| Description |
I create dances as choreographic research. My creative practice stems from the collision of trauma and disjointed narratives, using stream-of-conscious practices and imaginative play to challenge the way we create and make sense of our stories. The stories and structures we create often follow the Aristotelian logic of white male authors. Knowing how to make sense of the world only through this logic and pre-determined narrative arc often has destructive, prescriptive, and limiting impacts on the imagination. Storytelling is political - who speaks and listens, and how we craft experiences, are important. I love challenging how we communally understand and make sense of our stories - aiming to understand beyond the frameworks of a patriarchal, heteronormative, white supremacist, capitalistic society. I am a white, American, woman who grew up in a lower to middle class family within a rural-farming community in Wisconsin. Much of this research articulates individual trauma and how personal and shared collections of fear and recovery have shaped the way I understand and create. When I dive into notions of individual trauma, it is essential to understand the cultural context or environment in which this harm occurs. Through this research, I am reclaiming the fragmented story form as a completely practical and valid way to witness and understand trauma and violence. I purposely depart from traditional academic writing structures to utilize a form of writing that better articulates these ideas. This thesis document is written in the way I choreograph my dance works. I intuitively and lovingly insist that two unrelated ideas exist under the same roof so audiences might experience the puzzling dissonance, confusion, and jarring conflict. I am standing on the shoulders of an entire canon of women Autofiction authors who use stream-of-conscious, non-linear narrative forms to combat patriarchal oppression. I've realized from experiencing the works of authors and artists articulated in this thesis that the fragmented departure from the three-act narrative is not only valid as a story form, but better articulates the felt experience of violence. |
