Opportunities and achievement lead Fontana resident to career in dance
Dance is something that has always been in Tula B. Strong’s life.
The Fontana native said by age 5, she was studying such South Pacific dance styles as hula at the Fontana Cypress Community Center. She also remembers performing at the Los Angeles County Fair.
“I danced these same dance forms throughout high school with the Bloomington High Polynesian Club,” said Strong. “I also did cheerleading in high school.”
It would not be until Strong was taking an introduction to movement course during her first semester at Princeton that she became serious about pursuing dance.
“I can truly say that this course and my professor in this course changed the trajectory of my life,” she said. “In this class, I was exposed to dance in a way I never quite encountered it before.”
She learned how dance can be more than just a series of steps and movements, she said. Dance, particularly choreography, was something that she discovered could be a way of processing and speaking on what is occurring in a person’s life and community, as well as society.
Growing up as the daughter of a single mother, Strong wanted to attend college but was unsure of how to pay for it. In her senior year, Strong applied to the QuestBridge College Match Scholarship Program, a scholarship that connects high achieving low-income students with top colleges, offering a full scholarship to those universities.
“I actually never thought in a million years that I would go to Princeton,” she said. “Growing up, I didn’t really think it was a possibility for me. I knew of no one in my family or community who attended a school like that, so it just seemed out of reach.”
Strong was also awarded the Gates Millennium Scholarship, which provides support throughout undergraduate years and full funding for graduate programs in seven disciplines. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in comparative literature with specializations in Spanish and Portuguese as well as a minor in dance from Princeton, Strong settled upon educational studies for her graduate work at Loyola Marymount. Her desire to continue with dance led her to UCLA, where she obtained her MFA.
It was while studying at UCLA that she realized the role musical theater had been playing in her efforts as a choreographer. She became much more intentional about training as a vocalist, often singing with the UCLA gospel choir.
“It was my love for singing and gospel music that really charged me to explore how I can further integrate the act of storytelling through song within my work,” she said.
Strong’s final MFA capstone concert at UCLA was intended to take place in April 2020.
“COVID-19 really threw that plan completely out of the window,” she said.
Although the live version of Strong’s show had to be canceled, that led her to develop it as a three-day virtual dance and music experience.
“Testimony’ centers around a community of Afro-Diasporic women and their journeys through trauma, healing and faith,” she said of the filmed production set to premiere early next year.
Strong firmly believes in the power of the arts to have an impact in low income communities.
“Providing more high quality and affordable arts programming in our communities would really help to both nurture the amazing, innate creative abilities of so many and to develop the next generation of creative change makers not only in our Inland Empire, but in the world at large,” she said.
For information: tulabstrong.com or @ tula.b.strong on Instagram and Facebook.