Photo above: multigenerational play in the studio, building social capital, as dancer Melissa Block put it.

From first to most recent

Dreamscape - quartet

Dancing on My Daddies Grave: evening length work, 2 actresses, 6 dancers

Hot Ice: evening length work, 3 musicians, 4 dancers

Twang - quartet

Lion’s Fire - quintet

Excerpts

Full work

Flint – 8 dancers

Wallflower – 10 dancers

One World is Never Enough (in collaboration with Stephen Kelly and the performers)

Alma.Sama – evening length work co-created with ArtBark International Collaborators - quartet

QUENCH – quintet

Alma.Sama. reprisal: tightening and reshaping Alma.Sama. from a quartet to a trio

Time Out – one-act play

Photo above: As SonneBlauma Danscz Theatre, with Sinan Temizalp, Anaya Cullen, and Kaita Lepore, performing and teaching in Istanbul. Oh so young!

August 18th, 2022

Dance making was a pursuit of passion which formally began at the relatively late age of 28 inside the walls of Academia and the type of intense focus they provide there.. My intention was to pursue a doctorate in economics, but Iʻve always had a relationship with a quiet voice inside, which felt like my wiser self. It was while going through ceremonies, for a degree in economics, with one class left to complete the major, that a great reconciling came with this voice, telling me, you arenʻt done yet. I searched my heart, and I realized, I HAD to dance, and it wasnʻt a choice to not pursue this passion. At this time, I also had insight to let go of the religions and politics of my upbringing and went on a truth quest inventing a mantra to go with, and was accepted into a dance program based on my creativity (you had no technique, was a comment made by a mentor years later.)

Martha Graham was said to have said, it takes ten years to make a dancer, and I did my due diligence in this regard, six years at UCSB, two years at Cal Arts, and continued study after graduation with an adventure to Switzerland to attend Scuola Dimitri summer workshops one summer, a trip for a summer intensive at TISCH in NYC, and a lot of wonderful master classes with amazing artists hosted by what was then known as SUMMERDANCE Santa Barbara.

As a part of my training I was introduced to choreography, or dance making. In college, one has access to everything you need for dance making, as a part of oneʻs tuition, and that includes access to dancers to create with.

My very first impulse was a bit out of the box, or very different I should say, than the other students who already had ten years of training under their belts before even arriving, having started as tots most of them.

My first group work involved using props on hand, such as ladders, along with the piano and pianist, and dividing up the space with clothes lines, to which, clothes were pinned, and the dancers within the clothes, moving about, wriggled, waved their arms about. I donʻt remember the movement, but I had not yet learned how to make dance phrases.

There is no record of this work,, but I remember the exhiliration of the installation and the thrill of having a musician playing music as a part of the installation.

In the Juniors Dance Concert, where they choose which choreographers go on to produce a work on the "main stage" the educator, who had worked with Alvin Nikolai,  held me to task. He made it clear that installations were not a part of the process and I had to make dance phrases.

My first eight count phrase of movement took me 8 hours to create. It went against all of my natural impulses. No record exists of this work either, but I do remember, somehow, I managed to sneak in use of uncooked eggs into the piece.

I was chosen for a mainstage piece, and my first "official" group work became "Dreamscape". Again, the mentor this round, discouraged any use of props, or scenery, and I learned from this, if you bury the impulse, somehow, what it is you seek to express will convey itself in form of the abstract movement of contemporary dance.

It was this work, that was most likely, what contributed to being accepted into an MFA at Cal Arts, where again, I had access to everything I needed to make dances.

It was AFTER graduation, that I learned, why Laurence Blake suggested focusing on solo work. 

With deep gratitude to Robert Salas for his wonderful work and energy. 

Note: Montecito School of Ballet closed its doors in 2019.