PROJECTS
My artistic research is a choreographic inquiry into the usefulness and meaning of dance and art making within society. This process most often leads to the creation of live-performances, dance films, site-specific wandering performances, multi-disciplinary collaborations, and community happenings at the local, national, and international level, but it can also take form in ongoing movement rituals, observational drawing, and embodied practices. My work thrives in relationship to and not isolation from others. My work is dead if it does not connect to everyday life.
My research practice becomes entangled in the surrounding community both in its use of space and its relationship to the citizens in that space. It is important that I offer my work to diverse audiences and not just the dance-knowledgable or the élite. I often situate my choreography in public spaces for two reasons, 1.) so it can exist within “real”, practical settings and 2.) so it can be viewed by the people who regularly occupy that place. The effect of the experience is cinematic. Unbound from the proscenium stage, the performance is framed by windows, alleyways, expansive parking lots. Rich and tangible in color and texture. This celebration of the everyday underpins my aesthetic. I am interested in resourcefulness as a key element in my dance making process. How can my process acknowledge and bring value to everything in the room? I am interested in scavenged material and creating with “found objects” both physical and choreographic.
I pay close attention to both what I CAN see and what I CANNOT see but imagine. Themes of sensing and perceiving weave as common threads through nearly all of my projects. This emphasis on dance making as a highly visual process has guided my process toward dance film and the use of cinematic techniques in my choreography for stage and for public spaces. When creating work for a more traditional proscenium space I ask: How can I craft the work to the particulars of its performance space and the particulars of the performers? How can I highlight the nooks and crannies, pointing to color and other unique or forgotten physical aspects? How can I reveal secret, unnoticed worlds without bombastic production? When creating work for a public space I ask: How can I set up a scene in public space that allows the whole environment to be affected? How can I highlight the relationships between things, inserting my own artwork into a highly complex, changing system of traffic lights, bus schedules, weather patterns, and strangers? How can I create a vivid, intriguing narrative within the context of such a volatile environment?
Below are four examples of projects resulting from this inquiry.
My research practice becomes entangled in the surrounding community both in its use of space and its relationship to the citizens in that space. It is important that I offer my work to diverse audiences and not just the dance-knowledgable or the élite. I often situate my choreography in public spaces for two reasons, 1.) so it can exist within “real”, practical settings and 2.) so it can be viewed by the people who regularly occupy that place. The effect of the experience is cinematic. Unbound from the proscenium stage, the performance is framed by windows, alleyways, expansive parking lots. Rich and tangible in color and texture. This celebration of the everyday underpins my aesthetic. I am interested in resourcefulness as a key element in my dance making process. How can my process acknowledge and bring value to everything in the room? I am interested in scavenged material and creating with “found objects” both physical and choreographic.
I pay close attention to both what I CAN see and what I CANNOT see but imagine. Themes of sensing and perceiving weave as common threads through nearly all of my projects. This emphasis on dance making as a highly visual process has guided my process toward dance film and the use of cinematic techniques in my choreography for stage and for public spaces. When creating work for a more traditional proscenium space I ask: How can I craft the work to the particulars of its performance space and the particulars of the performers? How can I highlight the nooks and crannies, pointing to color and other unique or forgotten physical aspects? How can I reveal secret, unnoticed worlds without bombastic production? When creating work for a public space I ask: How can I set up a scene in public space that allows the whole environment to be affected? How can I highlight the relationships between things, inserting my own artwork into a highly complex, changing system of traffic lights, bus schedules, weather patterns, and strangers? How can I create a vivid, intriguing narrative within the context of such a volatile environment?
Below are four examples of projects resulting from this inquiry.