As an artist, much like as a human, my evolution is continuous. My aesthetic develops, my inspirations widen, and my experiences collect, so that each and every day my dancing/creating/teaching/researching body is new. Yet in the same reality, strip back all of these layers of change and evolution and what remains is my “fire.” This is my passion, my fuel, my reason for dancing. This is the essence of myself within my artform. This is what allows me to evolve and expand as far as possible, without ever losing the core of being. And so it is this “fire” that I begin each technique class with, which makes each ballet barre different than the one before yet connected in the passion and knowledge within my bones. It is this “fire” that makes the rehearsal space and space of exploration, of commitment, of multidimensional improvement. When we lead from our “fire,” we lead from the deepest truth of our art, we unlock the potential to learn while holding onto what we already knew, and we become completely immersed and available to the present moment. Our “fire” is fueled by our skills and knowledge. It is filled by our ambition and creativity. It lives and breathes as our artistic life force. 

 

“Fire” feeds on all that surrounds it. My inspirations are my surroundings, be in the physical spaces I examine, the way a new piece of music immediately moves my body, or the images that just seem to stick in my mind. And once the flame has been lit, it grows and intakes each bit of information and inspiration. My aesthetic development is an ode to my classical modern dance background; the shapes, musicality, structures. As a key feature in my work, this ode is met with reference to my later discoveries such as post-modern and contemporary movement languages based in somatics, and even commercial jazz training. This results in the personal mark of my work such as its quirky and specific signatures. Yet, my movement vocabulary is vast and ever expanding from the need my “fire” has to learn more and new at every opportunity. As I oscillate between performer, creator, researcher, and teacher my “fire” remains and allows my experiences in each of these titles to inform one another. At all times, no matter what role I am playing, I am developing in each of the others as well. In this way my process is multidimensional and based in the present collaboration of my “fire” with that of the ones I am working with. Each iteration of my "fire" comes from the same initial flame of my soul, yet the fuel it intakes offers individual possibilities for each one to take on a life of its own. 

 

My process, in every sense, is based in presence and intaking every bit of inspiration and knowledge to join what has already been a part of my body and mind. In everyday, every space, It is my artistic purpose to “find my fire.”