You're Pretty. Let's Dance

I make performances and objects for performance that involve connections between people—abstract, emotional connections as well as physical connections. This often involves tying people together. I’m simultaneously interested in creating universal experiences for all humans as well as creating experiences that highlight the alienation that occurs when people are forced to categorize themselves within especially restrictive boundaries.

I’ve created performances for traditional stages, gallery spaces, warehouses and the Internet, often times drawing from my experience with interactive technology to expand the capabilities of the body or the audience’s perception of the body.

As a choreographer, I realize a concept first then bring it into rehearsal with dancers, primarily improvising to devise a movement score for a piece. This evolves throughout the rehearsal process through revision. I rely heavily on video documentation of rehearsals as a reflection tool, sometimes integrating this video into the final version of the piece.

I became interested first in cameras, attaching them to odd places on my dancers and stringing together the footage to make abstract video pieces. Later I used crowd sourcing on the Internet, putting out calls for submissions, publishing them online and using the material to choreograph dances. This process has evolved through my experience as a student in the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. During this time I’ve experimented with materials, constructing physical apparatuses to control video and sound, and projections, using visuals as set pieces that reshape stage environments.