Transparent Objects

Photography by Ian Douglas

Transparent Objects

Length: 15 minutes; Number of Dancers: 1; Set Design by Oriana Catton; Original Score by John Yannelli

Transparent Objects continues and expands upon my research into the phenomenon of perception within performance. As both the choreographer and sole dancer within the work, the piece has been driven by personal questions of selfhood, attempting to explore and unpack the experience of being perceived in life and in dance, particularly through constructs such as gender. To ground this line of inquiry, I conceptualized the piece around the form of a Labyrinth, using this form as both a spatial configuration to choreographically structure the space and as a symbol of self-confrontation based on the role of the Labyrinth within Greek mythology. After the initial performance of the solo, certain questions arose that, going forward, lie at the center of my continued exploration: When does artwork function as a critique or comment upon a phenomenon and when does artwork function instead to reify the thing that it is seeking to critique? Can the artist remain definitively in control of what is occurring regarding how viewers perceive a work?

Transparent Objects has also pushed my choreographic work beyond the strict domain of the dancing body to include elements of visual art and installation. In addition to the choreographed movement, the piece includes a large-scale sculptural structure based on the maze-like form of the Labyrinth. The sculpture itself was designed and created in collaboration with my fellow Vassar alumnus, artist Oriana Catton’17, and serves the piece by both presenting a visual representation of the Labyrinth and altering viewer perceptions based on their angle of viewing the movement in relation to the structure.

Performance History

Sarah Lawrence College | Bronxville, NY | December 2017

Eden's Expressway | New York, NY | October 2017