.
This passion, instilled by COCA, has sustained her through the ups and downs of a career in the arts. She often pauses to reflect on how much she wanted to work as a performer as a child and is proud to be doing that now. Holly’s career highlights include making dance films alongside her brother and opening the national tour of Debbie Allen’s Brothers of the Knight.
Her advice for current COCA students? “Whatever energy you put into the thing is the thing. When you are creating or performing, the way you step into the room or process will live in the project.”
She advises that artists should take care of themselves, physically, emotionally, and mentally, so that when they show up, they do so with joy and curiosity. It helps create the energy and opportunity for their ideas to flourish.
Holly is thrilled to be making her off-Broadway debut this fall in Music City, a jukebox musical created by Billboard Chart-topping country music artist JT Harding. The production will run at the West End Theater in Manhattan, New York from October 27 to December 22.
More Photo Archives of Holly at COCA:
