I am an interdisciplinary artist who integrates emergent practice, dance, performance art, drawing, costume, set, and sound. My work involves creating immersive experiences through residencies, workshops, solo and collaborative performances, in a range of settings, including staged, site-specific, and video spaces, across various countries.
My 35-year making, performing, and teaching practice draws upon my training in dance theatre, improvisation, butoh, and Noguchi Taiso, as well as my education in performance art, drawing, information science, and philosophy. This interdisciplinary approach enables me to create unique experiences that engage both the mind and the body, providing a space for individuals to explore their own creative potential.
I am particularly interested in developing and utilizing improvisation techniques in performance and daily practice, as well as working with space and place to facilitate cultural and multi-species exchange. Through my work, I seek to invite movers and audiences to engage their attention, curiosity, and imagination to interact with a felt experience of themselves in connection with the environment and others. This approach fosters a sense of community and shared experience, while also encouraging individual exploration and self-discovery.
Originally from Asheville, NC, USA, I work and live in Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK.
Recent Projects & Shows
Blue Wave Dance Project. Photo: Colin Davidson.
2022-23: Lead artist for ACE-funded Blue Wave, a continuation and expansion of Blue Wave Pilot community dance project.
2021: Artist in residence for Blue Wave Pilot, a site specific community dance project designed to connect participants to the bioregion. The project was commissioned by SeaScapes Co/Lab, a creative engagement project led by University of Sunderland for SeaScapes marine heritage project. Blue Wave was co-created with members of FODI Sunderland (Friends of the Drop In for Asylum Seekers and Refugees) and members from Sangini in South Shields. Participants were supported through a variety of activities over 9 weeks to create and perform an original dance that was based on their experience and expressed their unique relationship with the seascape, which culminated in a live performance at Roker Beach near Sunderland, UK. The immersive experience was intended to create a sense of belonging, wellbeing and collaboration with the seascape.
After the Fire Video Still.
2019-20: In February 2020, I produced and performed with six collaborators in four unique events in a month long residency at GAS Contemporary, North Shields, UK. In 2019, I premiered a new performance, The Beautiful Us, at the 13th Asheville Butoh Festival; performed in Fremd ist dein kleid (Strange is Your Dress), under the direction of Felix Ruckert at eXit’19 festival in Germany; and performed at the Miniatures Butoh Dance Festival in Ruvo di Puglia, Italy. Screen-based performances were included in the Asheville Art Museum’s Appalachia Now exhibition and in Beyond Knowing at the Asheville Area Arts Council.
Am I Who I Am? Installation, Revolve Project Space. Photo: Colby Caldwell.
2017/2018: I was an artist in residence at Revolve Project Space. Residency projects include Entanglements, a collaboration with Linda Larsen, Adam Larsen and Kima Moore; ReSound, a collaboration with Sonic Parlor and Denice Carbonell; and Am I Who I Am?, a solo exhibition of screen dance + a live performance (and an album). I also performed at the Black Mountain College’s {Re}Happening festival. In May, 2018, I debuted a new performance, The Daydreamers’ Ball for Strange and Broken Things at Asheville Butoh Collective’s show, Dirt, Dreams and Death. The piece was also performed at Breeze Creative’s Project Space, Newcastle, UK in July, 2018.
Can I Be You? Collaboration with Simon Farid. Photo: Michael O’Kane
2015-16: Projects include an Experimental Studios artist residency at Breeze Creatives, Newcastle, UK; the Just Gather Film Festival, Edinburgh, UK; Help! at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle, UK; Black Mountain College Museum’s Interlude festival, Asheville, NC; Context, Pretext, Subtext: Words in Art, Art in Words, Mars Hill University, Mars Hill, NC and the 10th and 11th Asheville Butoh Festivals.
Originally from Asheville, NC, US, I am currently based in Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK.