I make dances from scratch with the people in the room, I re-stage existing work, I work in-person, on Zoom, and in hybrid formats. I cultivate inclusive spaces in which I value each students' lived experiences, dance proclivities, and creative contributions. By establishing a language of trust and collaboration, students actively participate in their own growth, have a voice in the dance-making process, and develop a commitment to the work as if it is their own... a piece of them lives in the work and they can feel it.
"Nowhereland"
A fractured sense of ensemble among the simultaneity of multiple, mini-worlds... This dance exists neither here nor there, and has a strange-ness in it's sense of place. The work was created out of the assumption that every student in the room brings something valuable, interesting, and beautiful. I aimed to feature every student equitably throughout the piece, hear from each student throughout the process, and invite everyone in to the creative conversation.
(intermediate level, large ensemble)
Music: Adam Crawley (djplie.com) and Andy Hasenpflug
Fall 2016, SUNY Brockport, Dance Department, Repertory Course
"Sweet Fire"
It is austere in tone, and about how the power of flow meets the simplicity of stillness. I sourced imagery from "women's work" of years past: the mundane yet precise work, the meditative repetition of that work, and the bonds that bind female communities through the work. There is touch, weight sharing, and a flocking use of space between the four dancers, offering valuable experiences for student dancers to practice sensing of the group's moving energy, to understand how to communicate through touch and weight, and to heighten their sensitivity to proprioception.
(intermediate-advanced level, quartet)
This dance was selected to perform in ACDA's National Showcase in CA Spring 2020, but was a show cancelled due to Covid.
Music: Dark Wood and Camille Saint-Seons
Spring 2021 American College Dance Association, Gala Performance,
Department of Dance, SUNY Brockport, Repertory Course
"We'll Keep On"
"Are You My Mother"
This work references the popular children's book with a playful relationship to time and sound, as well with a child-like sense of delight and surprise. Where the imagined becomes real, a bricolage narrative portrays a dream-like chronology. This requires great commitment from the dancers-- the ability to tap into an improvisational presence to make the imagined real, as well as an ability to embody the changing rhythms of the movement.
(advanced level, quartet)
Music: Dave Brubeck and Paul Lansky
I do not own the rights to this music: educational purposes
"We'll Keep On"
"We'll Keep On," is a group work performed to Queen's Somebody To Love. It captures perpetual motion as a form of resilience and persistence in movement and in metaphor. The motivation of the sound drives dancers to keep on, and speaks to the human necessity for hope and love, and the universal need for interpersonal connection.
(beginning-intermediate level, large ensemble)
Music: Queen
Fall 2021, Guest Artist Residency, University of Memphis, Theatre and Dance Department
Spring 2021, Bryn Mawr College, Dance Program, Ensemble Course Instructor
Spring 2020, SUNY Brockport, Dance Department, Repertory Course
2017 American College Dance Festival NE, Gala, students from the Department of Dance, SUNY Brockport
2021 (postponed, Covid) Loyola Marymount University, students from the Department of Theater and Dance