How Many Ways can I Fit in This Space

I created this project in quarantine during the Covid-19 pandemic.

This project was based on the prompt “Be the source of a headache” given by Detour Dance. I approached this prompt with the separate thought of exploring the many ways that I can fit my body into a small space. This got me thinking about the ways in which a space can literally and figuratively shape us. New spaces require new physical habits. Old spaces may bring back old physical habits. Similarly, spaces may hold power over the different shapes that we make out of ourselves in order to better fit where we are. I shape myself into a student when I am at school. I shape myself into a daughter when I am at home. I shape myself into an artist when I am at the studio. All of these shapes are within me but which one I choose to be is largely influenced by the space that I am in. Currently, our spaces have become more fixed than they previously were. I find myself in the shape of a daughter far more often than I find myself in the shape of an artist or a dancer just because I am in the space where “daughter” is the shape that fits best. Sometimes being in a shape for too long becomes repetitive, confusing, numbing, and painful. Hence, the headache.

The first iteration was just one minute long and can be found on he Detour Dance website here: http://www.detourdance.com/jukebox/can-the-brain-itself-feel-pain

I further expanded this idea for my composition class into a longer piece that included text as well.

What is over the body and what is under the light

This performance was an exploration between group improvisation and lighting improvsation by Dian Jing for her MFA thesis.

A short preview used to advertise for the performance.

We spent months trying out all kinds of prompts and relationships and this live showing was a peek into that process. Dian would give us a new set of prompts and a new set of groups just before the show and then she would improvise on the lighting board in response to our movements, and we would respond to her lighting choices according to the prompts she had given us. It was a really wonderful exploration of emergent structures in improvisational groups and was really a one of a kind experience.

Watch the full performance here:

https://vimeo.com/390198361
I am the one in the bright yellow, flowy pants

Vantage Being

This performance was choreographed by Brianna Johnson for her MFA thesis exploring states of being and interactive technology.

I am the one in the reflective short-sleeve shirt.

This piece was performed in Urban Arts Space and included live interactive displays that the audience could interact with. While the larger piece was about the way the technology and performance impacted the audience, our primary focus as dancers was our relationships to each other. We had each developed a specific set of movement habits or “creatures” through many many improvisational practices. Eventually we developed those movements into this set piece of choreography that was led by impulse, habit, and response.