“Using the medium of dance, I will choreograph a new work that seeks to bring awareness to the condition known as Misophonia; in particular, I will be focusing on the physiological responses that occur during a Misophonia-induced panic attack. By using the dancing body, audio, and visual effects, my aim is to expose the damage that this condition carries. This new work will serve to immerse the audience into the lived experience of having Misophonia and the daily obstructions it brings about.”

“This research will explore dance and movement in relation to common idioms used in the English language. Some of these idioms that will be explored include, “My hands are tied”, “When life gives you lemons…”, and “Think outside the box”. The movement explored will be both a literal and figurative interpretation of these phrases by using props (such as lemons, rope, boxes, and more) to further express each phrase’s main ideas. When hearing, “When life gives you lemons…” a person may equate this to taking the good out of a hard situation, but what would happen if a person were physically given lemons?”

“Looking at how people view dance, a lot of people see dance as a way to express themselves. When watching the media pertaining to dance, the most common thing dancers will say is how much they love it. However, dance is not always like that. Although dance can be viewed as a positive healing experience for a lot of people, there are a lot of unknown negatives that can make dance harmful and even discriminatory. I will be collecting and analyzing stories about individualized struggles dancers may have based on their gender identity. The data I collect will result in a new dance work that intends to challenge gender norms in dance, and bring positive changes into the dance world.”