Contributing Your Stance to the Story | Inside-Out: A Conversation with Finleigh Zack
- ELSEHERE
- Jun 28
- 20 min read
Finleigh Zack's work focuses on bringing perspective, awareness, and inspiration to conversations around mental health through community-centred movement and collaborative choreography. In this live conversation, Finleigh discusses founding her bicoastal dance company and implementing an artistic direction that prioritizes the emotional well-being of her dancers.
ELSEHERE: History isn't only archived in museums or written in books. It lives in choices and bodies and in what we keep and what we hide. Here we speak with artists slowly and we look at works carefully. In this room, we listen for the turning points that shaped an artist, and we look for the blind zones that shape a work.Inside out, we bring the unseen into view. Today we have Finleigh Zach. To begin, let's have Finleigh introduce themselves.
Finleigh Zack: Hi, I'm, I'm Finleigh. I am a choreographer, and a director based in London, England. I have a dance company that's based in New York as well as in the UK. My work is based on mental health advocacy in the arts industry, so kind of tapping into both the emotional and the physical body and how you can support artists and audience members, in both those ways, in a rehearsal room, in a studio, in a workshop and a performance, and just kind of in general how we operate. I've been running the organization for the past five and a half years now. and then almost three years ago we moved, the organization to operate in, in England.
ELSEHERE: Amazing. If this is not simply an interview but a record that will remain, what will you hope that people carry with them after today?
Finleigh Zack: Just in general, allowing your art to not be such a separate entity from you, but how you operate, utilize, and go through daily life. I'd like to say that my personal values align very much with my work's values. And I would say that I embody that as my work as myself rather than just me as a choreographer, me as an artist. And then, before we talk about the work, I wanna find the person who existed before the work, before you had a name for what you were doing.
ELSEHERE: And looking back, was there a moment that quietly changed how you see the world? In that moment, what did you learn, and what did you lose?
Finleigh Zack: My nonprofit was started in 2020, at the height of the pandemic. Everyone was in this void space, not knowing where the live performance was going to go. I knew that in my head I always have wanted to start a dance company. I didn't really know what- mission or driving force behind both my art and the company that I wanted to create one day.
Personally, I've struggled with my mental health from a very young age, growing up in a strict ballet conservatory. So I felt that mental pressure from a very young age. I thought that pressure was normal until I started talking to other artists during the pandemic. I realized how many people struggle with their emotional wellbeing, and that dance, as an outlet, sometimes fails to support that mental space. I thought, "Well, is there anything that I can do? Can I utilize my art for good rather than something that can be detrimental to people? Mm-hmm.” For a long time, I had a love-hate relationship with dance. Now, I’m trying to flip that narrative for myself and for the dancers in my company. I want to ensure that dance supports your wellbeing, rather than dragging you down.
ELSEHERE: That's wonderful. So you would say that COVID was definitely a driving factor, bringing people together in a time that was so separate and isolating for sure.
Finleigh Zack: Definitely. I feel that was definitely the point in my life as well where I realized, I can't, I can't do this alone. And, that was the first time that I sought out help for myself as well and just kind of felt there was this lift in my spirit and just Oh! “There is something I can do to help others, too.” Using my art to help people became incredibly fueling.
ELSEHERE: What was the process of starting that company in the midst of COVID ? And then how is that informing what it's now or how is it different from what it's now?
Finleigh Zack: Yeah. It's changed a lot. I was 19 when I started the company. So I had no business background at all. I just liked to create dance. And so I think when I started the company I was "I'm gonna just get to create dance for my job and that's gonna be such an amazing opportunity," until I realized now I'm the COO, the CFO, the CEO... of this organization. I have to be in charge of every decision that's made, or a major decision. The process was a lot of paperwork at first. Filing for a business in the state of New York and then filing for a 501[c][3] application. That got denied the first time 'cause they spelled my name wrong. So then we had to delay that and it took almost about nine months in total, of just waiting for the IRS to process all the paperwork. But then once we got that in place, I started out with a very small board of some of my close friends and we had our first project and we crowdfunded and got it fully funded and got to shoot this dance film during COVID.
Finleigh Zack: I think that was a really great time for me, to just immediately launch this nonprofit and then have our first project fully funded and be able to perform and produce that following October. And in autumn 2021 we were able to get an event in person for the first time, and from there we just started producing and performing work. When I moved to the UK, things shifted. I was based in London with three dancers still in New York, so I hired three more in the UK to bring our team to six artists. As we've self-produced more international performances, I've noticed a shift in our mission. Initially, our projects were strictly based on mental health topics to raise awareness. Now, our entire mindset and daily operations in the studio are built around supporting emotional wellbeing.
