Dance

"Mother" is a meditation reflection that depicts the story of the life of Jesus Christ told through the eyes of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The piece uses movement, music, narrative, and costume to enhance this beautiful story told from a unique perspective. I have performed this dance worldwide, including at the Youth Festival at World Youth Day 2013 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, shown here.

"Papuri sa Diyos" was presented during the Gloria at the Mass for the Feast of San Lorenzo Ruiz at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on September 25, 2014, before presiders Cardinal Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, and Archbishop Auza, the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations. I coordinated and choreographed the dance, which included several groups ranging in age, background, and faith.

"Many Yet One" is a modern proclamation of the Scripture passage found in 1 Corinthians 12. The Scripture passage is recited in the styling of spoken word poetry while the dance includes elements of breaking and hip hop.

"Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi – Dance for Global Peace" is a moving prayer portraying the vivid imagery found in the words of this traditional prayer. This dance promotes peace, harmony, collaboration, trust, and unity through movement and word.

The Archdiocesan Dance Troupe is a collective of youth and young adult dance groups from across the Archdiocese of New York. We have danced at New York Catholic Youth Day in 2014, 2015, and 2016. I coordinated the Troupe by inviting groups who were interested in performing, by organizing rehearsals for the main event, and by creating a main narrative for the dance. Each group choreographs their own short section of the dance piece and joins in a large group ending and/or beginning section choreographed by myself. Shown here is their first presentation in 2014.

Since 2014, I have taught workshops at the National College “Preaching in Action” Conference, a project of Dominican Youth Movement USA. I introduced students to sacred and liturgical dance while also prepared them for presenting at the Commissioning Liturgy the following day. Each dance I've led is unique- some choreographed by myself, others inspired by their own creative movement, some using props, and some where we encouraged the congregation to follow. The dance seen here was performed in 2018, with music sung by the conference choir.