My pedagogy has been shaped by the teachings of Paulo Freire and Bell Hooks.  I endeavor to create environments that are free from judgement, open to discourse, and where investigation is actively advanced.  I encourage students to examine what they are taught, neither reflexively accepting nor rejecting perceived orthodoxies.  Teaching is inherently a political act.  Thus, we can neither provide nor receive information passively.  We must be engaged in a continuous examination of our beliefs, desires, fears, thought processes, and patterns.  If we are to believe in personal evolution then it must follow that we are in a state of constant change.  Who we are, who the Other is, remains constantly in flux.  The maxim "know thyself" drives my investigations as an artist and teacher towards the cultivation of the holistic performer and true exchange.

"I'm not interested in how people move, but what moves them." - Pina Bausch

My movement teachings are based upon butoh explorations and animal work.  Together these two types of training address core issues I believe to be particularly relevant to performance training and which I feel augment traditional acting and performance programs.

Butoh is a dance art form that emerged in Japan in the late 1950s.  Using the body as a field for corporal investigation and spiritual journey, butoh practice can lead to deep, visceral, authentic expression.

Letting the body "talk", we explore energy, performer presence, and personal identity, with the intention of creating true exchange.

Observing nature, moving with the invisible, harnessing the power inherent in words and images, we examine material and immaterial world, test limits and borders, and open ourselves to the mystery that is the world.

For the performer, butoh training addresses practical performance concerns.  We learn to expand and distill energetically, transform physically, and explore our relationship with time and space.  We learn to improvise, re/act, and live organically, moment to moment, viewing the body as antenna, as container for memory, as mirror reflecting the world around us.