ABOUT
Bio
I am a maker, mover, performer, producer, and director. I was born in Manhattan, NY, and grew up in Ankara, Turkey. I am a Northeastern University graduate, where I majored in Theatre and minored in both International Affairs and Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies. My New York Off-Broadway directing debut was The Sex Myth: A Devised Play, which premiered at Soho’s HERE Arts Center in 2017. I completed Gibney’s Professional Training Program in Contemporary Dance and Choreographic Process in 2020. I premiered my newest work Bending Not Breaking at Gibney and then showed it at Nasty Women Unite Festival in 2019. Facing In/Facing Out is my first dance film.
I am a maker, mover, performer, producer, and director. I was born in Manhattan, NY, and grew up in Ankara, Turkey. I am a Northeastern University graduate, where I majored in Theatre and minored in both International Affairs and Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies. My New York Off-Broadway directing debut was The Sex Myth: A Devised Play, which premiered at Soho’s HERE Arts Center in 2017. I completed Gibney’s Professional Training Program in Contemporary Dance and Choreographic Process in 2020. I premiered my newest work Bending Not Breaking at Gibney and then showed it at Nasty Women Unite Festival in 2019. Facing In/Facing Out is my first dance film.
Artist Statement
I tell stories and help others tell their stories. I am here to share what I know about healing and to bring focus to what needs to be healed.
I believe that vulnerability is powerful. I aim to show that we’re not alone in our experiences, to shed light on dark dusty cobwebbed corners, and to examine what is deemed “not okay” and find out whether that’s true. I aim to sweeten and deepen the connections with ourselves and between each other.
I find beauty through simplicity, minimalism, and softness. I lead with listening and my intuition.
Creating and performing helps me express what is in my heart and what I grapple with in deeply personal ways. When I perform, I explore authenticity and states of being. In my staged work, the script reveals itself through improvised experiments and free writing in response to prompts. I devise dance/theatre that shares the true stories of performers, often culminating in starkly honest monologues and dynamic group movement. I strive to preserve the rawness of each performer's story, to cultivate empathy, and to support collective and personal healing. In my film work, I explore the subtlety of acting and movement.
I integrate and am informed by a lineage and patchwork of experiences:
Choreographic/making practice — Adam Barruch, David R. Gammons
Movement/performance practice — Linklater, contemporary dance, Viewpoints, Contact Improvisation
Visual eye candy — Knee-High Theater Company, the (now paused) New York clubbing scene, Streetdance styles, choreographer Oona Doherty, filmmaker Christopher Michael Tew, Greta Gerwig in Frances Ha, and as always, Mother Nature herself.
All of these actions that I take and these sources of inspiration that inform me, heal me. It’s a work that is never quite done, and I hope that the way I tell stories will continue to intuitively evolve, taking shape as is needed.
I tell stories and help others tell their stories. I am here to share what I know about healing and to bring focus to what needs to be healed.
I believe that vulnerability is powerful. I aim to show that we’re not alone in our experiences, to shed light on dark dusty cobwebbed corners, and to examine what is deemed “not okay” and find out whether that’s true. I aim to sweeten and deepen the connections with ourselves and between each other.
I find beauty through simplicity, minimalism, and softness. I lead with listening and my intuition.
Creating and performing helps me express what is in my heart and what I grapple with in deeply personal ways. When I perform, I explore authenticity and states of being. In my staged work, the script reveals itself through improvised experiments and free writing in response to prompts. I devise dance/theatre that shares the true stories of performers, often culminating in starkly honest monologues and dynamic group movement. I strive to preserve the rawness of each performer's story, to cultivate empathy, and to support collective and personal healing. In my film work, I explore the subtlety of acting and movement.
I integrate and am informed by a lineage and patchwork of experiences:
Choreographic/making practice — Adam Barruch, David R. Gammons
Movement/performance practice — Linklater, contemporary dance, Viewpoints, Contact Improvisation
Visual eye candy — Knee-High Theater Company, the (now paused) New York clubbing scene, Streetdance styles, choreographer Oona Doherty, filmmaker Christopher Michael Tew, Greta Gerwig in Frances Ha, and as always, Mother Nature herself.
All of these actions that I take and these sources of inspiration that inform me, heal me. It’s a work that is never quite done, and I hope that the way I tell stories will continue to intuitively evolve, taking shape as is needed.
