Threshold Dance Theater Las Vegas Artistic & Movement Philosophy

Threshold Dance Theater Artistic/Movement Philosophy

How do we live in a fragmented world?

Can movement, art, and performance in additiFon to being artistically interesting and creatively stimulating, benefit people in ways which might be healing to the soul, to their relations with others, and to their psychological well being? I believe it can, and does.

All of us, in one way or another, are left with the residue of an imperfect childhood. Unfulfilled, we spend a good deal of our lives searching for ways to compensate for the places in us which are in need. Most of us spend a good deal of time as adults attempting to reintegrate the split-off parts of us that make up our shadow personality. This “shadow” affects our relationships and the life choices we make.

The holistic perspective embraces the creative purpose and the power of the arts to heal, educate, and to facilitate consciousness. Often, what cannot be expressed in words can be expressed through movement and metaphor.

The language of the self and the soul speaks in the images of our drawings, dances, and poetry. When we dare to confront our personal, and the collective shadow we can release our old stories so that new ones can emerge.

Art that arises from, and is connected to the real and compelling circumstances of our lives can illuminate the darkness. And when it does this for us, art making becomes a healing process. The symbols of our artwork speak for us as much as they speak to us.

Movement and art are vehicles of passage which can help people slowly and sensitively re-enter their bodies and reconnect with their feelings. Anyone walking the path of growth and transformation will benefit from this embodied, arts-based approach to life.

Authentic movement, that which I am encouraging in my classes and workshops, is not a specific technique or method. I have studied many techniques and forms of dance and my approach is my own personal embodiment of that knowledge. It arises not from intellectual planning, but from “feeling through” with a sensitive body. When energetic phenomena (the body in motion) concentrates within, and moves through the conscious body, the energy itself becomes an offering – to the mover, to the witness(s), to the world evolving, and to our world longing for consciousness. When a person truly connects with the authentic movement within them, their personality shifts toward experience of presence, empathy shifts toward compassion (from the witness perspective), and in moments of grace, suffering becomes bearable.

In my classes and workshops I try to guide my students to discover their own authentic movement within them. With my performing company I am working to engage the art of dance to touch hearts and souls and cultivate the ongoing investigation of the human experience. I am enlisting the communicative power of the human body to reach out a healing hand toward fostering introspection, the joy of discovery, enlightenment and personal revelation.