It's not just about the concept presented on stage; it is very much about each individual artist. It is crucial to have a team that feels supported rather than overwhelmed. As a director, I want to make sure that everyone loves the work as I do, and feels good about coming to rehearsal, about coming into an audience space to go off into that world for however long.
ELSEHERE: Looking back in your life, is there a memory or a moment where you were
really seeing something for what it is? It doesn't have to be art. It can be a person, a face or someone who really influenced your way of thinking.
Finleigh Zack: I've always very much admired people as a group who say they're gonna do something, and they do it, and are very driven. and I feel I've kept that mindset, both in my personal life and in my work: if I want something to happen, most likely it's gonna be me that has to make that happen. Obviously, life circumstances and people cross paths with you, and, you know, there can be a lot of different paths that people take. But ultimately, it is up to you, because you are your biggest cheerleader. And, you know, you're gonna be with yourself till the end. Forever. I look up to people that have taken a big step in their life, taking the risk.
I embody that a lot through my personal choices, with starting an organization during COVID. I didn't know what I was doing, but I knew that it could be something. So I said yes, and I started the paperwork, and here we are almost six years later now operating in two different countries. With my personal life, I moved to London without knowing a single person here. Looking back at how far I've come in three years, the things we've been able to achieve since coming here, and the doors that have opened up, it’s been incredible. I think, just in general it hasn't been a singular person that has, that I've, followed or, modeled my decisions after, but just, just the way of life of saying yes and seeing what happens. And then with all of this, decision-making and risk-taking, there's bound to be hardships along the way.
ELSEHERE: I'm curious, how do you care for yourself at that moment? Or, how do you navigate that within yourself?
Finleigh Zack: Self-care within these stressful hardships and bumps in the road is so important, and sometimes I forget that as well. I am very vocal about telling other artists and collaborators to take care of themselves, to take it easy, and to focus on themselves before jumping into anything, but I often forget to tell myself that.
Last year was one of the hardest years of my career to date because I was battling visa hardships and basically fighting for my right to live where I am at the moment. There were moments where I had to remind myself, "Take a step back, look at how far you've come, and realize you're doing more than enough." That is the most important thing to say to yourself at the end of the day. You don't need to continue to push and push. Allowing myself space and rest has been very difficult. Forcing myself to sit down and just be still has had a massive impact on my mental health, my work ethic, and how I carry myself through the workday. It's so easy to criticize yourself when you want so much more for yourself all the time. As I approach graduation and transition into post-grad life, rest is essential mentally and physically. It's hard to find that time, but it's incredibly rewarding when you do.
ELSEHERE: Is there history in your work today, not as a subject matter, but as a rhythm or a reflex, something that you only catch in yourself sometimes?
Finleigh Zack: I make work a lot about relationships—not just partnered relationships, but different interactions that you have with people. And a lot of those ideas come from different interactions I have with different people.
Last year we did a piece, and it was about three different relationships: a relationship with yourself, relationship with an intimate partner, and relationship with community, and how you respond and react to those different relationships. The past four years I've been doing research and making work about relationships. I think maybe that's just from seeking connection and being so isolated when we first started. That now it's that complete opposite of the spectrum of wanting to be close and wanting to have that connection.
The piece was about an intimate relationship and the different attachment styles that you have and how it's a push and pull between the two. Ultimately, at the end of the day, in an intimate partnership, you're trying to speak the same language. But most of the time you're not speaking the same language, so it's how you get to know one another through that. It's certain ideas around connection that I think I'm really interested in making work about. And it needs to come from their personal experience just as much mine because they're the ones that are embodying it.
ELSEHERE: I'm sure everyone's experiences with these relationships are so different. How does this all come together in one work, or what was that process for you and the dancers?
Finleigh Zack: It takes a lot of discussion. I use writing a lot for both myself and for open discussion with the artist during a rehearsal process. I could come in and have this idea of "this is what I wanna do and you're gonna embody this," but then that artist may not even understand that type of relationship or may have not had an experience with that. So it's hearing their perspective and their input on it so then it can influence the decisions of how I form the work.
I'm also a choreographer that's not very attached to my work in terms of the actual movement. We work a lot on a collaborative basis. The way that I work with my dancers is I'll come in, obviously I'll have music and an idea of what we wanna do, but I'll just start talking and then they will start to form the movement based on what I'm explaining. So it's a lot of discussion, working together, and coming to a solution with their experience as well.
