Welcome to Point of Contact, my first foray into online dance criticism and commentary. The title of this site comes from a term used in Contact Improvisation, a dance form developed in the early 1970s by Steve Paxton that utilizes shared weight between bodies as the impetus for exploring movement. A “point of contact” is the place on the body where this weight-sharing occurs. Though the point of contact will frequently change places on the bodies throughout a contact improvisation exercise, its function remains the same – connecting two (or more) moving bodies in space, and providing a reference point from which new movement stems.

I’m a dancer and all-around arts advocate currently based in New York City, particularly interested in post-modern dance and performance art, the trajectory of the Judson Dance Theater, and contemporary ballet from the 1980s and 1990s. My previous research has analyzed the works of Twyla Tharp, Mark Morris, Meredith Monk, and George Balanchine; currently, I am working on a large-scale research project concerning the work of Swedish choreographer Mats Ek, and its relation to modern feminist discourse regarding female sexuality and gender-role deviance.

Living in the dance capitol of the world has its obvious perks – in the few years that I’ve lived in NYC, I’ve had the amazing opportunity to work with many incredible choreographers and see innumerable performances, all of which couldn’t be done anywhere else in the world, and for that I am forever grateful. As I move forward with my dance career, I intend to use this site not only as a chronicle of my own work and the performances I attend, but also as a conduit for expressing my thoughts on the theories, practices, histories, and challenges in the field of dance and performance art. I sincerely hope you will find writings relevant, useful, and thought-provoking, and that this site may serve as a resource for your own further exploration – a point of contact between you and the immense, diverse, and exhilarating world of dance.

Coming Up: Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and her troupe, Rosas, bring two highly anticipated works – En Atendant and Cesena – to BAM this weekend. Look for a post regarding Cesena early next week.