Corvidae Video

Tonight, I realized that I had neglected to upload this footage from last year's fringe performances.  So hop in this time machine with me, and we'll throwback to last year at about this time.

This was post-Atlanta, where two of my old friends were marrying each other and where I reconnected with many dear friends as well as my mother's side of the family. It was post-Seattle, where I mourned the loss of my grandmother, one of the truly greatest people I've ever had the honor to meet, with my father's side of the family; there I also visited with a close friend from college, astonished at how much she had grown.  This was after all of that, when I was back in Philly and processing the tumultuous summer.

Corvidae (referenced earlier on this blog by it's working title, "Crow") was the product of that processing. Using imagery from my own personal associations, and created in collaboration with two lovely dancers (Shailer Kern-Carruth and Celia Murawski), Corvidae is centered around our kinship's ties to location and how we nurture (or neglect) connection across time and space; it investigates how we navigate those long-distance relationships with those we love, and how it feels when they're gone for good. 

You can watch the video here:

Updates - Book in the works, Lure series, and "Indelible" video

Dear readers and friends, my apologies for being remiss in my updates!  This summer has been busy, busy, busy.

First, I'd like to let you all know that for the past year or so, I have been working with my mentor and teacher, Amanda Williamson (along with co-editors Glenna Batson and Sarah Whatley), on editing an academic volume titled Dance, Somatics, and Spiritualities: Contemporary Sacred Narratives. Right now, we are just about in our peer-review stage, and then the book is set to be published in the Fall/Winter by Intellect Ltd!  I spent a week earlier in the summer in the UK with Amanda, intensively editing the chapters before this review. In the book, many seminal figures in the dance, somatics, and spirituality fields speak openly about their work and their own understanding of the numinous.  More info on that as the publication progresses, but let me tell you that I am incredibly honored and excited to be a part of this groundbreaking work. 

Secondly, I was thrilled to recently show some excerpts from my earlier work "the melting point of feathers" at Angler Movement Arts Center's Lure performance series.  It was a part of Frankford Avenue Arts' First Friday festival in Fishtown, Philadelphia.  I was fortunate to be able to step in and dance a role with Megan Mizanty, one of my original performers.  Meg also presented her solo, "Little Battles," which is a favorite of mine.  I have been teaching Kid's Dance (creative movement) and Adult Beginner Ballet at Angler over the summer, and it is just such a beautiful space right here in my very own neighborhood! Here are some more photos from the show: 

And Meg's "Little Battles" (photography by yours truly, haha):

Lastly--and perhaps most excitingly--I finally got my video from the theatre performance of "Indelible [I closed the book and I changed my life]" that was staged in May in Conwell Theatre as part of Temple University's Endings concert series.  For me, this was a cast of dancers I'd never choreographed on before, and I really loved working with these dancers! They really dedicated themselves to going through a process in which I saw them grow tremendously from day one to our final performance.  It is now live on youtube, so enjoy!