Quentin Robinson

Welcome to 100 Stories, the narrative intelligence project. I'm your host, Paige Williams. This series explores a question at the center of how we become who we are. How malleable are the stories we live by? And what does it take to change one? Across 100 conversations, I'm speaking with thinkers, creators, researchers, and more. Those whose lives have been shaped by profound change. Together, we're examining the stories we inherit, the stories that become identity and the human capacities that allow us to see, question, and transform them. These conversations are helping shape the emerging field of narrative intelligence and the foundational book that I am

writing about it. This is 100 stories. Today I am speaking with Quinton Robinson. He [music] is lecturer at San Marcos teaching a new course he developed called the history of hip hop dance. Over the past 27 years, Quinton has run a nonprofit that helps people process mental and physical trauma through movement. I invited Quinton today because he's a friend. He's a great storyteller. He's a fantastic dancer and movement professional and he's a filmmaker. He creates incredible stories and he has a few of his own. So welcome Quinton. Thank you for being here. Will you tell us about the work and experience that has most shaped how you see yourself in the world?

>> I feel those experiences and the way I see myself and how it shaped the way I see myself in the world. Movement. I feel that what comes with me is the way I perceive that people see me is when they see me, they think of a moment in time. if I've interacted with them or if they hear a song or if they see someone else dance or if they start to dance themselves. It's just that thing of like Quinton, I remember we did this or I watched a performance or it's there's always moments that that people associate with me when it comes down to a song or class or something that they've they've they've they've learned from me on the floor.

And people associate movement, which is my heart, with me. And I feel like that's the way I move through the world as a as a hip-hop street dancer. Also, growing up in that way, there is no this is the specific way you're supposed to move. This is the rules. This is the regulation. There is no rule in regulation. There's a what are you feeling in that moment? what song are you listening to and letting that out.

There is no no prethought to it when you're freestyling. And I I like to think when it comes to me and the way I move through the world and the way I see myself is adapting, being able to adapt to whatever song life throws at you. I incorporate that that feeling to those moments. Tell me about growing up from, you know, the story that kind of shaped who you were as a kid from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to where you are today and how that story has transformed. What's been some of like the most transformational stories that has shaped who you are today versus who you were when you were growing up?

>> There's one thing that ties me in to that that same kid that grew up in the basement. It's the the idea of of of hunger, knowing what that feels like, knowing that feeling of being hungry for more and never getting complacent >> because that that complacency kills is a real thing. >> How does that hunger narrative in your life, how did it turn into creation for you? the idea of wanting and waiting for someone or something to to I'll use the word save me or save us and waiting for it. That is the complacency and and that hunger and that want that transformation. How I used it is do it now.

There's no better time than now. If I can train right now, if I can get better at this right now, if I could be the best at this thing right here, right now, when it's time, that preparation, there's no there is no doubting me once that door opens. There is no saying, well, I don't think no, we have to we have to take all doubt out. So, that hunger is is that need to crush and destroy all doubt. And it just builds that level of creativity to go, all right, what what is the limit? Like what have as a as a human being, what have you seen on a dance floor that made you go, whoa, and what can I do to make you go, "No, I didn't see what I just saw." Like that that reality breaking,

physical ability breaking thing that you look at and you go, "Was both feet on the ground in that moment?" I don't think so. What is it like? I want that feeling and that's what helps build the next project. It helps build the next thing. It helps build the next dance move again to the song life throws at you. Whatever song life is playing in that moment, you got to be able to adjust to it. You got to be able to hit the beat. You got to be able to like get into the groove of that song that life puts on you in that moment and keep it and keep it and keep the flow then. Even if you jump off beat, it's okay. We mess up coro every once in a while.

>> That's okay. >> Get back on it again. >> Right. >> Is your >> That's right. >> your groove. >> What story do you tell about a transformative moment in your life and how has it changed over the years? Well, >> there's two moments that tie in together. So growing up it was rough but movement was something. And when I say movement, we call it cutting up one from dancing. The style that we do is is popping, but we call it cutting up one from city boy.

