About Me

Artist Statement

The study and integration of dance into our lives brings into us a better understanding of self through past history, present movement, and future challenges.  It is not enough to just move through life, for we then take in an understanding of the world through mostly a visual and auditory medium; movement is not just a mode of transportation but another medium through which we can come to understand the world and ourselves.  As a dancer/choreographer/teacher my philosophy centers on that special understanding through movement, not just the “What,” “Why,” or “How,” of movement, but most importantly the “Who.” The learning, creating, and discoveries made through dancing, choreographing and teaching should not just bring knowledge of the past, present, and future of the world, but the past, present, and future of self.  This is not an easy path to lead another, or oneself on, which is why it must be done with love, patience, and support, for the crafting of a person comes in the journey and process not at the destination.  

Dance Styles

I have quite a wide range of styles intertwining in my body.  I began when I was 14 with Ballroom and Latin dance which I continued until I was 19 years old.  During that time I began to experiment with Cabaret and the use of two bodies to create beautiful shapes.  from when I was 19 till I was 21 I took a break as I served my church for 2 years after which I went to a university to start my undergrad degree in Social Work...and that is when I began to truly fall in love with dance.  I continued with Ballroom and Cabaret for a while but then found Clogging, Modern, Jazz and Ballet...and my passion was sucked into the world of Modern dance.  For the last almost 5 years I have been focusing on Modern dance and making it my own.  My ballroom background has helped me develop a unique use of partnering in my modern movement, including many techniques taken from my years of experimentation with Cabaret.  So I love the foot work of Clog, the give and take of Ballroom and Latin, the sharpness and attitude of Jazz, the perfection of Ballet, the risk of Cabaret, and I have taken all of that and put it into the realness of Modern.  My journey can be seen in large part through my choreography which you can view in the Choreography Tab.

Background

I am a dancer/artist who does not come from a typical dancer background. My interests and passions range from all sciences (especially physics), to music (I play piano, hand drums, saxophone and sing), culinary arts, philosophy, to social science…and many others.  I was blessed with a good mix of the analytic mind from my dad’s side and an artistic eye from my mom’s, thus producing a social worker who does math tutoring on the side, while dancing and choreographing every day, and still finding time to bake every week, on top of a thoroughly interwoven religious life.

All of these passions serve in their own way to shape my artistry and my perspective of the world.  The one which currently shapes many of my thought processes would be my background in social work.  In the spring of 2012 I graduated with a social work degree during which, and after, I have experienced and observed many of the heartaches the world has to offer including my time spent working with kids who are juvenile sex-offenders, kids with developmental disabilities, those afflicted with drug addiction, the homeless population, and those who are challenged with mental health issues.  This has shaped the way that I see the human experience, and mixing that with the many styles of dance I come from has attuned my artistic eye and my natural movement to embody the many issues and joys that are laced throughout life in a very symbolic manner.  By symbolic I would define that in reference to Tanztheater where you see the human, the abstraction is many times created in the environment which helps raise the questions posed by the artist. 

In short, I love life!  I love understanding it through other’s eyes, and I love to challenge other’s perspectives as well so that they might learn more about themselves and the world around them.  Currently I am living in Washington DC and working on shaping myself more as an artist before I go on to receive my MFA and PhD in dance.  Dance is not only beautiful aesthetically, it is another medium of speech, it is a way to come to understand ourselves and the world around us.