Alter Ego for WeAreTheContributors.com
I was recently invited to create an original work for WeAreTheContributors.com, an online space that brings together artists, designers, photographers and all kinds of makers around creative projects to inspire and build community across mediums. We were asked to explore the theme, Alter Ego—to inhabit the mind, space and life of another person or another facet of ourselves. By some odd cosmic coincidence I had just begun to explore a new dance work that explored exactly that, though I didn't know it yet.
What started out as a solo, set on Jen Hunter, about fear became a duet about control....because as it turns out, my biggest fear is losing control. What we uncovered as the piece developed were two very distinct personas that I use to keep my fear in check. There is the external persona (calm, collected, balanced) that I show the world, and the internal persona (pushing, driving, controlling) that gets me through the day — my alter ego. This piece, performed by Jen Hunter and myself, is an illustration of the struggle that's usually, expertly hidden from view.
“I am proud to be an alter ego, but it was a challenging process. Once I realized that I could bring my own passion and my own story into the work, it began to develop a beautiful complexity. Working with Jenn was wonderful. She talked me through her ideas and I was able to understand what she wanted more than the physical dance movement, but what she wanted to get across emotionally. ”