You couldn't just walk into another neighborhood. You couldn't just walk into another school. You couldn't just walk anywhere alone without possibly at a 90% chance getting into a fight with whoever lives in that neighborhood. Impossible to not get into a fight or something in that in that way or jumped or shot or robbed. That's impossible. So, but as a dancer and during that time, we could walk into we could go from Fort Lauderdale to Miami to the worst of the worst neighborhood and have a guy walk up full in the mouth. We call them bump dreads, like the big thick dreads, gold jewelry rings. You can clearly see that he actually has like a AK leaning on the

car. But when he sees you, he goes, "Oh, you we we call little kids Jit." You that little Jit that that dance over there when in Fort Lauderdale, y'all's at the talent show. Yeah. And then they get excited and then they go, "I'm going to go get my cousin real quick. I bet I I bet he can beat you." And then they go run off, get their cousin, and then like 40 people come out from that neighborhood. And then you just you have a dance battle and everyone's like cheering you on and everybody's celebrating and and then when you're done they like dap you up and they're like, "All right, man. Good job. Hey bro, that was tight work." And then sometimes they'll even pay you for

beating their cousin and like, "Hey, man. You got that. You got that one." And now you have that pass. You walk into that neighborhood, you walk into that high school, all of these things are possible because of movement. So that's one thing. The other thing that ties that in is the simple factor that I was in Afghan. Me and my buddy, we would throw these parties at the USO. Everyone's invited except the colonel.

And we would have a dance competition and we would put up $500. Everyone can get in. And you know, the people from India, the people like all of these different places, Georgia, they would get in cuz 500 in India is a good amount, especially to win in a dance competition. So I had a buddy named Fossil and I sat with him in the office one day and he was just sharing with me how him and Martin Luther King and Gandhi were the same person.

But then in that same like paragraph he stated how he had a disdain for Pakistanis people from Pakistan cuz he's from India. you were from Pakistan. There's a feud going there's been a feud for a long time. And he was telling me how much he hate them and all of these different things. I was like, "Has a Pakistan ever done anything to you and your family specifically?" Was like, "No, but they're just bad people.

All of them are bad people." We threw this party and the song from Whiz Khalifa, Black and Yellow was playing. That black and yellow, black and yellow, black and yellow. That song was playing and I look up and Fossil is throwing down with a group of Pakistanis over there having the time of their life like dance, battling, having a great time, high-fiving, and all of the things. And when it was done, they continued talking and I saw them at the chow hall.

>> Nina healed these like old cultural narratives. >> It did. And they and that brought his group of friends and the Pakistanis group of friends and all of them were just continu that dance moment was it just continued the way they interacted and hung out all the time after >> what can dance communicate about identity about memory about grief or healing that spoken language can't I mean in that case like dance healed an idea >> yeah we hold so much trauma in our body.

We hold so much like damage and so many things that that we can't always identify on the surface until we feel or we hear. Sometimes a song can trigger an emotion, but we don't understand that emotion. But with movement and and getting that tension out of our body, we hold so much tension in between our joints. We we ball up. We we cover up. We go into the fetal position. Sometimes when there's fear, when there's hurt, when there's pain, when there's trauma, our body naturally does that to protect itself.

So with movement, when we start to expand and wave and we do all of these different motions, that kind of breaks those moments of tension and it forces our body to to to be more exposed to the environment. That's why on a stage there's so many different emotions that I can go through depending on the performance, the intimacy of the crowd and everything because to dance with no words is a very exposing thing to do and on top of that to capture attention and entertain and be good and have someone feel what you're feeling.

Like we have all of those things because our bodies tell story. Our bodies we are art. So yeah that that expansion of movement that storytelling it allows a lot of stress and tension to be released. >> Have you ever discovered a time when you're dancing or through movement where your body was carrying an unconscious story and then you realized it and what happened after you realized it to that story?

2017, I was at VidCon. >> We got the news that my mom went in for a liver biopsy and she did that and she everything was fine. You know, a lot of pain, but she did it. But the doctor called her back and was like, "Hey, we found something uh in in her stomach." Like, "What is that?" I didn't hear anything back for like a day or so. I'm at VidCon. my brother uh Bobby, dance name's liquid. He was backstage with me when I got the phone call and it was they think they found cancer in mom in mom's stomach and she needs to go in immediately and she's still at the hospital. She hasn't left yet that entire time cuz they wanted to start treatment immediately. So that's being said to me

backstage while we're getting ready to go one two three break right before we get on stage and we start we we do the whole thing. It's the finale at VidCon. There's like 70,000 teams like present in this Anaheim Convention Stadium that we're in. And there's a final song. All you have to do is that take a minute. I forgot the name of the song, but it was that song and I was last. And I took the final the final few like seconds of the song and while I was dancing everything was bigger. Everything felt more like I felt a lot of energy leaving my body as I was dancing on that finale.

