My relationship with movement & sound comes through many decades of studies of these mediums through the lenses of performance, therapeutics, esoteric/spiritual, ceremonial, and the unnamed spaces and places in-between them all.
In my youth, I focused on studying a range of dance and music theory/techniques and performance skills through dance studios, school bands, and a rock band or two. When I wasn’t in a studio, rehearsal, or performance, I spent time outside in nature, hiking and cultivating a meditation practice. By the time I was sixteen, I had explored several healing arts modalities and Buddhism. I began college in music performance/education studies before shifting to psychology. After taking a few ballet and modern/contemporary dance classes, I took a semester of yoga classes twice a week for college credit. After graduating with a BA in psychology, I cultivated a twenty-year career in non-profit public health organizations, focusing on working with people with diverse types of disabilities and trauma in community-based programs. My roles included direct care, program & senior management roles, quality assurance, and staff training/education in several small to large organizations.
My studies of the healing arts, movement/sound-based therapeutics, and cultural/historical/ceremonial perspectives of movement/sound continued parallel to my work in human services. Some of my teachers had backgrounds in areas such as dance anthropology, ethnomusicology, or other sciences and also a deep reverence for the mystical elements that exist in our world and beyond. In 2010, I began teaching movement/sound-based classes and workshops at yoga studios, public health programs, conferences, colleges, and other community-based settings.
Over time found myself gravitating back to fully immersing back into the performing arts as an artist, educator, technician, and administrator. The years of immersion into other perspectives of movement and sound continue to flow through me and inform my work.
Dance Styles: Ballet/Pointe, Contemporary, Jazz, Post Modern, Tap (Broadway/Rhythm)
Instruments/Styles: Clarinet (classical); Electric Bass (jazz/rock); Percussion-Frame Drums/Riq (Arabic, Contemporary, South Indian), Gongs (experimental/therapeutics), Metal Singing Bowls (experimental/therapeutics)
Healing Arts: Multiple Modalities
Meditation/Somatics/Yoga: Multiple Modalities/Styles
Theater: Physical, Experimental
Current Influences/Studies:
-Frame Drums, Polyrhythms & Vocalizations: Yousif Sheronick & Glen Valez
-Tap Dance (as a form of jazz music/theory): Robin Wolf & Acia Gray
-Six Viewpoints (Mary Overlie) through studies with Deborah Black,
Sophia Trevor & Wendell Beavers
-Body Mind Centering (Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen) as a tool for choreography for somatic performers with Erika Berland & Wendell Beavers
-Live Sound Engineering, MIDI/Electronic Music, Music Production/Theory, Sound Design classes, Berklee Online
-Sound Tech/Sound Engineer Training, The Stone Church, 2024
-Somatic Performers Intensive, North Adams, MA, 2022 & 2023
-Fall Immersion Training, Double Edge Theatre, 2022
-Summer Choreography & Improv Immersion, Axis Dance Company, 2022
-Dance Education Teacher Certificate, DEL (Dance Education Lab)/92NY, 2023
CURRENT ARTIST PONDERINGS
***Structured Improv in Movement & Sound***
Deconstruction.
-The Six Viewpoints-Space, Shapes, Time, Emotion, Movement, Story
-Developmental movement/sound patterns as tool for choreographic improv in dance/theater (Body Mind Centering)
-Overlap and spaces between improv via jazz music, Arabic music and
South Indian music structures
***Experiencing Dance/Music (Movement/Sound) as Interconnected Elements***
Most of my sound/movement studies in the performing arts were taught separately, until I started studying a tap dance style sometimes called rhythm or jazz tap dance. Creating performing art pieces that equally give space to both.
***Experiencing the Mysticism of Movement & Sound in Community***
performing in outdoor spaces/in nature, creating authentic ceremony/rituals in community without cultural appropriation and spiritual/new age dogma, finding the magic in the performing arts
***Arts Access for those with Disabilities***
Many people with disabilities are exposed to the valuable elements of art therapy/therapeutics and the arts for social connection but often have not been able to access the full spectrum of the arts, including performance and professional training.