My work has developed as a response to the expectations of my classical ballet training, ballet’s culture, and aesthetic. My movement style focuses on a subversion of classical ballet in combination with contemporary movement and modern dance, emphasizing storytelling and musicality to connect to the viewer. Collaboration is also inherent to my practice so that the work feels authentic to the dancers onstage as well as to the artists behind the scenes who help bring it to life. 

Ever since choreographing and directing my first piece in 2020, my goal has been to take the “I don’t get it” out of concert dance. I believe that dance is not meant to be understood only by an elite few, and that it should be enjoyable and accessible for audience members at every level of viewership. I want audiences to laugh, cry, and feel that my work was made generously for them. My hope is to create dance works that have a well-informed and compassionate point of view, that connect to the humanity of every person in the room, and to showcase contemporary dance as a powerful and relevant vehicle for communication, connectedness, joy, and change.

The contemporary ballet world (and often the concert dance world in general) is not typically accepting or enthusiastic about viewpoints that differ from established norms. It is important to be serious, but never “ugly” or crass, and it is important to be joyful, but never “too loud” or boisterous.

I strive to make work that deconstructs these boundaries and recenters joy, connection, and the audience experience within dance performances.

Several of my pieces have also explored real-world issues in the hopes of opening dialogue around them. My first collaborative work, “FEAST”, explored the intersection of colonialism and environmental degradation in an easy-to-digest, almost Seussian storybook-esque format. “snack” focused on the American gig economy and its effects on workers; workers who make their livings from “snacks”. My most recent work, “our knees hurt”, explores the injustices female-identifying people face. All of these works activated a large and diverse community of artists: my current and former Baldwin Wallace University students, musicians, filmmakers, visual artists, actors, writers and dancers of diverse ages, backgrounds, races, and gender identities. By amplifying diverse voices and creating easily digestible work, I hope to activate dialogue and change while also pushing concert dance to become mainstream and relevant.

Photos: Liz Cooper