HYATTSVILLE, Md. — From Hyattsville, Maryland to the big screen, a professional dancer from the area is truly living her dream.
Kendra McIntyre, 31, helps tell the story of the hardships of a Black woman in the South during the early 1900s, in the 2023 remake of "The Color Purple," through the art of dance. The movie features a star-studded cast that includes Taraji P. Henson, Fantasia Barrino, Danielle Brooks, H.E.R., Halle Bailey, and many more.
Among those stars, McIntyre gets the opportunity to support the importance of the film -- which she says was exciting as she is able to be a part of history.
"I mean, "The Color Purple," like the original film, is such a staple in the Black community and also in my life, like me and my sister, whenever we greet each other, we always do the little handshake," she says as she reflects on an iconic scene from the movie.
At the time of the audition she says she didn't know there was going to be a new reimagined film. The audition itself was closed to the public. "You had to be invited to be there. So I felt very honored to be a part of it."
McIntyre's love for dance began at 14, and since she has been trained in ballet, hip-hop, street jazz, African dance -- you name it. She even attended Temple University, earning a degree in Dance Education, before returning to Montgomery County to teach dance to public school students. But, she missed dancing herself, which is when she signed with a dance agency and went on to audition for dance gigs.
Her first professional dance job was in the movie "In The Heights," and since she has continued to shine. Her talent led her to being a part of the skeleton crew for "The Color Purple," which essentially is a group of dancers that the choreographers get together to workshop the movements of what will be in the movie.
"Working with Fatima Robinson, Tia Rivera, and Adrian Wiltshire was a dream." She continued by saying Robinson choreographed Michael Jackson's "Remember The Time," worked with Aaliyah, and also did work on "Dream Girls" which features Beyoncé.
The musical version of "The Color Purple" helps bring out different emotions, and McIntyre says there's dance moments that highlight every single song.
"Dance has such a way of tying those emotions in, and you being able to see it in a very expressive form beyond the acting," she says as she lights up talking about her passion. "And beyond the words that they're saying, you get to see even from the beginning, with mysterious waves, that joy of the Black church and honoring God and worshipping and seeing that in its fullness, in its very exaggerated sense. And then even down to "She Be Mine" with young Celie, her seeing her daughter for the first time, and then understand, like, she'll be mine again."
She says during the scene where they are at the waterfall they express women's day-to-day of having to keep going despite any hardships or things that are not favorable. "But still having that hope that things will turn out well in some way. So it just really takes it on. Like, it just elevates the story to me. And the emotions that the characters, the actors they bring adds to their story."
The DMV dancer is hoping for more opportunities to share stories through the artform by doing more movies, TV, as well as commercials. In the coming year, she also hopes to teach more.
For those who are interested in pursuing their dreams, McIntyre says the biggest thing is to be intentional about what you want to do and make a plan, but don't hold too tightly to the plan either. Have room for surprises is the key she says.
"Beautiful surprises that could lead you in a direction you may not have thought you would want to go in. So staying open is really big as well. So being clear and also taking this time to really understand who you are, how you want to be, who you want to be, the things you want to do, specifically be as specific as possible when it comes to wanting to pursue professional dance career because there's so many lanes you can go into. And the more you are very clear on yourself and what you want to do and how you want to move, the easier it becomes for you to be able to handle the no's, but also being prepared for those yeses that come."
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