Date of Submission

Spring 2017

Academic Programs and Concentrations

Dance

Project Advisor 1

Jean Churchill

Project Advisor 2

Amii LeGendre

Abstract/Artist's Statement

Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, I have a passion for art and culture. I consider myself an artist not because I have something to prove, but because the mere thought of me performing for an audience is exhilarating. I’m interested in creating a distinct emotional and even historical/symbolic landscape that often has hopes or desire about how both an individual spectator might feel or react, but especially about how the audience as a group force might feel or react. I enjoy attempting to cultivate an environment in order to allow the audience to experience themselves together as a community. I’m interested in inviting the audience to feel a sense of their togetherness, a momentary shriveling of their alone-ness through the lens of strong emotion and portraying relationships in which there is a powerful presence and enactment of care between the performers.

My first piece, ......, was created for the first part of my senior project requirement, but was actualized by the tales of many. The piece goes unnamed because nothing can sheathe the many lived and mindful experiences one may endure upon viewing. It was a way for me to work through some of the difficulties of my childhood: issues of race and sexual identity, as well as the hopelessness or ‘self annihilating’ mentality that accompanies these controversies. I allowed myself the space and opportunity to approach these quagmires artistically which resulted in a life-altering experience for me. I also heard from many spectators that the work shifted something powerful for them--that they, too, experienced it as a ritual of personal transformation.

Because that piece was so undoubtedly shrouded with heavy emotion and symbolism, for my second piece, Kingdom of ______!, I wanted to explore the sheer physicality of dance and performance as well as the heightened relationships that are built in the studio and on the stage. This piece was created nontraditionally for me, meaning I didn’t conceptualize the piece in depth before I started doing the physical work. I let the concept speak out to me as I followed along. In previous work I grappled with a desire to work with content and symbols that have the possibility to make viewers cry and reevaluate their pathways of thinking, and in the process of constantly reinventing myself and the way I make art I explored new channels of ‘play’ and composition.

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