Suman and Dain Bollywood/Bhangra Wedding Dance Medley (May 2019)
SHRINGARA: SHINE OF THE WATER (2018)
Dancers: Mia Felt, Bella Nicolas, Natalie Tell, Olivia Ward, Dylan Albarian, Heather Tchen, Serena Hingorani, Kaiya Hoareau, Christine Zak, Eliza Levy (High schoolers at Chadwick School, PVP)
Music Recomposition: Digging in Dirt Dayo Bejide Trio, Iya e Maye Rosangela Silvestre, River Ibeyi, La Diaspora Nitty Scott ft. Zap Mama
Music Direction: Alysha Higgins Music Editing: Christopher Castagne
Costumes: Alysha Higgins Lighting Design: Alysha Higgins Lighting Technicians: Grant Gorrell
This piece was created throughout 6 weeks, with rehearsals once a week. “Shringara” focuses on Orisha deities “Oshun,”“Yemanja,”and Hindu deity “Lakshmi,” incorporating movements from Brazilian and Trinidadian African diaspora traditions, as well as aesthetic influences from Indian dance practices. Dancers convey the many dimensions of the element water: the wisdom and beauty of rivers, oceans, and rain, the shine and glisten of water, as well as turbulent crashing seas and hurricanes. Early on in the process, I facilitated a discussion on our relationship with water and encouraged dancers to meditate on the element as well as the qualities of the deities (ie. beauty, love, wealth, attraction, honey, nurture, etc), to internalize this expression, and to eventually embody these qualities or energies outwardly: to be transformed.
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Life of a Mom (Quarantine May 2020)
RUNNIN' (2012)
Dancer: Alysha Higgins Music: Unknown Lighting: Atlantic Center for the Arts
This is a portion of choreography I created while in residency at Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida with advisory and workshops by Master choreographer Liz Lerman. Artists- in-residence were presenting our unfinished products mid-process. During this residency, I was grappling with intuitive movement as well as codified movement languages, including Urban contemporary and Orixa dance movements of Shango. I was discovering what my body wanted to say and where my body felt most at home, while also using some music to move my body in rhythm with codified dance movements. Liz Lerman led us through a range of choreographic tools to help with the creative process. The silent choreography included pedestrian movements, exposing a “spoken word” feel to the piece. The dance is about listening to the “whispers” of our intuition, or what speaks to us beyond reality, and portrays an internal struggle- the tendency to ‘run’ from the truth (represented by Shango) of our internal worlds.
"WOMAN, WHERE DID YOU COME FROM??" (2019)
"Woman, Where Did You Come From??" is a phrase my late mother would exclaim as she admired herself in the mirror while getting ready in the morning. This project is born from memories I have as a little girl, sitting on the bathroom counter, admiring my mother as she performed "womanhood." I will weave these memories together through movement, performance, poetry, and sound recording of my mother's voice. I will use Indian and Caribbean dance vocabulary- my mother was from Trinidad and was my first Indian film dance teacher when I was six. I plan to utilize my mother's Indian clothes garments in creative ways to add to the idea of growing up to be my mother, or rather growing into her womanhood in the absence of her physical presence. The main props I will utilize include an Indian hair braid extension worn during our Indian dance performances as well as my mother's classical dance "ghungroos" or ankle bells.
Improv for work in progress below:
ABANDON (2012)
Dance for Film. Collaboration with Filmmaker Marlon Torres. Music: Look at Stars by SBTRKT featuring Sampa