PERFORMANCE

CHOREOGRAPHER:

My creative work emphasizes groove, interaction and improvisation, and is inspired by both social and concert dance movement while driven by jazz music. My work has been presented across the U.S. and Canada in theaters and non-conventional performance spaces, and across the world through film. I frequently create new works for my dance company Rhythmically Speaking (more on this below), as well as for other professional dance companies, universities and colleges and youth programs.

PERFORMER:

While my current focus as a performer is with Rhythmically Speaking, I have performed, worked for and trained with creatives as varied as Lisa Conlin of Ballet of the Dolls, Afro-Brazilian contemporary company Contempo Physical Dance, urban dance artist Teena Marie Custer, Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, the Eclectic Edge Ensemble, Jump Rhythm Jazz Project, house and hip-hop artist Rennie Harris, transnational fusion artist Donna Mejia, contemporary performance company Off-Leash Area, St. Paul Ballet and the Wild Goose Chase Cloggers Appalachian clogging company. I’m also currently performing as self-created character entertainer “Nerdette” for the St. Paul Saint’s Baseball Entertainment Team.

For more on my creative approach, see my Artist Statement. For more on past projects, see my Curriculum Vitae. For more about what I’ve been up to recently, check out my social media.

“Nerdette” & “The Nerd” with St. Paul Saints Baseball (2016 – Photo by Stephanie Szeremeta)

The work samples video above includes Feist(meist)er (choreographed 2019, performed again in 2023), Riffin’ Off the Body (2021), assemblage (created for Alternative Motion Project in 2022), Radiobody (2023), Chaining (created for Threads Dance Project in 2023) and CHILL: The Entire Charlie Brown Christmas Soundtrack, Played Live & Danced! (choreographed in 2018, performed again in 2023).

RHYTHMICALLY SPEAKING:

Rhythmically Speaking is the non-profit 501(c)3 dance company I co-founded with Heather P. Westerlund in 2008, for which I now serve as Artistic and Executive Director. Our mission is to spark vibrancy and connectedness through jazz and American social dance ideas. I’m grateful for this platform to create and perform my own work and that of other local and national artists while building community around these forms of dance.