Research

I have a wide range of research interests.  In my choreographic process, I explore many subjects as the inspiration or impetus to create. Anything including poetry, current events, musical form, or other artistic mediums are often used during the rehearsal process as a means to encourage dialogue, refine movement, and focus the overall concept of a piece.  I continually wish to expand my technique as a creator and use new methods for constructing and developing choreographic work.  

As a historian, I have an interest in the origins of early European dance technique and how prevailing trends shaped the course of both ballet and modern dance into the 20th century. The study of this history has provided me with a deeper contextual understanding of my own technique, both physical and theoretical.

A brief look at the changes Louis Vérnon made to the dance world through his direction at the Paris Opera in the mid-9th century. Through technical innovation and shrewd advertising practices, he launches the fascination of the bourgeois audience for  famous  and often foreign ballerinas.

In this paper I explore the social, political, and aesthetic changes that modern dance brought to the perception of gender and the body on stage, and some of the residual affects this had on ballet.  I particularly look at Isadora Duncan and the female body, the male body, the de-humanized and neutral body, and the redefinition of gender roles.

A paper examining different methodologies in the creation and development of choreographic movement.  Includes idiosyncratic body-centered movement, dance and pedestrian movement invention, analytical approaches, and representational methods.

A history of the social and politic origins of the professional ballet centered around Louis XIV and his court.  The paper focuses on the king's use of ballet as a means to control his courtiers and, through spectacle, the larger population.