“You possess gifts beyond art and choreography; your gifts include the rarity of inspiring and uniting people. Thank you. ”
ARTS AND HEALING
RISE
Presented by Guild Incorporated
andmark Center, St. Paul, MN 2011
RISE was a celebratory performance event that developed out of Moving Matters, a series of 11 movement and art workshops and rehearsals specifically designed for the mental health population including providers, consumers, their family members and supporters.
The city-wide program was hosted by Guild Incorporated, a mental health service organization and 2011 NAMI “Provider of the Year.” The program drew 60 workshop participants, more than 25 participants in RISE, and close to 250 audience members.
Moving Matters introduced dance as a healing art form and focused on courage, wholeness, growth, and a way to create a safe journey home to wholeness and balance by focusing on the wisdom of the heart. The program accommodated a broad range of ability, age, and experience and created a safe environment in which participants could express, process, and transform profound emotional and healing experiences into a high quality work of art.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
The Student
Presented by The O'Shaughnessy at St. Catherine University as part of the Women of Substance series, St. Paul, MN 2014
The Student is a large-scale, epic community-inclusive, music and dance theater performance event that featured more than 170 dancers, actors, and vocalists. A physical, emotional, and psychological study of human experience, The Student focuses on the themes of learning, knowing and being, taking inquiry into the quality of relationship that one has with oneself, and spiritual themes of descent, awareness, and return home.
2014 Nominated for Minnesota Dance Sage Award for Outstanding Performance
This program is available for residency.
en masse
Commissioned by the Walker Art Center
The Southern Theater, Minneapolis, MN 2009
"...like a giant organism seeking a higher purpose" – dancemagazine.com
en masse is a grand, pulsing, unpredictable body of communal experience designed with the intention that anyone, regardless of background or barrier, can participate. en masse attracted 80+ volunteer participants. Participants joined the project from all areas of the community. The bulk of the work was inspired by the rehearsal process among the discussions of the participants during a time of economic hardship and the outbreak of H1N1 virus.
2010 City Pages Best of Award for Best Dancer
2009 Minnesota Dance Sage Award for Outstanding Design
2009 Minnesota Dance Sage Award Nominated for Outstanding Performance
SHIFT
Presented by Northern Spark 2012 at University of Minnesota's Barbara Barker Center for Dance, Minneapolis, MN
SHIFT is a sound and interactive movement environment in the lobby of the Barbara Barker Center for Dance at the University of Minnesota. SHIFT asked which communicative qualities contributed to a sustainable, evolving society, best serve the conversation, and lay the groundwork for growth. In between performance events, spectators were invited to explore the interactive environment freely.
Midnight Padhandling
Presented by Northern Spark 2012 at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
Midnight Padhandling combines the shimmer and potentiality of a large-screen video display with the fluidity and independence of human movement. Twenty performers gather to tell an animated story through movement and visual transitions by manipulating iPads.