switch is an evening length performance choreographed with Hannah Krafcik and featuring music made in collaboration with Mickey Sanchez. Our work on this performance began in Hannah’s living room in the summer of 2018. The performance was developed in multiple residencies and performed in various iterations in Portland, New Orleans, and LA.

switch is the result of many extended talks about power dynamics that exist between us (Emily + Hannah), dynamics that emerge from our histories and socializations and also from our desire to push back against these influences. From inside, this collaboration feels like an intimate mess that blurs the boundaries of submissiveness, dominance, aggression, and care—a stew we swim while performing ourselves. We intentionally edge toward and away from the dichotomies that surface within our work, challenging the ways we are in relation to each other and to audiences.

912 Julia Gallery Show: On August 16, 2019, Hannah Krafcik and I offered an interactive time-based performance centering care practices from our working lives and research. This performance was presented at 912 Julia gallery (New Orleans, LA). 

In preparation for a physically exhausting performance we would undergo the following day, we decided to offer a series of nourishing care gestures informed by and in dialogue with the exhibition “912 + Friends.” Inspired by the exhibition's central curatorial thread of personal relationships and connections, we created a dance influenced by our relationship to one another and the flow of relationships that has propelled us to this particular moment. Attendees were invited to participate by signing up for 5-minute-long, consent-oriented sessions of physical care work, which we offered intermittently throughout the performance.

Apartment Show: Kevin Cherry has amassed an eclectic mixture of sculpture, ceramics, and wall art collected over several years of thrifting and antiquing in and around the Pacific Northwest. He debuted his collection for the first time and opened his home in Portland, OR to host a dance performance with Hannah Krafcik and myself on June 2, 2019. In creating this performance, we  worked with improvised movement in relation to several artworks that Kevin had curated for the occasion. The end result evolved from an ongoing dialogue between the three of us, wherein we sought to compare and contextualize our personal practices of curation/collection and movement.

Ecological Bodies was a week-long somatic-oriented series of happenings co-created with Hannah Krafcik. This festival emerged out of our personal inquiry into how our interaction with and “story of” the space and objects around us shapes the relationship we have with our interior. For this festival, we gathered a group of colleagues to share practices and perspectives around the same theme. After five days of classes and workshops in Portland, OR, we invited collaborating artists to travel to the Oregon Coast to conduct further research. Throughout the festival we harvested scores, writing, photographs, and drawings which are now available on our project website.

Project Thrust was a dance-theatre company founded in San Francisco, CA by Malinda Lavelle. From 2009 to 2016, I researched and performed with collaborators who have since become life-long friends. In the imaginative work Lavelle crafted, we explored our psycho-emotional terrain and the way this could be brought forth through voice and movement. I collaborated with Project Thrust and participated in 4 evening length works. To find out more and see footage, visit the archival website for Project Thrust.