I am currently fascinated by the impact of borders and limitations on thought and creativity, and how to demolish those false boundaries. My work straddles traditional/rigorous training and the ephemerality of improvisation. I am keen to destroy the artificial separations between dance and other forms of live performance. Cross-pollination and multidisciplinary collaboration between different media has always been crucial to my work. I was one of three artistic directors of The Tomorrow Collective; the inventors of the long celebrated showcase, Brief Encounters.
In my choreographic creation process, I listen to the unconscious score of a body, the systems that ground it, and I create the choreography in response. This way I aim to make the familiar strange and the strange familiar, allowing the body to get caught in a glitch - slower or faster than normal - or call attention by changing the sequence and scale.
The humour in my dance language often comes from surprise, allowing for awkwardness over perfection. People aren’t always graceful in real life and when imperfections are brought to the surface they can be beautiful. I am drawn to the near- misses.
Socially, my context revolves around my identity as an intersectional feminist, aiming to transform both the portrayal and the perception of women both inside and outside of the dance world. I believe that the more personal the work, the more universal its impact.
In its dependence on (structured) improvisation and in its fearless confrontation of discomfiting subject matter, my work doesn’t resemble that of my peers’ but instead has a provocative and arresting quality that is all my own.