Should the Muse evoke and speak, | am moved.

The inspiration for my dance creations is sourced in the
mundane as often as the transcendent: with fascination
and meticulous observation of simple objects (a piece of
stone, a grain of rice, a dead tree or the fragility and
transparency of glass) to the complex realm of human
conditions so intimately meaningful to me (love, loss,
race, poverty, sexuality, spirituality, identity, ethnicity
and gender). Ideas, reflections, events and experiences
speak to me and touch me provoking my need to inquire
into how they imbue and affect others in their private
and public territories.

| quote from the American contemporary dance pioneer
José Limon, “The dancer is fortunate indeed, for he has
for his instrument the
most eloquent and mirac-
ulous of all instruments,
the human body.”

| am a dancer who
witnesses the mystery of
the body —of what it can
and can not do. To use the
physicality to express
inspiration through move-
ment and dance is life
force. The dancing body instruments my choreographic
creations. Committed to an inspired idea, | create each
dance in response to a calling, a gut connection. | listen
and | make dance for a reason.

The body and mind are inseparable. Dancing and
choreographing is a lived experience, an inquiring and
revealing time that has to exist in it’s righteous own.
There is no other way. From ideas and research to
creation and production, each choreographic process to
me becomes a journey, a creative play, an event and a
practice. Staying true to that journey, | have been
schooled more often by hardship and failures to inquire
deeper in my relationship to the form. Exploiting the
possible and impossible has been both fearful and
wondrous.

Words cannot record all incidents or describe the
specificity and purpose of events that contribute to
human experience, especially artistic acts. | have
followed and sensed my own time and direction, staying
true to the particular space where my creative call and
fire drew me.

The choreography behind scenes, processes and craft-
ing has taught me persistence, determination and
constant discipline. Beyond the frame of time, | enter
and exit the territory of the raw, refining period in the
body’s movement discovery, exploring and producing.

In a given work | often face the void, the not knowing,
working with subconscious and conscious mind. The
vulnerability and surrendering is an act of searching and

“The dancer is fortunate indeed,
for he has for his instrument the
most eloquent and miraculous of
all instruments, the human body.”

-JOSE LIMON

learning that leads to an eventual epiphany, a sacred
creative bond.

Dance and choreography are public performances and,
as such, most of my works have been subject to reviews
here in Canada and internationally. While analysis and
critical thinking are always welcome, | find that review-
ers often overlook the broader context and present
their own points of view based on watching a single
performance.

Producing a showcase work is like carefully removing a
delicate tapestry from a time capsule. The strands and
phases of creative development are re-woven and re-as-
sembled. It is this process that, instead of being routine,
can be meaningful and transformative.

Each work | built had
singularity to the elemen-
tal composition of the
dance in structure, focus,
and base. | journeyed
along intuitive and inves-
tigative routes from
selecting dancers and
other artistic collabora-
tors to establishing the
choreographic __ palette
and dealing with stage details such as set, lighting,
costumes, music and overall scenography.

In the course of a decade producing these eleven
full-length dance works, each work has pushed me to
understand my vocation. Working full time as a
full-fledged dance artist, taking risks at every level and
corner, has been about survival in the arts. Transforma-
tion, from visioning to seeing profound art come to
fruition, has given me faith to continue. Art has given
me strength to take more responsibility and duties as a
creative player in the community.

Performing and creating solos and ensemble creations
has continued to challenge me to discover the tool of
dance and body as a way to communicate and to
practice the art of creation. Along the way, | have seen
the need to integrate the language of movement with
other art forms, in multiple mediums, to enrich compo-
sitions and expand choreography.

Collaborations and partnerships have become pillars to
the method and breadth of my work, supporting the
treatment, production, ethics and principles with which
| attain the visioning and goals of artistic pursuit. | have
learned to be pliant. | also seek to build genuine and
creative relationships within the artistic community,
interactions based on generosity and understanding.

These creations have given me an opportunity to
describe and portray my evolving self and my place in
this world. Much has happened; changes have occurred.
| have met and worked with diverse people of different