Blood Orange on the Connection Between Music and Dance

At [Brooklyn Academy of Music], they were letting me use their studio to dance in, whenever there’s no one there. They have a piano there, so I bring my stuff and record these improvisations.

The piano on “I Know” was from an improvisation that I kind of chopped up and made into that song. I mean, it’s always kind of... If there’s any equipment or a studio somewhere I can use, I’ll use it. I’m so impatient that a lot of the times things on my albums are the way they are almost because I’m so impatient. If there’s a song on my record where it’s me playing all the parts, it’s because I wanted that song to exist in that moment. If there’s another singer on it or another bassist, it’s because they were there or they could come in the next hour and make it happen. Same thing if I had a piano: If I owned a piano, I’d probably do an entire piano album. I had a day in a studio with just a bass and drums, I’d probably do a whole album on just bass and drums.

In that particular moment, it was more I was just taking a break and just playing the piano. That song actually has a dance video to it that I made a couple years ago and haven’t put out yet, because I’m a freak. Piano and dance – it’s a very connected thing in my mind.

Honestly, I’m maybe at my happiest when I’m dancing. It’s really so pure. It used to be pretty separate, the dancing aspect to the music aspect, for me. Once I started slowly pushing them together, I started becoming more comfortable musically, especially performance-wise. It usually takes a lot for me to perform, but then once I started incorporating more dance into it, I started feeling a lot more comfortable. This song really did stem from dancing. I was dancing for maybe four or five hours before I went to the piano. It was still heavily on my mind, so I then choreographed to that piece. They exist in my head as one and the same.

I’ve done some stuff with dance but never something that’s full-on ballet. Actually, the video for “I Know“ featured Maria Kochetkova, who dances with SF Ballet and ABT. I am really interested in all of that, but my thing is that I’m trying to take steps. I have a full respect for a lot of these things, and I don’t want to just dive in. I’m kind of inching my way towards a lot of these worlds, so that it’s not just like “Blood Orange: The Ballet.” No one wants that. I want to take my time and pay my dues.