UPCOMING:
November 6, 7, 11-14, 2026
Premiere at New York Live Arts

July 1, 2025 - June 30, 2027
Randjelović/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist (RCA), New York Live Arts

May 26 - June 5, 2026
Residency at The Pocantico Center, Tarrytown, NY

January 2026
Work-in-progress showing for Live Artery at New York Live Arts during APAP

this is the beginning, this is the end interrogates the phenomenon of history repeating itself through an interdisciplinary work that scrutinizes leadership, agency, and the thresholds we encounter individually and collectively. Performed by an ensemble of six dancers and two musicians, the piece examines how individual bodies carry the residue of political and social systems, and how the act of tearing down and rebuilding becomes both an artistic and human imperative. Cascading waves of intricate, rigorous, layered movement and sound reflect on two divergent forces: the need for collectivism to accomplish change and, its most dangerous manifestation, unthinking conformity.

this is the beginning, this is the end is being created in collaboration with dancers Lena Engelstein, Wendell Gray II, Molly Heller, Symara Sarai, and Hsiao-Jou Tang and musicians Maralie Armstrong-Rial and Ryan Seaton; with lighting design by Kathy Kaufmann, set design by 212 box, and costume design by Christian Joy.

this is the beginning, this is the end is being commissioned, produced, and will be premiered by New York Live Arts as part of the Randjelović/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist Program (RCA), at Live Arts in New York City in Fall 2026, with lead funding from Rockefeller Brothers Fund. this is the beginning, this is the end is co-commissioned by The American Dance Festival (ADF) with support from the Doris Duke/SHS Foundations Award for New Works, and has been supported in part through residencies at Marble House Project, Milvus Artistic Research Center, LMCC’s RehearsalWeek, the Pillow Lab at Jacob’s Pillow, The Chocolate Factory Theater, The Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and Loghaven Artist Residency, and is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. 

Additional funding contributing to the making of this is the beginning, this is the end comes from a 2024 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award, a 2025 NDP Finalist Grant Award, a 2026 NYSCA Support for Artists Grant (Choreography Commissions) with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and The Harkness Foundation for Dance.

We had a Pillow Lab residency at Jacob's Pillow in March 2025, and a residency at The Pocantico Center in May/June 2026 to help develop this is the beginning, this is the end. Both 10-day intensive working periods culminated in public work-in-progress showings.

Above is a teaser reel from our Pocantico residency that was shot & filmed by Jonathan Fahoury, courtesy of New York Live Arts, and shows a quick look into our process.

This is followed by an Inside the Pillow Lab film, directed and produced by Nel Shelby Productions, the gives a more in-depth look into the themes, people, and process involved in creating the initial stages of the piece. The 2024-2025 Pillow Labs received lead support from: The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation © 2024 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Inc.

To watch the Pillow video with subtitles, please go HERE.

At the Pillow, I collaborated with dancers Lena Engelstein, Wendell Gray II, Molly Heller, Symara Sarai, and Hsiao-Jou Tang; musicians Jennae Santos and Ryan Seaton; and writer-in-residence Lauren Slone. Together, we advanced the project through improvisational practices, structured material, and reflections on past and present strategies for survival and change.