My demo reel and a collection of acts and video projects.

Self, Wild, was conceived and created in November 2022 and performed live in February 2023 as a final capstone for a university course about bell hooks. Self, Wild combines poetry (Wild Geese by Mary Oliver), music (Suffer by Son Little), and movement (myself on lyra). What does it mean to have voice, to make space, to feel love and pleasure, to know the danger of pleasure and that love offers no place of safety. To know the individual and to know community. To find oneself and declare oneself, as a practice of freedom and a practice of resistance to forceful oppressive systems. To recognize others and uplift them as a practice of freedom and transgression. I get the last word on who I am and make space for others to have the last word on who they are.

Choreography, concept: Caroline Daniels

Performed at Night Owl Circus Arts' Instructor Gala

Film: Travis Wolven

To see the original video project, use this link: https://youtu.be/mkr4q6C8Bo0?si=1XTtynkM4Q7brHeU

Ode à mes grand-parents was created in April 2023 for Inanimate 48, a 48-hour apparatus-based dance choreography competition.

My Opa and Oma died a few years ago. There aren’t enough words to explain how much I miss them and how many ways I miss them. They haven’t seen me perform since I was 12, so in this piece I dance for them. My Oma loved ballet, my Opa loved Edith Piaf’s music. I’m not trained in ballet, but I like to imagine that this homage to ballet shines through and makes my grandparents roll their eyes and smile. I imagine they are my audience and I'm dancing in this concrete haven for them. It’s a funny place to choose, but I’ve been drawn to it again and again recently. It’s a place I’ve walked to and danced in when I needed release, to move without inhibition, to shake the cobwebs lose. These incredible concrete blocks feel like I’m dancing on the building blocks of the foundation my grandparents laid for me. Dancing ballet on them is silly and absurd, but it feels right to bring this kind of silliness to the piece. I still hold so much grief around my grandparents dying; everything we didn’t get to talk about or do, questions I never asked, tv shows we didn’t finish, the person I am now that they don’t get to see. I lived with them for many years and it feels like there’s stuff we missed. My grandparents, especially my Opa, really liked Edith Piaf and I love this song by her: “Non, je ne regrette rien.” It’s a triumphant joyous song. My grandparents always told me to keep my head up, keep moving forward, to not quit. This song feels beautiful to dance to and a soft sweet way to meet my grief face to face and dance with it.

Dancing to this song, pretending to do ballet, feeling the hot sun, pretending my grandparents are there as my audience watching me as if I’m the prima ballerina on stage under the spotlights. This brings me incredible joy and helps push the grief through my system. Helps me look at it and tell it that it’s okay, we can keep going and exist together. The grief will never go away. Instead of being held down by it, I can move with it, finding ways to celebrate my grandparents and my own life which is incredibly precious.

Choreography, concept, film, editing: Caroline Daniels

Performed and filmed at the Burlington Industrial Complex, Johnson City, TN.