ELSEHERE: Is there anything unexpected that came out of this process, or something that you weren't necessarily ready for? How did you adapt to that or how did you incorporate that as well?
Finleigh Zack: The work that we just performed a month ago, it was a very quick rehearsal process. We had about five rehearsals to create a 15-minute piece. It was a very quick run essentially, and I'd love to expand the work. I had created this idea back in October, and was like, "This is what I wanna do. I wanna explore one relationship rather than multiple relationships, and I really wanna dive into the choreography of a conversation essentially of two people, and how that plays out based on different emotions and heightened emotions." I had this set idea and then I came in and was explaining this to the artists and one of the dancers was, "I think it needs to be more generalized because this isn't necessarily something that everyone goes through. It may be just a personal idea.” With opening it up we were able to tell more of a story, and we actually ended up incorporating the use of the costume with the dance, so utilizing what they were wearing to be part of the dance, which I'd never done before as well, and it just came from us talking. That was probably the most memorable part of the piece, and what made it really visually... easy to understand because of the visual cues that the dancers were using.
ELSEHERE: I think play is so important when it comes to choreography. Even when I choreograph myself, I take so much inspiration from what my dancers do, and then I think "maybe we can take that and transport it, transform it into something else ." In terms of expanding the work, what does that look like for you? How would you proceed with that? Yeah, what does that look like?
Finleigh Zack: The one that I'm looking to expand, which is called “The Power of Perspective,” we went through an R&D process last June to open it up to be a bit more of an improvisational score, to then also incorporate writing and real time decision-making. The choreographic work that we've set, and it's about 30 minutes, I think that can stand alone, but also there can be things added, but not necessarily choreographed movement. There's a bit more of a play, to use a bit more of a comedic aspect and also real time decision-making.
Having dancers write on stage and respond to what other people are saying or saying things on the stage, but it may be different one night versus the other night it is being performed based on what the actual dancer's, just how they're feeling emotionally in that moment. They could come in and feel really great about the show, and the whole mood of the piece could be completely shifted based on how they're feeling in that moment, based on the verbal cues that they're giving another dancer to be improving. So it's a play on different people. It could also be switched based on who's performing the work. It's something that could be very easily moldable and expanded into a longer work, but more of a play and more of a relaxed side of the work. It can be very serious work.
ELSEHERE: Spontaneity is so raw, and I feel that it really relates to your connection and relational aspect as well. You were saying how different dancers can influence the work in different ways, and the audience who's there, and the energy that's in the room really can transform and mold the experience of the piece as well.
Blind Zone
ELSEHERE: When we say blind zone, we don't mean a hidden secret, we mean the part of the usual way of looking at things, looking tends to miss. I'm curious what you'll pick up here. So from here, I'll show an anonymous work. We'll both look at it together. So, from a creator's perspective, not a viewer's perspective, what is the first decision that you see on a greater scale?
Finleigh Zack: What do you mean by decision?
ELSEHERE: Just in the choices that they make, where the work is set, the lighting, where the dancers are placed in the space, anything of that sort.
Finleigh Zack: There's some really interesting choices that were made both within the set design and also in the atmosphere of the whole work. You can clearly tell there is a story. There is a storyline, and there is a point A to point B, or at least, an arc of the work. With the stark lighting changes as well with the different colors, and then also that more open lighting that brought the space out a bit more so you could see more of the dancers, or also even just lighting the back wall as well. There's different choices that were made, and you can tell that they're intentional. So it was interesting to see from an outside perspective without knowing what the work is about or what's gonna happen.
You can tell it's very heavily influenced on performance theater and acting, with the scene at the beginning when they're on the table and they have the telephone or when she's pulling the string out of her mouth, or there's little pieces on the ground. I was trying to piece it all together to see arc-wise what it was about.
ELSEHERE: It was some really interesting intentional choices that were just visually entertaining. The lighting choices were particularly striking, especially the contrast between the homey set design of the bathroom and table, and the almost unnatural red and purple hues that nearly clashed. If you were the creator of this piece, what questions would you like to be asked about it?
Finleigh Zack: If it were me, I would want people to ask me about the choices that I made and why I made them. For example, the lighting and the use of the bathroom and the use of the table. I'm definitely someone that likes to make choices that are very intentional based on the work, rather than just make work to make work with no concept or idea behind it, and there's a lot of choreographers who do the same, to have an idea behind the piece. I would want people to ask me about it and to be curious about it.
