Shades of Winter

This girl probably dances in her sleep. That’s what goes through the minds of many when they first meet Winter D. McCray, a Baton Rouge native who’s also the founding member of dance group A2D, a BREC instructor, a choreographer and the owner of Winter D. Dance & Company.

McCray began dancing at age 9, mimicking the choreography in hip hop music videos, but she took a more professional route as a teenager, dancing with the Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre and her church’s liturgical dance group. From there, she started doing jazz and hip hop choreography.

“I would just dance at home, but I always thought it would be a hobby,” McCray says. “My first performance was at age 14 at church, and that’s when the passion ignited.”

While McCray’s dance foundation is hip hop, she also trains in ballet, lyrical dance, liturgical dance, jazz and mime, seeking out styles that encourage the body to move to the lyrics of the song as well as the beat.

She is most widely known as a member of the gospel mime dance group A2D (Anointed to Dance), which she founded in 2007. The award-winning group of five female dancers presents a Christian message and has performed locally and across the South.

Through McCray’s work with A2D, she has bonded with fellow dancers, including Southeastern Louisiana University sophomore Jorden Melton, a former dance student of McCray’s through the Big Buddy Program.

Melton, the captain/choreographer of the liturgical dance team at Matthews Chapel AME Church, took instruction from McCray for four years as a high school student.

“As a dancer, she has inspired me to reach toward my dreams, be a leader and go after what I love,” Melton says. “She has inspired me to be the best dancer I can be and only reach for greatness.”

McCray is still nurturing younger dancers, creating a sort of little-sister mime dance group for A2D called A2D2. She also started her own dance company in 2012 and has already facilitated some free day-long workshops for both youth and adult dancers. She has taught dance through BREC since 2005 and had about 300 students enrolled this past fall.

As someone who has been on the Baton Rouge dance scene for nearly a decade, McCray says she hopes that she can inspire young dancers to stay in this city and continue its artistic growth.

“I think that a lot of dancers tend to venture out of the state for training to experience the ‘true’ arts because they feel they can’t get the proper training or technique here,” McCray says. “We [Baton Rouge] are growing in the arts, with lots of great dance studios and theatre companies, but we can’t nurture you if you’re not here.”