And in that moment when the song was done there wasn't sadness. It was me. For some reason, my mental was like she just watched that. >> Like she just saw that and that was for her and she had to feel that cuz she knew that I was performing and she and I was like should I like come back right now? And they're like, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no." What role does repetition and practice and physical movement play in changing a deeply held story about who we are?

>> I feel like it's the same thing when we think about writing, when we think about graffiti, when we think about lyrics. We can go into tombs and we can look at the graffiti. We can look at the the hieroglyphics. They tell a story. Our body is capable of doing the exact same thing without saying a word. When we go to different locations, when we go to different parts of the world, a lot of the times we use hand gestures. We go back to step one, which is motion. When we go to a foreign location where we don't know the language, we use motion. So that storytelling and and how we hold it, we go through experiences. When we experience life, even if there's an

argument, even if there's a a tension back and forth, there's a motion, there's a facial feature that we have, there's that that swelling in the back of the head that fills up when when that tension builds. Like, we have all of those moments. And regardless, even if it's tears, that's a part of it. >> Have you been successful in translating it into film and then delivering it to an audience? How do you see like sharing a narrative in film versus sharing a narrative on the stage through dance?

>> First, the intent and knowing what your goal is and knowing what you're going through. On stage, you have to be able to capture the audience. I won't go to an intimate setting and throw on Flow Rider's apple bottom jean song in an intimate audience and start dancing crazy. No, you have to know the audience. You have to understand the story you're telling. Does it go with not just the venue, but does it resonate with you? And the way you tell that story through movement, you have to be very particular. You have to be big about that. If I'm picking something up, I'm just not going to go, "No, I'm going to like open up my hands. I'm going to wrap my hands around that. I'm going to

pull." Like, I got to show you what I'm doing while I'm doing it. You know whereas film I can jump the process here and there but for the real moments of feeling I want to show that full on. I don't want to cut away from that full moment of where I need you. It's like the it's like the the the intro to the antagonist. I want you to know what the problem is. I want you to know what I'm going through in that moment. But how I get to it, we could we could manipulate that on film. But when it's time to show you how I'm dealing and show you that fight, I have to put you front and center with movement. And with movement, the movement has to be intentional.

There's a difference between a battle dancer, a studio dancer, and a performative dancer. A battle dancer won't give you the same performance as a stage performer. Because a battle dancer is they're smaller. They're oneon-one. They're going at a person. If I put that battle dancer on stage and he does that to the audience, they're gonna be like, "Why is he so angry at us?" It's just different.

>> Yeah. >> It's just different. So, you have to know how to translate that. That's why every battle dancer is not a filmmaker. They're not in commercials. They're not in a studio. And a studio dancer is not in the on the battle in the in the battle. a studio dancer is not on on film or creating that much. You might see him in a stepup movie or something like that because that's a lot of choreography, but at the end of the day, there's a diff there's level and I won't say levels, there's different avenues of approach with dance. And that's that hunger we go back to. I've never settled for having being really good at one particular style.

I can pop, I can wave, I can glide, I can touch, I can animate, I can do all of these things. And then I can produce, I can write, I can act, I can do this, I can go to a studio, I can be in a in a performance with other dancers doing pio, I can go to a battle. I never put myself into one, one box. >> What story do you tell yourself that allows you to not put yourself in a box?

I look around and I pay attention to a lot of things in my environment. My mom always taught us, prove it wrong. Prove it wrong. Oh, I learned about this today. Try to prove it wrong. Studio dancing, that's the best. Try to prove it wrong. Like, go against it. Like, understand it because when you go against it, you understand everything there is to know about it. Prove it wrong. If I tell you to prove the Atlantic slave trade wrong, you're going to learn so much. you're going to learn a lot. So, my goal was always in order to move forward, I have to be able to move through every room. I have to be able to to to at least speak the language of of movement in dance in

order to keep moving forward cuz there's a ceiling to everything. >> Your nonprofit using movement to heal trauma. How have you seen the body and movement heal trauma? Cuz often trauma is attached to the story in our body and the story that we tell ourselves. So how does that movement actually help people process it and release it >> with that? There's moments of of the aha the aha moment. And that aha moment is when a kid or baby or toddler stands up for the first time and they take those few steps and everyone's like, "Yay!"

