I create and present work that researches subjectivity and the politicization and representation of bodies. This work shifts the audience from spectator to cocreator to highlight their subjectivity and uses a creative process derived from Deleuzian philosophy of “becoming-animal,” to allow dancers to surpass societal limitations by combing their embodied history and imagination as they create movement.

My video installations play multiple storylines concurrently and ask the audience to look through filters and frames to choose which ones they watch. Viewers become co-creators as they recognize the multiple possibilities and realize that they can only take in a fraction of the whole. I intent for these viewers to wonder what happens beyond their frame while realizing the labor and reward of active spectatorship.

Just as audience members become coauthors, dancers in my choreographic process become collaborators. This process, derived from Deleuzian philosophy of “becoming-animal,” allows performers to embrace their histories and context while broadening their movement choices. I help dancers enter a deep state of self-awareness where they recognize their impulses and visualize their power. In this state, they imagine joining creature-like bodies and discovering the one that feels most powerful.

My current research combines video, interactive installation, and choreography. Like the interactive video installations previously mentioned, this choreographic research aims to engage viewers as co-authors who shift perspectives throughout the event. To inspire the audience to roam and emphasize the complexity of multiple story lines, the performance will take place in nooks and crannies throughout a gallery space. Localized soundscapes, composed by a digital music collaborator, will play throughout the gallery to create an immersive environment. Viewers will move among creature-like live performers and interact with videos of the dancers/creatures in their environments. In rehearsal, I emphasize power and the joining of two entities—the human and the creature—rather than the transformation of one into the other. In doing so, the dancers keep their embodied history, but are no longer bound by the societal limits placed on their raced and gendered bodies.