Artist Statement
Dance is a powerful communicator that mirrors the written word. It can communicate thoughts, ideas, and persuade audiences with a single gesture. A look. A leap. From crafting their technique and choreography, dancers are not just creating steps. They are developing a kinesthetic vocabulary. That vocabulary can turn into words, into phrases, into sentences, into paragraphs, into pages filled with moving texts, into a novel. A novel that the dancers is the author of and reads it aloud for an audience from the stage.
From studying the writing process, dancers become fluent in a form of communication that enables them to make their work more accessible to whichever audience they desire to reach. From learning how to write with style, dancers understand the power of punctuation. Think about Hemingway. With his brief, short sentences. His concision. Dance too has this.
A pause.
A brief moment for the audience to take in movement.
They see how linking a phrase of movement together, one after the other, flowing and rushing through the space on stage, immerses the audience in the world they are creating before their eyes. Think Fitzgerald with his lyrical descriptions of Daisy, in her pearls and 1920's curls, and Gatsby himself, coveting and yearning for that green light that glows from the other side of the bay. Understanding the flow of language leads me to capture each pause or flowing river of motion with my body. It helps me feel in a deep and physical way what a three word sentence feels like. I gives me awareness to what physical reactions an audience may have to my work if I employ abruptness or fluidity
Dance is also a form of visual rhetoric. Visual rhetoric is the use of images or juxtaposition of images to convey a message to an audience effectively. The imagery within choreography undeniably connects an audience to a message or idea from the choreographer. To effectively communicate with an audience, choreographers and dancers can benefit from learning the concepts of traditional rhetorical studies.
One of the main concepts of rhetorical studies is the rhetorical situation. This concept helps rhetoricians in analyzing a situation their rhetoric will be used in. This involves identifying the voice the rhetorician has in the situation, the audience the rhetoric is intended for, the occasion for the rhetoric, and the constraints surrounding the situation. Choreography can be applied to this concept. Creating from a place that examines my personal voice as an artist, who my audience is for my work, why I am creating the work, and the limitations I experience present in the creative process enables me to envision the most effective choices I can make to help my work connect with an audience.
Connecting with an audience is the ultimate goal in the choreography I create. I seek to make work that explores experiences integral to life on earth. This includes experiencing trauma, the emotional toll of searching for answers to one’s most desired questions, and how individuals choose to react to personal trials. Each person on this earth has unique experiences that others can fail to understand. However, we have all felt pain. We have all felt trauma. We have all felt joy. Creating work that seeks to capture the emotional side experiences in a physical form invites audiences to revisit those emotions and reflect upon their connected memories. Feeling these emotions together, choreographer, dancer, and audience creates a culture of empathy within dance that I seek to bring into this world.