Date of Submission

Spring 2014

Academic Programs and Concentrations

Dance

Project Advisor 1

Leah Cox

Abstract/Artist's Statement

At the core of my practice I believe my body is my self, and my self is my body. It is a political act to address the entire body/self because this creates the greatest potential for honest human interactions. In being present and aware of the entirety of myself, I can understand my needs and desires and act upon intuition, instead obeying social obligations that oppress my existence. Through this lens, I search to find avenues into experience that resist any singular way of being that is limiting. I create moments of experience that address my whole self by emotionally, energetically, and physically connecting to the present through intuitive movement; a process that allows for recognition of the freedoms and restrictions that exist to transform the self. I believe that sensory connection in life can be the default, and when energy permits, I arrive into my existence from here.

I came to fully understand my creative and physical practice during my senior year of college. My research based project MOVES explores the value of movement, play, and creation. Using dance as an opportunity for active awareness of my existence- I search for pleasure and vitality in the present moment- especially to transform a restrictive sensation like anxiety or numbness into a feeling of vitality. The body has great power in transforming emotions and states that prevent myself from being present, and so I work to understand habits that are both restrictive and socially constructed so that I can see if I can reshape them through dance. I do not intend to critique socialization at large as I believe it is a valuable process that has taught me how to communicate in important ways, however I do question socialized ways of being that have influenced me to think, act, or feel in ways that do not allow me to exist in the present. In the creation of performance structures, I also attempt to explore my awareness of my self and my environment, using this personal experiment to see what the value of this experience is for myself and for others in a performative space. Through the continuation of an explorative practice, my work in MOVES exists everyday always asking myself, what do I need in the moment to be present? Sometimes that means moving my body and connecting to myself through dance, and at other moments that means allowing myself to release and rest so I can gain the energy to become present once again.

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On-Campus only

Creative Commons License

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