And now it's it's cool, right? Like it it's that thing. is that aha moment. And everyone has aha moments throughout life. Something that you you thought wasn't possible or something you thought you wasn't going to get or be able to to to finish or experience or travel to. There's always aha moments, but there's nothing like a aha moment where one sometimes you may feel goofy doing something or you may feel I'll never be able to do that. And then when it happens, especially with your body physically, there's a light switch that just turns on and it it just sets a fire to you. So going over to the to not just around the McDonald's, you know, helping

people with that that's going through chemo and and Make a Wish and all these different foundations. When we get up, if I told you, hey, go hit your light switch, you just get up and go and that's it. But to the person that's going through a recovery and rehabilitation, every step, every every even the mobility of using their finger to turn a light switch on, depending on what they're going through, is something that was once impossible or thought to be impossible to be able to do again. So to be able, we say dance. A lot of people think I would walk into the into a facility and go, "All right, we're going to learn the moonwalk, people."

No, that's not that's not what what the movement portion is. That movement there is music involved. There is storytelling involved because that's a part of the movements for movements program. We storytell but we connect our movement and one of the exercises to our own story. So there's an exercise we do where over a period of almost 7 minutes we've been timing it almost 7 minutes we create a poem about ourself rather it be something traumatic maybe it be something we overcame rather it be something that we want to or we have experienced or we are in fear of and then we have a trusted partner or someone that you've been working with they read that off and while they're

reading that You're putting movement to your word. So, it's performative, but you're moving to your words with with movements that match that feeling best. So, case in point, went to a school, there's a student, the problem child, I can I could identify that student from before the door even closed behind me. I know which students the teachers are like, I wish that kid stayed home today. Like, I can identify that. And those are my favorite students.

Those are the ones I love to work with because by the time we're done, they are the goofiest, silliest, most outspoken, understood ones in that classroom by the time we're done. >> That what's that transformation about? >> It's a lot of times we're just not understood. When we're not understood and know no one's going to understand us, we don't give people a chance to even try.

So that student that's late, the student that was the trouble student that I knew soon as I walked in, this is in Missoula. I was teaching at uh Hellgate Hellgate uh Hellgate school out there and >> yeah, >> one of the students I just saw the student over there and the teacher was like, "No, no, no. He they he doesn't participate in anything." I was like, "Not today." So I went over there, sat with the student, told him what we're doing like, "Hey man, just help me out today." So he stood up, he was helping me out. I'll tell them what to say.

He'll say it to the class. D. He helped me with the whole exercise of getting people to write. I was like, "You don't have to write right now. Just repeat what I'm saying to you, to them. They'll do it." Okay? It's like, "All right, cool." So, he started doing that, paring everything I was telling them to do. He was a part of the situation. He was a part of the room. He was a part of the process. And then afterwards, he came to me. He was like, "Can I write something, too?" I was like, "Sure."

So he immediately everything that I told him to write down about the the the project that we're doing. He remembered everything and he went straight to his paper and just started writing. And I was like, I'll keep them busy for a little bit. Take 5 minutes. And he jotted everything down. Was done in like three. Had a full page. Teacher said that's the most he's written in that class the entire time. He's been there just about. Next thing you know, everybody start pairing up, putting movement to the words, practicing with their partner and everything. And then I took the teacher and I said, "You, this is your partner." And I paired him with that student. Your partner's today. And

the teacher, I walked over there and the teacher had just like a few tears in his eyes. And I was like, "Why? Like what's going on? Everything okay?" And immediately the teacher was like, he pulled me to the side and he was like, "I don't know. Like I didn't know all of this. I just didn't know all of this about this student." He was basically homeless. He's always eating in class because he's get to school late. And one of the students gives him food and he eats it in class because he does he can't make it there to the lunchroom cuz he doesn't have money to get breakfast anyway and he he's not on a program.

Doesn't have money to go to a vending machine. His clothes were always damp. So he's saying all of these things in his writing. He got to the word compassion and the student the teacher said the word compassion out of his writing and the student stared at the teacher and was like I don't know a movement for that. I don't know a gesture or anything for compassion. And that hit the teacher really, really hard because here's this kid, he can spell it, but he don't know what that looks like or feels like >> to put it in a movement. And that teacher, his mind just clicked and was like, got it. That alone the teacher understood that student in those moments

because he couldn't identify with movement, compassion, which is love and care and and thought and all of these different things. He didn't and he couldn't. So our experiences with love, all of these different things, there's a movement for it. There's a feeling. But this kid didn't know compassion. And that hit this teacher extremely hard. And I got a note from that teacher like a few months later and 180 180 on the student 180 on their relationship.

