Sandra

Mathern

ARTISTIC STATEMENT

The focus of my creative work is in choreography and performance in contemporary dance, with an emphasis on improvisation and collaboration, a recent integration of interactive technologies, and an interest in site-based work. Performance in improvisation has been an ongoing practice and I have performed with many artists in a variety of locations including with Nina Martin and Lower Left at the March 2 Marfa Performance Lab in Marfa, TX, in Yellow Springs, OH with Jill Becker and company, in solo performances with musician Terrence Karn, with veteran improvisers David Beadle and Karen Nelson in North Carolina, with International Butoh artist Katsura Kan, and with contact improvisers Chris Aiken, Peter Bingham, KJ Holmes and Angie Hauser, and most recently in a concert with dancer Rebecca Bryant and musician Don Nichols titled Three in Two.

Work with students is a major part of my artistic life, which has also has been informed by my study of interactive technology tools such as Isadora, a program developed by Mark Coniglio of Troika Ranch. My first investigation using this program, We Are Here and This is Now, brought together prerecorded video with live camera feed in a performance work for four student dancers. Weaving together site-inspired choreographic material, the work pointed to the past and present simultaneously.

These three foci, improvisation, collaboration and interactive performance through technology, are at the center of my artistic research and practice. I am interested in broadening my perspective, finding new ways to integrate or weave these together, and in challenging my aesthetic choices and assumptions.