Artist Statement
As a choreographer and dancer, I am fascinated by the shifting dynamics of human relationships. Differing movement textures, detailed emotive gestures, and clear spatial separations are consistent components of my work. I am interested in how bodies communicate with each other dynamically and spatially, as well as how body parts communicate between one another within the individual. The human body holds lifetimes of experiences; and my goal is to tease out specific, related experiences in my dancers to create a powerful tidal wave of empathy, emotion, and fascination.
My art is often conceived through emotion-driven concepts, abstract storytelling, and improvisatory scores. Intersections of dance, music, and costuming build images and worlds that bring people together in explorations of their own identities and relationships. My work reflects on my own identities as a queer and Jewish person who seeks to live and create outside the boundaries of gender.
Improvisation is an integral component of my art. I view improvisation as the most pure and unedited expression of self, and I use it both as a generative, choreographic tool and an expressive self-revealing therapy. When I improvise, I enter a cerebrally stimulating and trance-like state, in which expressions yet to be explicated by the mind are formed by the body.
To me, dancing is simultaneously the most vulnerable and powerful feeling. I ask my dancers to explore their vulnerability and passion, to dance experientially and with curiosity. I offer the viewer a chance to be vulnerable, an opportunity to relate to the world that my dancers and I have created-- whether to find similarities, differences, or catharsis.