Tapping into the transformative power of dance

What inspired you to take the leap from medicine to dance?

In large part, the Open Curriculum and the autonomy and self-accountability it requires—combined with Brown’s culture for self-awareness and open dialogue—provided the foundation, skills, and courage to leave medicine to pursue a career in dance. It helped that there were so many similarities to the discipline of ballet and the study of medicine for me. There is a throughline in my trajectory from medical anthropology to medicine to dance, and that lies in the concept of healing as it pertains to the human body and experience. 

When it came down to it, the decision to make the leap from medicine to the arts as a profession was easy. I felt prepared for the change because I had already mastered perseverance and resiliency at Brown. The mentality that there is no wrong choice in life continues to be a driving force for me some 15 years after graduating and it’s a message that embeds itself in my work as a choreographer as well.

How do you think the two fields are connected?

One thing about taking a patient’s medical history that always interested me when I was a medical student was reading a patient’s body language. It could tell you so much about their levels of comfort, pain, and worry. In many ways, a patient’s communication with you as their caretaker was embodied in their movement around you. So much that is not shared in words is expressed in their presentation in physical form. As a medical student years ago and as a choreographer now, I am reminded that if you accept the human body as a vessel of communication, then you must also consider the framework in which we understand and interpret its power when the body moves.

How did your scholarship as a Royce Fellow with the Swearer Center shape the stories you set to movement?

My research as a Royce Fellow focused on narratives and experiences of individuals and focus groups from a refugee community across the U.S. and looked at how they interpreted, accessed, and practiced Western medicine in their families. 

Methodology aside, my experience as a Royce Fellow was a catalyst for my work as a choreographer to discover, research, and share untold stories, stories of marginalized voices, on our world's stages. Above all, truth is powerful and all stories matter and deserve to be told. 
 

Why do you think the relationship between movement and storytelling is important in ballet?

Dance allows human bodies to explore and interpret the spectrum of the human experience through movement. While it is performance art in bodily form, it is also a study of human behavior and chronicle of human interaction. It’s in this potential where ballet and dance can have a meaningful connection with the community. If choreography is our calligraphy, the stage floor becomes our canvas. Movement provides a medium and an opportunity where the interaction of bodies can perhaps overcome cultural differences and spoken languages. That’s why it’s important for purposeful storytelling and for the global reach of ballet today.