>> Everything. >> That was that was his aha moment. Both of them. >> That was it. >> Wow. How do culture, race, gender, place, community shape the way a body is interpreted? Both by the person living in it and by the audience watching it. And I can say when I walk into a space, the first thought that I get isn't, "Are you a dancer?" The first thing I get is either an athlete, a musician, a rapper, an artist of some sort. Never dance.

Because culturally, when you say you're a dancer, where I'm from, I'm considered a dancer. But around the world culturally when I say I'm a dancer, people associate dancing with modern, jazz, ballet, contemporary. That's dancer. Where I'm from, we don't When you say you're a dancer, people don't think, "Oh, yeah, you do ballet." No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. They think, "Oh, you dance." No, no. Like, I'm I'm a dancer.

So, yeah, you go to the club, turn on music, and you can dance real good. You do? No, I'm a dancer. So even at home the idea of of my of the body is different. Even at home we're perceived as well yeah you just dance that's normal. And outside they autoatic they automatically think ballet, jazz, modern contemporary. So when I walk into a space I use that as damn near superpower. It's like that Clark Kent thing. It see the poet up there. I see the the musician up there. I see the sing the beautiful singer. I see the the rapper flowing. I see all of that. I'm like, "This is home." All of this right here compiled together. I do that through that song, that that rhythm, that

storytelling, that spoken word. I do that through expression, through my body. So, culturally, there's a there's a positive and a negative. The positive is again where I'm from, the training I've had which was self-taught in the beginning and then exchanging here and there with individuals from different disciplines over time and just learning myself walking into a room and that music starts rather it be again I could dance on stage with just jeans on and sock and it's not interpreted as a a hypersexualized thing when and I start movement.

There's no idea of magic mic or anything like that. Once I start dancing, once I start doing the styles that I love to do, there's a wow moment because again, there's not a lot of prior marine 6'2 black dudes from the hood with dreads that's going to get up there and do what I'm getting ready to do. That's the upside. That's the wow moment. The downside to it is I can walk into a space and say I can do this, this, this.

I've done this, I've done that. Boom. The budget will stay at a certain marker. >> Following the likes will stay at a certain marker. I can show you unfortunately a white kid or a white a white guy or girl doing something that I did in middle school. What? And where we from, we call we get that out of here. just like that. That's the way we It's It's like I don't know. It's like looking at a a old video or something. You're like, "That ain't it no more." You know, like it's it's not a disrespect, but it's almost disrespectful to go, that's hip-hop and that is amazing.

That's the best thing I've seen in a long time. It's like I did that when I was in the seventh grade. Like that's recorded. Like that's been done already a thousand times. Why Why are there people still making millions of dollars in views off of doing the moonwalk? That's the commercialized version of what we've created and produced from where we come from. From that grit, from that gutter, it gets commercialized and then it gets uh lowjacked and then packaged, rebranded, and put on the shelf. and we watch that go out and we're like >> that sale date is bad already like that that's been done but to the masses they'll never know.

>> So you've you're such a pioneer and and you've written this course on hiphop and the history of hip-hop that you're going to lecture. So tell me what narrative intelligence needs to know from the history of hiphop. What can we learn from it? >> You literally just said it. The history. The history. Not Shannon Tatum's Stepup movie. Not You Got Served, but the history. DJ Cool hurt. That first DJ, that first moment, that first night when hip hop was birthed, when he got on there and it just started. the people, not just the people, but the sacrifice, the migration of people that went that that went from the south to the to the the Oakland and all of these other

places during the riots and all these other things like that. Like there's so many different moments in history where when it's taught correctly, there's a different level of respect that individuals hold when they learn what they're doing, not learn how to do it. When you learn what you're doing, you will have a different respect. I can go on YouTube and mimic a dancer. >> Yeah.

>> From anywhere around the world. But what I won't know is if I mimic a dancer from a certain part of Africa, a certain part of Asia, or I mimic, for instance, you will never see another culture mimic a Samoan ritual like when they're doing their uh I forgot what it's called, the hike. I don't want to mess the name up of it, but when they're doing their their the chance and and the when they're doing that, >> that's a story. That's their culture.

That's them. You will never see a group on a Gap commercial doing that. You will never see that. And if you do, it's going to be hell to pay because that's a story. That's life. That's that is so many different things that they put in that. So with hip-hop, that's story. That's life. That's the way we move. That's the way we we we shift through the world. That's not just a thing you go do. You don't just do hip-hop, you live hip-hop. There's elements to it.

