Engage and Garden As a teaching artist, I engage with my art and artistic community on a professional level embedded in field-support, critical response, and camaraderie. I see this as a model to initiate my students into an environment where classical and avant-garde work inspire reverence and irreverent response. I strive to be a constant gardener of artistic practice and study – nurturing and weeding my own portfolio of ideas and provocations – as well as engaging with my greater dance community. I believe in accountability to an authentic process and considered presentation.

Recondeconstruction I aim to curate a boundary between teacher and student that’s more of a feisty invitation for shared construction and deconstruction. I take my role as a mentor through this process very seriously. My heart and head are always bent toward empathy and emotive conduits for and with my student. And I work to align my own explorations par terre with the work of my students — seeking simultaneous instigations and consequential reapings of a dialoguing process: body to mind, dancer to dancer, master to apprentice, and wise student to teachable artist.

Duets: Architecture & Eyechitecture I work with a process of dualities: two embodied voices dialoguing, opposing forces in the body to negotiate balance, continuums of objective and subjective critique, attention to detail from multicultural and liberation lenses. I color my classroom with the mantra of my own choreography mentor Neil Greenberg: “Make it more what it is.” This necessitates gravitas and comic relief; consideration of every intent and purpose. I play with the architecture of structured movement, and the eyechitecture of what we choose to frame and reveal. I teach partnering, whether it’s movement to music, one body to another, or juxtaposed ideas. 

The Coast and the Spine My approach to dance education reveres tradition but also shows great respect for students seeking connection to personal mapping, curious investigation, and activism. Where is your coast? Where is your spine? How long can you undulate your intent? My philosophy was learned in the master-apprentice tradition and honed over nineteen years of experience teaching modern, ballet, improvisation, choreography, dance appreciation, and community engagement. I cultivate high expectations so my students can reach their maximum potential with an emphasis on passion, character, and intelligent citizenry. I believe in working with each dancer’s unique abilities to craft a mix of bombastic technique, earnest performance quality, and the tools to make informed choices on your widespread feet.

The Quirk and the Lush My work is close to the ground and heart on the sleeve; tender-stark and quirky-luscious. My teaching is unconventional and determinedly individualized for every population; it elicits a personal response and a communal archaeology. Let’s make tectonic shifts together.