Costume choice as well. They were all in the same color, but wearing different things. Why did they choose white? It had very neutral colors, and especially the space itself was very neutral, but then it had those two lighting changes, so you wanna go, "Oh, okay, well, why? Why that decision?" 'Cause it clearly is intentional.
ELSEHERE: Yeah. And then how do you think this work is trying to control where your focus is? What techniques does it use, and how did it work or maybe didn't work for you?
Finleigh Zack: First off, lighting, obviously. There are places in the stage that are lit or not lit, where they don't want you to see or they want your eye to be drawn to those places. There were also a lot of uses where there were people downstage in the different corners that were either sitting or doing something a bit more pedestrian, and then having someone dance in the middle or having people dance in the background. So it was an interesting contrast to see those two types of, the way that she was manipulating the space, because my eye did go to the dancer most of the time, and then I was like, "Wait, I need to be watching the other person to see what they're doing," to see the difference between the two.
ELSEHERE: The way that they utilized the space was really interesting. There are so many little details in that as well: the dancers playing with the dominoes in the corner, or even a head poking out on the side out of the wall that is unseen. What kind of attention does this work require that contemporary viewing habits usually do not allow?
Finleigh Zack: The acting portion. There is that use of the play of different acting versus just dancing that makes your mind go, "Okay, well there's a little bit more. There's a different layer to the work." Inserting vocals in dance is really hard.
ELSEHERE: We just practiced a way of looking without an author. Now we'll bring that same approach to your work and let it stand on its own first and then come back to you. Looking at your work, there's so much connectivity in the dancers. Even when they're not touching each other you can see that there's a lot of looking at one another, and I'm curious if that's something that has grown into your work over time and something that the dancers have connected over, or something that you encourage with them.
Finleigh Zack: It's funny that you say that because the work that we just performed a few weeks ago, when we started doing the work, was not a lot of depth. We spoke about eye contact and how eyes can tell just as much of a story as the actual movement itself. When I teach workshops, I talk a lot about the head and how that is an extension of your spine, and that a lot of people forget about the head. Eye contact is such an important part of performing, and using that to influence your decisions for the movement that you're performing.
With all of those pieces in my reel, they're all about different relationships and different connections with other people or with yourself. It also helps because I work with the same dancers on every project. You get to know people, and you get to know how they work. They just get more comfortable with each other as time goes on as well, especially because we've been working together for about six years now. There is that bond that grows, and then performing becomes more comfortable, so then they feel more comfortable on the stage.
ELSEHERE: And you said you have three dancers in New York and three dancers in the UK. How does bringing them together look?
Finleigh Zack: We did that for the first time last March when we performed in the UK. It honestly just made my heart so happy to see all of them in one space together. It was such a great week when my New York dancers came because they got to meet these people that I've been speaking about for two years, and finally being all in one room and realizing that they all work the same. It was just so easy to add them in and mesh that work together. I'm just really happy that I have such a great team behind me and that they are just up for anything that I say really when it comes to doing projects and making work and really just being committed to the project.
ELSEHERE: What else draws you to your dancers specifically, or when first creating the company and finding them, what was that for you?
Finleigh Zack: Every single one of my dancers, I'm not a believer in auditions. I think that is great for larger companies or for people who are really actively seeking artists and maybe just need one person, but when you're looking to form a company, I'm someone that works well with my friends, but I felt I needed to separate my friends from creating work and creating this company that is my job.
I just put on Instagram, my New York dancers, which I absolutely love and adore, all of them were found on Instagram except for one. One of them, we were dancing in a company together and I left the company and then I took her with me. The two others were on Instagram. They had followed me and said, "Hey, if you need any dancers let me know." And I had just started a new project and I was, "Yeah, do you wanna come to rehearsal next week?" She's so amazing, and I'm so glad that she's been a part of it for four seasons of work now.
And my London dancers, I spotted one person in a class. I'd been in the UK for about six months, then I just DM'd him and said, "Hey, I've seen you in class. Do you wanna get a coffee and we can chat about work?" Then I brought him on, and he had a really close friend who he said would be good for the project as well, so I brought her on as well. Probably about six months later, I was taking a class and the person leading the class was, "Go talk to her. She just moved here. If you need dancers, ask her." So it was just networking and just meeting people.
I always tell everyone that I work with, I wanna know you on a personal level before I become your boss per se or become a leader of a company, because I want to have that connection with you both in and out of the studio because we both are humans and it's not just about work colleagues.