That's what they're going to learn. They're going to learn to treat hip-hop and know when to use it the correct way and how to appreciate it. The same way which again to be invited in that family to be a part of marriage you see them doing it at the marriage they're inviting that person into their family that's almost rit that's ritualistic right learning hip-hop should damn near be ritual like it should be a ritual to learn hip-hop >> the word that's coming to mind is embodiment >> yes it precisely yes You you are an embodiment of movement, of creativity, of storytelling as expressed through your move. You mentioned your mom in a beautiful way a

few times and you know we started with we just take doubt out of it and then I can be anything. I can do anything. And she said question the narrative or question the truth like oh that's the truth. Why don't we question it and push against it? And then there was the story of going out on the VidCon stage not knowing what's next. And it just strikes me that the narrative you've learned from your mom has shaped who you are and how you move through the world.

>> Yes. Yes. Watching and seeing what we went through and what we were able to get through and then as an adult, especially right now with my kids, realizing she had four, two, and these dreads are almost getting pulled out every other week and she had four of me of me and my siblings, you know. So, it's it's it's one of those things. Three boys and one girl, you know. So, in a rough rough area on a teacher salary, elementary school teachers salary in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in the 80s and 90s.

Yeah, of course your mom was a teacher. >> First teacher's aid. A teacher's aid in the 80s and early to mid9 transfer up. >> Yeah. >> But she sang and I could I could three-way someone in right now and just go, "Hey, you remember when my mom sang There's a Hero." and they would probably get goosebumps and teareyed voice was one of those voices that you hear and it's up there with those like arthas and patties that just gives you the cheer. She danced. There's a video of me dancing with her before she passed away.

I didn't even know she was in that pain. I didn't know she was going through therapy two months before VidCon and she shot a video with me and Bobby again. She came out. She shot a video with us. She She was a author. She did stage plays. She was signed to Lion Records as a singer. She ran track. She held records on a track and field. She was just it. And I say me and my siblings, all four of us, we are all quarters of what she was. We're all just a quarter of what she was what she was. So >> if you got to say this is what narrative intelligence means, how would you define it?

>> Narrative intelligence feel like it depends on who you're telling it to, who you're telling it to, and are you willing be like are you willing to give the information straightforward rather it benefits you or not? because you're controlling that. When I think of narrative, I think of control. And when I say control, not in a negative or positive way, but the narrative is in your hands in that moment. And what you're giving it and and again, who are you giving this this this intelligence to? Who are you giving this information to? Are you willing to give it to them cut and dry? So, it goes back to me stating in a nutshell, the way I plan on teaching is have that

respect of knowing what you're learning, knowing it, learn like getting like like getting the information, what you're doing, why you're doing it, the who made it possible. So good or bad, you're going to get it cut dry in the truth. Regardless of if it does minimize or if it does bring out that idea of well this comes from trauma, this comes from pain, this comes from hurt, there was anger behind this.

That part that's all it is. It's just a part. So that narrative intelligence is is who you're telling. That's one side of it. And the other side is what have I gone through? Who am I? What have my experience has shaped? How did I build who I am? Out of all of those things that we spoke about, whether it be family, dance experience, growing up in a rough spot, my mom, the way she she she held all of us, that built me up and that built the library of of things that I can always flip back to. So when that situation, that narrative comes up that something else controls hits me or comes to me or is it right in front of me, my experiences and what I've been able to gain and what I've

been through gives me context clues on how to deal with that situation, that narrative that's being put in front of me. Also, >> Quinton, this has been amazing and really a different perspective on it. You know, talking about movement and story has been awesome. Thank you so much for your time. >> Oh, no. Thank you. I I really enjoyed this and I got to get back out there cuz I miss y'all out there. So, >> Oh, yeah.

>> Yeah. Come see us. >> We'll do. >> Here's what I'm taking from this conversation about narrative intelligence. Quinton helped me see that stories do not only live in words. They live in movement. in the way the body protects itself and what it remembers and in what becomes possible when someone is finally invited to move differently. I keep thinking about the student [music] who could write the word compassion but could not imagine a movement for it. Movement revealed something language alone had not.

[music] And once the teacher saw it, the story he held about that student changed. Quinton also reminded me that expression without history can become extraction. Narrative intelligence may include learning to read the stories held in bodies while respecting the histories [music] that gave those movements meaning. And now I want to invite you into the narrative intelligence inquiry. What is your ENQ?

[music] Take the narrative quotion assessment at story keys.co and subscribe to 100 Stories, the narrative intelligence project, wherever you listen to your podcast. Follow the project on YouTube for future conversations, and please send to a friend. Quinton, thank you so much for talking to us about movement and narrative intelligence.