Angela Robinson has a prism set high on a windowsill in her downtown Lexington hair salon.
It is easy to forget that the small tower of faceted glass is there some days, but not on sunny ones. Those sun-filled days are when the prism comes alive, bending and separating daylight into a rainbow of color for Robinson and everyone else in the room to see.
To Robinson – a veteran member of the March Madness Marching Band’s color guard – the prism is a metaphor for her creativity at work (she named her salon Prism) and every other aspect of her life. She is a comedic storyteller, a trained dancer, a quirky costumer with a love for bold knee highs and polka dots, and a devotee of generous use of emojis featuring sea creatures and orange cats, thanks to more than a bit of inspiration from her orange tabby named Crouton. Few personalities burn brighter than hers.
Yet carrying all that light onto the stage has not been easy.
“I have had such a long, complicated relationship with dance, feeling for so long that I can’t be a part of a dance group, that I am intrinsically not made for dancing. It took me years to shed those stories. Just getting myself to the dance floor at Mecca in 2000 was such a huge step for me,” she says referencing Mecca Live Studio and Gallery, the Lexington dance and cultural center owned and operated by founding MMMB member and co-lead choreographer Teresa Tomb.
“I have continued to remind myself that this space is for everyone, including me,” she adds.
That kind of positive self-talk is important. So is practice, which Robinson has made central to her development as a performer. Decades of instruction in numerous dance forms including belly dance, salsa, hula, as well as vintage dances like the waltz and contra dancing, have increased her skill level and her confidence.
But perhaps Robinson’s greatest asset on stage and elsewhere is her innate ability – specifically her ability to turn the everyday into a big, bright moment to remember.
“My main kind of energy that drives me is just a desire to be creative in almost every place I inhabit and have fun, and fellowship. That’s what I love best, is that being in the band checks so many boxes for me,” says Robinson. “I love that that it brings me closer to like-minded creative kind people who I can sit near and eat snacks with and laugh together. That is the best.”