As a dancer, I am interested in studying movement as it exists on and in bodies pertaining to sensations such as uncertainty, desire, vulnerability, and exploration that are sites of interest as I navigate the process of defining my own values and selfhood. I never seek definite answers, but instead question and analyze technique as a way of physicalizing abstract concepts in order to better understand who I am as an artist and what my world is like.
I see dance also as an experiment, a risk. When I choreograph or perform, I create to converse, wondering if other people have also felt, observed, dreamt, or thought about the foundations for the stories I feel in my own moving body. In this vein, I create art in search of connections, testing my own experiences against the world to see if they resonate. I believe that dance as a performance medium invites the audience into an experiential space where their physical memories are ignited by the movements they observe, and an active physical response is often cognitively called upon. Because of this unconscious transfer of information that passes between that which is most visceral in all of us, dance facilitates an immediacy of response and lived emotion, which I seek to convey as strongly as possible through my own movement.
Furthermore, I translate my values as a dancer into my role as a teacher. I take very seriously my responsibility to give all students a safe, comfortable, and creative environment in which to learn about themselves as dancers and people. Dance as an art form is uniquely visceral and evocative in that physicality in its most basic form is something which all people share, and so my teaching approach views the body as a medium through which students can authentically express their humanity.
I encourage students to use dance as a widely-applicable resource for understanding. As the body is a crucial aspect of the art we practice, I value the inclusivity of all identities, noting that our emotional experiences are inextricably tied with our physical ones. Therefore, the body as an area of study is not linked to idealism, but to individual progress and a deeper knowledge of the self. It is important to me that my students find joy and release in their dancing, so that even when they are learning technique, it is with the understanding that these foundations are gateways that will allow them to embark on greater creative journeys and paths of emotional understanding going forward. Each day, I aspire to help students see that creativity does not stand in opposition to technical skill, but rather, that the two can, and should, combine powerfully, which is a quality of the art form that I have spent all my life learning for myself as well.
I see dance also as an experiment, a risk. When I choreograph or perform, I create to converse, wondering if other people have also felt, observed, dreamt, or thought about the foundations for the stories I feel in my own moving body. In this vein, I create art in search of connections, testing my own experiences against the world to see if they resonate. I believe that dance as a performance medium invites the audience into an experiential space where their physical memories are ignited by the movements they observe, and an active physical response is often cognitively called upon. Because of this unconscious transfer of information that passes between that which is most visceral in all of us, dance facilitates an immediacy of response and lived emotion, which I seek to convey as strongly as possible through my own movement.
Furthermore, I translate my values as a dancer into my role as a teacher. I take very seriously my responsibility to give all students a safe, comfortable, and creative environment in which to learn about themselves as dancers and people. Dance as an art form is uniquely visceral and evocative in that physicality in its most basic form is something which all people share, and so my teaching approach views the body as a medium through which students can authentically express their humanity.
I encourage students to use dance as a widely-applicable resource for understanding. As the body is a crucial aspect of the art we practice, I value the inclusivity of all identities, noting that our emotional experiences are inextricably tied with our physical ones. Therefore, the body as an area of study is not linked to idealism, but to individual progress and a deeper knowledge of the self. It is important to me that my students find joy and release in their dancing, so that even when they are learning technique, it is with the understanding that these foundations are gateways that will allow them to embark on greater creative journeys and paths of emotional understanding going forward. Each day, I aspire to help students see that creativity does not stand in opposition to technical skill, but rather, that the two can, and should, combine powerfully, which is a quality of the art form that I have spent all my life learning for myself as well.
