Statement of Work

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I believe that good art draws the viewer in and asks questions. The scenario may be specific, but the questions are universal. The work should make the audience feel part of something larger than themselves. My evening-length dance work always starts with a question of how we come together as individuals to take care of each other (or not). Each dance work has a vocabulary unique to the performers and the question being explored. I always start with an improvised, problem-solving task. Though I know what I want to ask, I do not plan to come up with an “answer,” but rather a lens for viewing the question. My rehearsal process is long – almost always spanning many months and often more than a year. Performers are really collaborators and it’s important that they are willing to explore the themes of the work honestly and authentically. Sometimes we will make an initial, shorter version of the work, perform it and let it “age” for a while before coming back to expand it into a longer piece of theatre. The work is not just dance steps on bodies. Aside from the choreography, each dance calls for a specific setting. Sometimes that can be created in a theater, but often it needs to be done in a less traditional space. My favorite places for dance is where it’s least expected: the library, a ferry, the subway, a busy sidewalk. In these places, I can reach audience members who don’t know to look for dance, who might not obtain a ticket to go to a theater to see live performance.