“The roots of my movement study are in modern and post-modern dance and ideologies, using dance to evoke thought and questions about human action and reaction. I’m interested in the connections between dancers and how this prompts imagery of humanity and universal connections to one another. My movement vocabulary is organic but unpredictable, visceral. I often encourage company dancers to bring themselves to the process and generation of material is informed by the group’s dynamic. I believe that EDD’s works are each amalgamations of the experiences of myself and the dancers, creation of something that is larger and more moving than any one story. As a movement artist, my research focuses on two main creative points: 1) the ebb and flow of creativity that is gleaned from various approaches to choreography and how this shapes the dynamic of the group and the work, and 2) how accessing raw humanity and vulnerability in the rehearsal process and performance creates a foundation for strength of creative work and genuine performance quality.  As a human, my interests in these endeavors are to facilitate a community of artists that believe what we do with moving bodies and what we share with the world is valid, meaningful, and genuine.

I value the creative process because the artwork itself is not only the performance, but the journey from beginning to end. Research, cast discussion, and free-form writing help the company to gain a sense of the qualities, textures, experiences and overall structure of any given work we embark on. Within the overall process, collaborating with other artists is not only valuable but essential to the evolution of the company’s body of work and for the involved artists.  I have collaborated with poets Ian Dougherty, Serena Chopra, Aubrey Lande and script writer Steph Hombo; with seated dancer Teri Westerman; with the late film artist Robbin Hammer;  and with various musician, including guitarist, Janet Feder.  My most long-standing artistic collaboration is with the company’s Co-Director and Composer, Amy Shelley—a collaboration of fifteen years creating movement and music.

The most intimate and moving aspects of expression involve the body.  As an artist, I am most interested in revealing complex human emotion and interaction through the nuances of the moving form. Ask those forms to interact or react to each other and the complexity can be as multi-layered as humans themselves. What our bodies can hide, hold, reveal, reject, embrace, absorb or say through movement alone can be striking, beautiful, powerful.”