caribou.

On March 10, 2011 two of my pieces will be performed at the Kelowna Community Theatre stage with my name behind them. I'm terribly nervous, as this is the first time my work will be shown on other dancers besides myself. When you're teaching and performing your own choreography, you know where to move if things don't go right, can improv, and are so encapsulaed in the piece that everything can work.

How do I make my dancers feel this?

When I started brainstorming ideas behind my contemporary number, I was terribly torn with what direction I wanted to go in. First, these girls

are in high school...how did I feel those few years ago? Uncertain about the future, had weekly romance drama in the hallways, obsession for perfection. I took my ideas out to my friends and found how many people felt the same way I did, but had a completely different experience - all within the same concrete building.

Turning my old bedroom into a dance studio, (moving aside a ginormous dresser was not easy) my movements started small and rigid. Jump, kick, turn. Repeat.

Not working Portia, you're being typical.

I sat down and worked hard to do absolutely nothing for a few moments and let the music take over me. I needed it to surround me, to feel each chord, the breaths of the artist. From here, a more organic movement began. Repetition of arms, a sign here, grab hands, pushing away.

Although we are all living different lives around the city, country, continent, world, there is always that unifying line or event that connects us all. Whether it be that high school dance, the Twin Towers fall on 9/11, watching the same movie and more - we are uniquely different, but have had the same experiences through completely different filters. Finding those changes and interpretations opens my eyes as an artist and in a journey to understand more.

If you're able to go to the show, I hope you can and let me know what you think.

This piece is a little reflection of who I am, what I'm learning and how I've experienced some parts of life. If I can connect and touch one person in the audience, I'll be over the moon.

Photo by Portia Favro during the choreography process - check out my piece to see if the leg extension made it!