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Finally, after a long road of graduate exploration beginning in 2016, I am excited to share I officially hold a Master (hate it) of Fine Arts degree in Interdisciplinary Arts with concentrations in both Decolonial Arts Praxis and Performance Creation Concentrations from Goddard College.
This wasn’t a journey I took alone. The following is my acknowledgements page from my thesis, Working Consent: Ethical Engagement with Collaborators, Audiences, and the Land in Dance and Theatre Pedagogy and Practice.
Read MoreManifestation can be another way to absolve us of communal responsibility. Away to keep us ignorant of structural racism, patriarchy, and all the other -isms that shape our systems. It gives us an excuse to not be informed on our state and local policies, or vote in ways that support the people we say we love.
Read MoreRight now, my Twitter timeline is full of conversation about sex scenes in film and tv. You might think this is because I am an Intimacy Coordinator. You would be wrong. This is because I follow a lot of other exvangelicals, many who are more engaged than I in debates with current evangelicals.
There are apparently many folks who feel like current entertainment options have TOO MUCH SEX! Never mind that it’s really not the case. They don’t like it!
I think it is really interesting that this conversation is so hot (haha, get it?) around sex, and not around violence.
Read MoreMoney is a challenge for every artist. Despite the buzz around Intimacy work for theatre, film, dance, tv, and opera, payment remains a sticky subject for any Intimacy Director or Intimacy Coordinator.
Read More2022 was a big year of work for me. Here’s my year in review!
Read MoreStyres (2019) quotes Marie Battiste (2013), an Indigenous scholar focused on protecting and promoting Indigenous knowledge systems and education, “in order to effect change, educators must help students understand the Eurocentric assumptions of superiority within the context of history and to recognize the continued dominance of these assumptions in all forms of contemporary knowledge” [186] (33). So, in the ballet class, we examine the particularity of the ballet situation. Students’ first reading is a choice of An Anthropologist Looks at Ballet by Jean Kealinohomoku (2001) and a post from Marlo Fisken’s (2020) blog, A Letter to the Pole Community: It’s time we talk about toe-point supremacy. These two pieces clearly connect the dots of assumptions of supremacy culture—that Euro-centric is more valuable—to the prevalence and significance of ballet in Western dance training and on concert stages. Tuck and Yang (2012) write “The settler positions himself as both superior and normal;...” (6), and this is often what happens to ballet in dance studio settings—it is considered a baseline for other genres, rather than its own particular form, drawn from its own cultural context. In every class, students are encouraged to find the appropriate cultural context from which to consider their situation.
Read MoreYesterday, I reposted an article from Dance Magazine on my Facebook feed, speaking to the use of “my” in dance class, aka, “my dancers”, “my dance”, etc. It caused some good discussion there, so I thought I’d share what I’ve already explored on this topic. The following is an excerpt from my thesis on the ways I am examining language in dance class.
Read MoreLast week, Luis Roberto Herrera, Gaby Tortoledo, and I sat down for a conversation about what intimacy direction is, and how it can support actors for South Florida Theater Magazine. You can check out the whole piece here. Hopefully, this is the start of a larger conversation with the community!
Consent cannot exist if someone is under manipulation, influence, or coercion. Therefore, consent cannot exist when power dynamics are at play. Because power dynamics, whether social-structural or embodied, influence how we chose, behave, and speak.
Which is why consent does not exist for performers or students.
Read MoreNicole LaBonde- Transformation Coaching of Mind and Body, Pilates, Nutritional Cleansing
CABARRET- Barre and Dance Fitness
Public Persona- Professional Image Coaching for Public Speaking and/or Online Branding for Fitness Instructors, Life Coaches, Healers and other Heart-Centered Entrepreneurs.
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