ABOUT
I’ve been doing some fancy jumping around (as my grandmother called it) since I was a child growing up in Lakewood, Colorado. In high school I competed in gymnastics and went to the University of Northern Colorado on an athletic scholarship. In college I found my next passion and began studies in modern dance and went on to earn an M.F.A. in dance with an emphasis in choreography and performance from the University of Colorado. I trained in a hybrid of modern dance techniques including Hawkins, Limon and Cunningham. After grad school I devoted a few years to performing with several modern dance companies in the Denver/Boulder area including Colorado Repertory Dance Company, Helander and Company, and Jane Franklin and Dancers, among others. I then danced for a year in Germany with the newly-formed Desperate Figures Dance Theatre, toured Germany and performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
I moved to Arizona in 1992 and began to explore dance as a healing art and a vehicle for community connection. I was drawn to work with internal energy modalities, studying Tai Chi, Butoh, Authentic Movement, Yoga and Contact Improvisation. I was seeking a more intimate relationship with my own dance, to know and express the deep currents that move my body, psyche and spirit.
In 1994 I found my way to Prescott College, a small private institution with a mission that supports a personalized and experiential approach to education. Prescott College proved to be fertile territory for a new dance program; the students were adventurous and wildly creative and there was open ground for new curriculum. In the last fifteen years I’ve co-created the dance program at Prescott College with my colleague Liz Faller. The curriculum places emphasis on improvisational skills, personal inquiry, composition, and community and environmental interface. I currently teach at Prescott College half-time, January through May.
Outside my college work I’m a founding member of Human Nature Dance Theatre, formed in 1994 with long-time collaborators Jayne Lee and Paul Moore. HNDT performs regularly in northern Arizona and we continue to play with the ongoing experiment of group collaboration. We are a non-profit organization funded by Arizona Commission on the Arts, the City of Flagstaff and Flagstaff Cultural Partners. In 2008 Human Nature received the Otto Rene Castillo Award for Political Theatre.
My freelance choreography and collaborations in recent years have investigated feminine archetypes, intergenerational work and environmental performance. I work in diverse settings, in the theatre and in natural and urban environments. I enjoy working with people new to dance as well as with professionals.
