Writings
In conversation with Emily Johnson/Catalyst: The future starts now
Brooklyn Rail
The sky is brightening and the sun, a glowing orangey-red ball like I’ve never seen it before, is rising directly in front of me, across the East River. I’m lying on the ground, wrapped in a quilt handmade by dozens of strangers. I’ve just spent a night gazing at the stars with the performers of Emily Johnson/Catalyst.
10/1/2017
In conversation with Paloma McGregor and Damian Griffith: Reclamation is an imperative
BOMB Magazine
Situated along the river itself, Building a Better Fishtrap honors the collective stories and memories of the Bronx River and its adjacent communities. It celebrates the ongoing restoration of the waterway, while mourning the cultural, ecological, and personal legacies lost within a context of colonialism, diaspora, and industrialization.
6/1/2018
Review: Daina Ashbee’s Serpentine
The Dance Enthusiast
Daina Ashbee's Serpentine is a minimalist work of immense power. The Canadian (Metís) artist's durational solo for performer Areli Moran Mayoral pushes the limits of human exertion and physical tolerance, while challenging the role of the spectator.
1/1/2018
Review: skeleton architecture, or the future of our worlds
The Dance Enthusiast
skeleton architecture was so profoundly moving and complex that perhaps more choreographic evenings should be replaced with improvisation. These dancers, be they skilled in street styles, contemporary, and/or African dance styles, performed with such clarity and vision that no choreographer could compose what evolved organically.
10/22/2016
In conversation with the Creating New Futures cohort: Can we create lasting mutual aid structures?
Brooklyn Rail
My surprise was a form of longing and recognition. That is what I’ve waited for: The acknowledgement of dance work as an imaginative, cooperative form of social reproduction and the understanding that we already possess the tools we need to remake the world.
7/1/2020
Exercise Addiction 101
Dance Spirit Magazine
What happens when your drive morphs into something that’s driving you? That’s what exercise addiction feels like: a sense that you have to do more. Where’s the line between cross-training and exercise addiction?
4/1/2019
The Big Chill
Dance Magazine
Post-performance trauma is real. Being mindful of your own needs and limits when performing emotional roles is key to maintaining a healthy relationship to the work. Here’s how to protect yourself.
5/1/2024
Building Character
Dance Spirit Magazine
Character dances in classical ballets are often seen as placeholders, interludes to give the principals a breather between variations. But back in the 19th century, when many of these ballets premiered, character dances had deep cultural significance. So, what happened?
11/1/2020
In conversation with Bill Shannon: Body as medium, in film and on the street
Brooklyn Rail
Experimental artist Bill Shannon may be best known for his groundbreaking use of rocker-bottom crutches in street performance, he doesn't consider himself only a dancer. Instead, Shannon puts his body into every question he asks, using dance as one of many tools to examine the complex phenomenology of physical disability and the projected narratives of others.
11/1/2020
In conversation with Bill T. Jones: Vastness, Loneliness, and Abandonment
BOMB Magazine
Jones didn't choreograph Deep Blue Sea with a pandemic in mind, but Pip is forsaken by the same forces responsible for the United States's sluggish public health response. COVID-19 lays bare the myth of individualism, the intentional violence of capitalism and settler-colonialism, and the indifference of the powerful. The image of Pip—vulnerable, isolated, slowly dying as his lungs fail—could be pulled from a current headline.
4/1/2020
Reflecting a Planet In Peril
Chamber Music Magazine
Through new works and innovative multidisciplinary programs, these chamber music artists are fostering creative dialogue around our threatened environment—and how we might save it.
5/1/2024