Re-Creating

Borrowed Materials

Creative Method/Philosophy

Everyone has a starting point or a lens that they use to navigate and interpret the world they see. Most cultures including our own use narrative or storytelling to convey such ideas whether linear or not. I use choreography to tell the stories I see and experience in the world then apply a theological lens as a way to interpret that world. Thus, dance making becomes a space of craft practice, intellectual pursuit, cultural exploration, and worship. The breaking of this sacred-secular divide may seem contrary to a postmodern world but actually presents an honest exploration of humanity's greatest questions in a complicated existence. In the same way, the intentional collaboration of different journeys of movement enhances the texture of dance because it invites many voices in. I hope my work will be one that continues the conversation of various types of intersectionality.

Explicitly this world view is one stemming from the Christian tradition. In the belief that all things in this life are given, our responsibility as humans is to take these “raw materials,” and cultivate them into objects of usefulness and beauty. Dance in particular gets to take the “borrowed materials,” of the body, music, sound, text, space, and time to re-create work. The artist in a unique way gets to identify with their maker by having the ability to create which is the first characteristic we learn of God, “In the beginning, God created…” The artist can also humbly and authentically recognize our work did not come from nothing but something, and thus can only reflect a created beauty with another author. In this way, dance making is a return of those borrowed materials and reflects another’s deserved praise in which we graciously get to enjoy.