ELSEHERE: And that's so important to the work that you create too and your mission as well, so that makes so much sense. And then in general, in all of your work, are there any decisions that you made that you still fully don't understand, or you made but you're not sure why that came about or why you were drawn to that option?
Finleigh Zack: Maybe two things. One, self-producing. I think I just did it once because I was, "Oh, we need a venue," and I have a whole evening length of work that I need to perform. From there on out, for the past four years, we've only been producing work ourselves and not doing any festivals or anything because I find it a lot more meaningful when you see the whole process from the beginning stages of finding a venue, working out a budget, deciding the project, how you're gonna do it, when you're gonna do it, to then actually seeing it all the way through to the end of the performance. Don't really understand how I've gotten wrapped up into that. I absolutely love it. I love producing, and it's something that brings me a lot of joy within my work. It's just something that I never had any background in, and now find myself doing it quite often.
The second would probably be moving to the UK. It was just this idea that popped into my head. I was meant to move out of New York, but down south to Atlanta, which is where I'm originally from. We were gonna become residents of this art center in Atlanta, and I was super excited about that, but I just didn't feel it was the right decision for us at that moment, and I was like, "There's something in London that I just feel the push to do." I did it, and I still go, "Why did I do that? I'm crazy." But also, it's just been such a great opportunity and so fun to navigate it and figure it out along the way and take that risk, saying yes and seeing what happens.
ELSEHERE: What does all this teach you about your own limits, formal, ethical, emotional, or anything political about yourself?
Finleigh Zack: You're a human first, and your art is such a large part of you, and those two can coexist, but do not put so much pressure on everything else going on. I find myself getting wrapped up a lot in the external world and things going on, and there's times where I just feel the only thing I can control is me and my work.
A few weeks ago I was on the phone with my friend, and I was, "There's just a lot going on in the world right now, and it's scary. It's scary the time we live in, to be quite honest." She goes, "The only thing you can do at the moment is live your life and create your work and create your art, and that will benefit people if it benefits people."
You know what? You're right. If my work reaches certain people and maybe it touches them or it makes them feel some sort of connection in any way in this very isolating world that we live in, then that is me contributing to society and to our world.
ELSEHERE: Would you consider that your purpose or your responsibility as an artist? And how do you first access that in your life?
Finleigh Zack: It's been a slow burn of just figuring out where I fit in the world and what I want to contribute and how I contribute it. But I really don't see myself contributing to society in any other way. I feel this is my gift to other people that I can give.
I think that everyone has a gift that they can give to the world, and there's a lot of different factors, and there's a lot of different things that people can give to share with other people. Art specifically, yes, but also in other ways with your job or with your family or with other people in your life. It's just about being generous, and utilizing that in different ways.
ELSEHERE: To close this off, if this episode had a title, what would you call it?
Finleigh Zack: We've talked a lot about offering and caring for one another, and how, just stories in general. Something about writing a story or writing your lines in a story, something about contributing your stance or just offering up to other people.
Finleigh Zack's Work
About Finleigh Zack
Finleigh Zack is a choreographer, director, and producer originally from the US and is now based in England. She received her BFA in Dance from NYU Tisch School of the Arts under the direction of Sean Curran. She is a former member of WHITE WAVE Young Soon Dance Company and Second Avenue Dance Company.
Currently, she serves as the Artistic Director of Finleigh Zack Dance (FZD), an international nonprofit organization operating across both New York and the UK. Her choreographic work has been performed and presented internationally, including at the Paris Olympics, Rambert Dance Studios, Chisenhale Dance Space, Gibney Dance Center, Center for Performance Research, and Boink! Dance Film Festival.
Artist Statement
My creative practice is influenced by collaboration and the balance between personal experience and diverse cultural perspectives. I approach creation with mindfulness both in and out of the studio, prioritizing care for both the physical and emotional body through artistic direction and collaborative processes with fellow artists. I strive to create work that engages audiences in thoughtful conversations through performance and community-based practices, creating space for expression, connection, and support across every facet of my work.
About Inside Out
Inside Out is ELSEHERE’s long-form conversation series, published through STRATUM. It begins from the belief that before artists are understood through category, institution, or medium, they must also be encountered through the deeper structures that shape a practice over time: memory, method, contradiction, relation, and the conditions of life pressing from within the work. This conversation with Finleigh Zack has been transcribed and edited from a live recording for publication.
Edited by Yuyang Hu
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