Premiered in 2012 at TedX-Columbia at Harbison Theatre
This work marked the beginning of a new direction for me in terms of art making and dance making. This work emerged out of a few years of complete silence. Just embracing stillness and listening internally. I hd been suffering from burn out and exhaustion and I for the first time in my career, took a pause to discover what was next for me. I told myself if making work and asking audiences to come experience the work is like standing on a soap box with a megaphone then I should be quiet until I really had something to say. ‘Vessel’ was what I had to say next.
This journey really forced me to evaluate my creative process and how I engaged with dancers. It allowed me to throw away exercises and processes and movement phrases that were comfortable to me to go on a journey to discover new ones. It felt in someways like starting over. Which was challenging and refreshing at the same time. Without any judgment or obligation this piece was the product of exploring what matter to me and finding a kernel of truth within myself. Then trusting that and the process to lead me and inform me. I relieved myself of needing to know how the piece started or ended. I began to work in fragments in layers that would build phrases that would ultimately illuminate to me where the piece needed to go next.
I was asked to speak at Ted X Columbia and instead I chose to let this piece speak for me.
