Photo by Cary Gallagher
Artist's Statement
As one of three professional ballet dancers in Chattanooga, it is my responsibility to bring the best of dance to the community. I hope to inspire the audience to move, feel, question, and experience. Behind this rather abstract goal, lies a very technical history of training.
My dancing body was built by dedicated practice of various dance styles and athletic cross-training. My movement style has evolved from exposure to choreographers such as Eloy Barragan, Sean Curran, Jirí Kylián, and Salvatore Aiello. The conferences and lectures I have attended expose me to cutting edge developments in dance science, medicine, technology, and theory. I absorb imagery from books, visual art, music, and philosophy to inspire my daily classwork. Ideally these individual influences pass unnoticed by the audience and blend into a cohesive image onstage.
Chattanooga Ballet offers me the unique opportunity to teach while dancing professionally. The classroom is my testing ground. When I struggle with a particular step or technical error, I incorporate it into the classes I teach. Watching my students' mistakes evokes memories of my teachers’ corrections and helps me to improve my own dancing. Seeing their progress brings me pride. Although the majority of my students will not pursue professional dance, dancing teaches them lessons that will benefit them regardless of their career choices.
I have also been fortunate to receive numerous opportunites to choreograph at both Chattanooga Ballet and the University of Utah. Although I occasionally create dances for the sole purpose of showcasing highly-trained bodies, I prefer to tell stories. My choreography addresses subjects such as bird behavior, newspaper advice columns, and women in the workforce. It is not easy to advance a narrative on the proscenium stage without dialogue, sets, costumes, and a large number of performers, which is why I also enjoy creating dance for the camera.
Dance for the camera (DFTC) is choreography intended for presentation on video. When producing DFTC projects, I can navigate through time and space with ease. With a camera, I can bring an audience to the site of the story. With Final Cut Pro, I can manipulate time with a keyboard shortcut. Over the next year, I hope to create four short dance films that will highlight the beauty of Chattanooga, draw attention to local initiatives, showcase local artists, and expose more Chattanoogans to the art of dance.
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