artistic statement:
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I dance to explore, to unlock new states of mind, to groove, to dive head first into the infinite space around me. My ideology when it comes to me as a dancer and an aspiring dance educator is to push traditional dance boundaries, and to defy the norm. This includes intersectionality with dancers and people who experience social or cultural differences. Since I grasped onto dance, there has always been a sense of uniformity with every style I’ve experienced, with a lack of embracing individuality and a sense of self. It has taken me a long time to grow out of the habits of trying to dance like everyone else. I find joy in dance and artistry that defines the sense of homogeneity. We are expected as dancers to stand out, yet expected to regurgitate what we are told to do. I value individuality in physical appearance and personality with dance. Being open minded to explore outside of one's comfort zone is essential to create new, exploratory movements. I aim to make dance that is real, raw, and elicits emotional response from dancers and viewers.
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I aim to emphasize the importance of including dance history not just within academia, but for educators, performers, arts administrators, and dance students. I aim to highlight the importance of decolonizing dance history. Marginalized groups of dancers are the backbone of everything we do today, yet the least recognized people. When we don't understand the raw sides of history, such as marginalization and discrimination, then dancing cannot progress to be inclusive. If there is no conversation behind history and washing over what we chose to learn, then we can't reform choreography, and dance movement does not evolve. Unless we acknowledge these aspects of history, we learn how to define what forms the style and what makes it meaningful. If we don’t teach generations of historical context to what we do and historical figures of dance, we lack access to exploring how others move, while limiting diversity of marginalized groups. No style of dance exists in one singular context. There are many different socio-political factors that have led to the evolution of dance that give us purpose as dancers in what we do. History is what keeps the value behind everything. If there is none, there is no purpose in any of what we do as artists.
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My specialties include styles such as tap, hip hop, and jazz, which revolve around the origins of the African diaspora. I use different social and kinetic elements of these styles and incorporate it into how I exert myself when performing. When it comes to tap for example, it uses supplementary sounds created by the dancers to enhance emotion, and to connect with the co-dancers and the audience. It can be used as a sense of call-and-response, which impacts how the audience connects with art. In hip-hop, there is a sense of community that is historically built upon social settings, which connects the performers together and together with the viewers. I strive within improvisational practices and movement, deconstructing restrictions that have been learned within a dance studio setting. When it comes to improvising and freestyling as a dancer, I exert myself by using groundedness over being light and airy. Music is defined as the art of organizing sounds to create meaningful or pleasing composition. I find that experimenting with using the body to create sounds causes new attention to performances, whether you are with a musical piece, or dancing in silence. As dancers, we are expected to use our whole body, but I find that smaller details when performing can easily capture the viewers.
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​I aim to make dance that is real, raw, and elicits emotional response from dancers and viewers. Not just on stage, but while also in a teaching setting. Art can reflect many human experiences and beliefs. I believe that dancing truly connects us with how we feel about ourselves, while also strengthens how we connect with others.
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diversity statement
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Why should every performing arts environment include diversity? When the world changes, so does the definition of what diversity looks like, meaning that diversity is a continual process throughout life. Within my own practice, it is vital to strengthen different social identities, especially outside of my own areas of privilege, and listen to others with different identities. I will always encourage dancers to represent themselves as who they are, and never force them to revolve around societal standards within the world of dance. Representing dancers properly and professionally is of utmost importance within my beliefs, while providing safe spaces for dancers to express their input on different topics, speak their mind, and challenge social barriers.
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No dancer should be placed into an environment with different social hierarchies, or with major separations that categorizes others based on different skills and abilities. In the sense of equity, meaning fairness and justice, it is important to offer support for those who do not have the same abilities or skills as everyone. Equity is not only advocating justice and fairness for oneself, but to not hold ourselves back when it comes to standing up for others in need. We must collectively learn and accept different dancers' challenges that they cannot control, while simultaneously learning patience to adapt. This is especially important when it comes to financial capabilities, as well as physical and mental abilities. This means altering what can limit someone from participation, such as adjusting costs, choreography, and costuming. There is a large stigma of being uniformal within the world of dance, and when we make space and provide support and acceptance of differences, we create a healthier, more fair and confident dance environment for everyone.
Inclusion is the practice of putting both diversity and equity into work. When we use inclusion in our lives, we push our boundaries and ideas, while also giving a chance to boost the self esteem of others. When we use inclusion, we educate ourselves, while also putting ourselves out there to accept criticism. Naturally, we subconsciously gravitate to what is most familiar to ourselves. It is important to push ourselves to different perspectives of how others think, while also opening our own ideas to how we can learn. This can mean interacting with people outside of our social groups, challenging ourselves to value different life perspectives, and putting in the effort to provide representation. As our world changes, so should we, while still valuing in staying true to ourselves. We must provide inclusion to provide a sense of belonging, to display different artistic perspectives, while enhancing our own. When we feel included and apply inclusion, we unlock the full potential of change.​
career goals
*revised as of march 2025*
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My primary goals of achieving a BA in Dance post-grad was to be a dance teacher.
I have seen about teaching back at my studio in my hometown at some point in time, specifically during my undergrad. I have never felt the need to be a performer, as that is not my strong suit. I am more of a maker, rather than a doer. As a double major in psychology, I know for sure I want to go to graduate school for counseling, but I have also thought about possibly doing a joint graduate degree with an MFA in Choreography, and an MA in Counseling, or something along the lines of that. I have talked with upperclassmen, as well as my professors about what to expect with receiving an MFA.
It is very hard to make up my mind when it comes to picking just one thing. I understand the level of difficulty of doing two masters length-wise to graduate, financially to pay for school and a place to live, and the mental capacities mental health wise of completing schoolwork, working jobs . I have looked at schools such as University of Colorado-Boulder, Ohio State university, University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, and still looking at other options where I can get both of what I want within Psychology and Dance. I mainly would like to do an MFA for potentially teaching in higher education, as well as teaching at professional workshops. I will consider taking a gap year post undergrad to find a job to support myself financially, and to prepare for paying graduate school to try and limit the dread of paying student loans. Being halfway through my dance degree, Ball State has helped me solidify that I am mostly interested in teaching improvisation, as well as tap, and dance history. I have also considered hip hop, but I need to do more self discovering in hip hop to help solidify my technique.
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I don't really have a specific place I want to end up in within the USA or within the world. I plan on going wherever the wind blows me, whether that means staying here in Indiana, or ending up in another country.​