Dance

One afternoon in the spring of 1984, when I was twenty years old, walking down a village street in Grenoble, France, a simple sentence popped into my head with such clarity I knew it to be true: I AM A DANCER.

Screen shot from the film Why We Dance

I was both pleased and perplexed. While I knew I found my greatest joy dancing, whether on stage, at a party, in the woods, or in my bedroom, I had very little technique, no teachers or mentors, and no peers in the dance world. I did not consider myself a dancer. I had no idea what to do with this… revelation.

I’ve spent years exploring — in dancing and in writing — what dancing means for me, for the study of religion and philosophy, for human health and survival, and for our most basic understanding of what it means to be human.

My thinking has always been rooted in and funded by practice.

In the 90s, I studied modern and ballet with gifted teachers, including Marcus Schulkind, Sylvia Gold, and members of the Martha Graham School. I danced with several companies (Rae Dance, Sharron Rose, Patric LaCroix Haitian-American Dance Company), and then decided it was time to make my own dances.

In 2001, I created and performed a solo dance concert called Genesis. I was six months pregnant with my third child. In the dance, I ask what it would mean to tell the story of a human from the perspective of a dancing, pregnant body. In these photos (taken by Jaye R Phillips) I was 18 weeks pregnant.

In 2004, I created and performed a second solo dance concert, On Fire, which explored how writing is an embodied practice and dancing a form of knowledge. This piece featured quotations from Descartes, Kant, Nietzsche, and Martha Graham. The images below are from a performance at Swarthmore College, where I was an artist-in-residence.

In 2005, I moved to a farm — so I could dance. Since being here I have discovered dance means much more than I had imagined.

I dance in theaters, cabaret rooms, churches, and on our land. I have danced in each of our family shows, and choreographed several musicals — including Little Women, Sound of Music, Once Upon a Mattress, Hello Dolly, and our own Happy If Happy When.

In 2009, I performed an abbreviated version of Genesis with Leif, in utero.

In 2016, I created a concert of music and dance featuring song poems written for each chapter of my book Why We Dance.

Beginning in April 2020 — during the pandemic lock down — I spent two years taking online classes in the Martha Graham technique, both at the Martha Graham School, and via Movement Migration, led by former Graham dancer Kim Jones. In these classes, I feel like I am returning to my roots, as well as branching out in new directions.

In 2021, filmmaker Nathalie Bibeau came to the farm to shoot portions of a documentary based on my book Why We Dance. I spent a day with her crew, walking around our land to my favorite places, and dancing. WHY WE DANCE is now available in Canada.