What I care about artistically (right now)

I am an emerging artist invested in bold performance where content dictates genre and betrays expectation. I create to think critically about the world, rehearsing freedom in the body and mind. My work is grungy, confrontational, and cheeky, a dance-horror, with physical practices rooted in contemporary dance, dance-theater, outdoor adventures, and forms from both the South Asian and the African diaspora. I am invested in creating environments where sophistication and blasphemy can collide, holding space to sit with and challenge discomfort.

Theater works for me when it really embraces the liveness of performance, where neither performer nor viewer knows what will happen next. I want to create worlds that reflect the current moment: containing, responding to, and asking performers for danger, unpacking difficult material surrounding race, sexuality, violence, and power with a solidarity and justice-based lens. I am drawn to proscenium-breaking acts of physical-theater, which mandate a relationship with the audience, as the future of story-telling. Most recently, I have been exploring idolatry and religious violence from a South Asian lens in a new evening-length work, dhoka: A God Unspoken. As I close that project, I am priming myself to take an Alice-in-Wonderland-esque solo dive into the world of puppets, Middle America, and Tik Tok.

—————————————————————————--

About me

I hold degrees in Dance and Anthropology and have had my work performed in California, Colorado, NY, and along the East Coast. I work as an arts administrator, managing companies and shows in NYC alongside creating and producing my own work. I am a published primatologist and outdoors author, enjoy adventure photography, have walked across a couple of countries, climb rocks at great heights, and love on animals and people with abundance. Highly adaptable, observant, and adventurous with a great love of in your face intensity, inappropriate jokes, and napping in the sunshine.

—————————————————————————--

At a Glance CV

My work has been shown at venues across the US, including the Denver Art Museum, The Basement, Abrons Art Center, BASE Experimental Arts + Space, Dixon Place, The Tank, JACK, Ormao, University Settlement, and LPAC. I am currently in residence at BASE and GALLIM. I’ve trained with artists that include Eiko Otake, Rosy Simas, Rennie Harris, Hofesh Shechter, Sorah Yang, and Shawn Womack. Some other artistic influences include: Akram Khan, Nora Chipaumire, Miasma, Heretic, Punchdrunk, Deftones, Galen Hooks, Ye, and animals.