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photo by Josh Schachter
I started studying ballet at age 7, then added jazz, modern, and tap. As a teenager, I became young apprentice to the Pennsylvania Dance Theatre, a modern dance company in my hometown of State College, PA. Then I got distracted by high school sports (soccer, basketball) and left dance. Ten years later, I discovered West African and other African-based dance forms, which redefined my perception of movement and dance as communication, and invited me back into my body. Shortly after, I returned to modern dance and joined NEW ARTiculations Dance Theatre, where I now serve as the Special Projects Director.
In Tucson, I perform modern dance regularly with NEW ART and, on occasion, with Thom Lewis’ Dance, and African-inspired rhythms with ZaBoomBa. I am also a co-founder and member of Movement Salon, an improvisational performance group. I have had the wonderful opportunity to study and perform with Liz Lerman’s Dance Exchange and Urban Bush Women, companies that have deeply inspired my work.
My choreography draws from contemporary movement and is informed by an eclectic mix of improvisation, personal and community stories, pedestrian gestures, and West African and Latin styles. I am interested in how modern dance can be used to illuminate complex issues within our society–creating beauty, revealing hidden connections, and communicating both personal and collective experiences. I tend to work collaboratively giving dancers and students the opportunity to generate their own material given a particular prompt or guidelines. I see the body itself as a bridge that can link us to others and to the places we pass through or inhabit. I am interested in the connections between dance, text, site, and narrative in both practice and performance.
The pages in this section highlight my various dance-related work:
NEW ARTiculations Dance Theatre is a Tucson-based modern dance company. I joined the company in 2005 and am now its Special Projects Director.
I love improvisation. Every week I practice with a group of movement artists, writers, and a musician to make work. We also perform locally.
Moving Stories is a workshop series and teaching method combining dance and creative writing.
Also, be sure to visit these pages, highlighting the collaborative dance projects I co-directed for NEW ARTiculations Dance Theatre:
The Invisible City, a collaboration between NEW ARTiculations Dance Theatre and Kore Press, brought together over 20 women artists to explore public space in downtown Tucson.
We Are What We Eat, a collaboration between NEW ARTiculations and the Community Food Bank, explored the food we eat and the systems that feed us through dance and stories.
Re:Configurations, a NEW ARTiculations production, shared stories of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender relationship and partnership through modern dance.
