What do you do here at Wright Lab? From 2018-2020 I was an artist-in-residence at Wright Lab. I had been collaborating with Sarah Demers, Horace D. Taft Associate Professor of Physics, since 2011, and had a spillover of questions I wanted to explore. The film project I began to develop there has taken different twists and turns. We had to stop filming due to the pandemic, but my filmmaker-collaborator, John Lucas, and I are now pressing ahead. We’re editing the footage we have with the goal to complete the film this spring.
What is the most unique and/or exciting experience you’ve had here at Wright Lab? Where to begin? I’ve had a lot of interesting conversations with different scientists at Wright Lab and have been fortunate to observe and visit some of the different labs housed within. If you work there everyday, it might be easy to grow immune to the wonder of what you are actually tuning into. But for a dance artist, listening to people describe the scope and nature of their research alters my understanding of the human body–the core element of dance. Karsten Heeger, professor of physics and Wright Lab Director, began his chat with a group of my students by saying he knew that his “…body is mostly empty space and trillions of particles fly through it every second.” Pzzzzzow! My various conversations started to create to me a portrait of a laboratory teeming with what I’ve begun to think of as invisible dances–intimate human relationships with nonhuman subjects.
What is something that people might not know about you that you’d like to share with the community? Very few dancers in the world can say they have danced duets with Mikhail Baryshnikov, one of the greatest dancers of the 20th century. I have–in works by several different choreographers–while a member of his company, White Oak Dance Project.
Where do you like to work remotely? I either work from home or alone in a dance studio on campus. My home office is about 10 feet wide… Very narrow choreography fills my imagination right now…