Georgia Rose Patterson

As an artist, I've always been drawn to the seemingly chaotic nature of improvisation. From jazz musicians to graffiti artists to dancers, improvisation allows the artist a freedom I have always craved. In my classical Western training, dance was both systematic and structured yet somehow creative. The idea was that after I mastered the technique, I could then expand the patterns ingrained in me, in my body, and it felt hopeful. The problem is, in the expansion, you are stuck in thinking patterns associated with the methodical lessons you had learned for years; lessons of beauty, aesthetics, and what can and cannot be shown on stage. The ballets you had practiced pigeonholed creativity in the field and relied on the appropriation of other forms for artistic development. In my work now, I am examining the role of those patterns and how they manifest in the Western canon of dance creation and aesthetics, seeking to undermine these creation methodologies. In reevaluating the canon's role, I hope to find that freedom in creation through embodied improvisational practice.