parlêtre

Performance (auto)bio, in semi-self-indulgent first-person:

I was a gymnast while growing up—growing too large and tall to actually be a gymnast. So later I shifted to dance, which I initially perceived as gymnastics without the flips.

At the age of 17, I saw a performance of Mystère by Cirque du Soliel and it left such an impression that for months afterwards I lived in the fantasy of being in the show. This desire to become a performer in Cirque would then drive the subsequent movements of my life.

I majored in dance in college and received a BA from UNLV. I paid for college by working nightly as a dancer and acrobat in the Las Vegas shows Imagine at the Luxor Hotel and the Folies Bergère at the Tropicana. Post-graduation I spent a year and a half in Tokyo performing as an aerialist for Disney.

All the while, I perpetually perused a position in Cirque. Following a series of auditions and rejections, spanning over about four years, I was finally invited to be in the original cast of Cirque du Soleil’s KÀ at the MGM Grand. This involved the creation of the show in their studio in Montréal followed by two years of performing it in Las Vegas.

And then… as psychoanalysis shows, desire realized ceases to be desire. What would be next would involve creating my own performance work.

In the fall of 2006 I drove from Vegas to New York City with what performance props would fit in my car. I met video artist and musician Jarryd Lowder and we collaborated for five years, performing in venues such as Dixon Place, Movement Research at Judson Church, and Roulette. In 2009 I was named a “next one” in The L Magazine’s list of up and coming artists. I also toured internationally as a dancer for the music group Fischerspooner.

At present, my performance practice comprises mostly solo movement improvisations interrogating the link between psychoanalysis and the body. Speaking and being. Speaking-being. Parlêtre.

Thanks for visiting.

Julie

I was recently interviewed on Rendering Unconscious here.

Performance archive