What would your parents say about your work in the arts?

My grandmother was a violin virtuoso who won an award and was invited to play at Carnegie Hall at age 12. Her family was so poor that they could not afford shoes let alone train fare from Detroit to New York. (Her lessons and violin had been donated.) She gave up her dream of being a musician, worked her way through college and grad school. She supported her mother and polio-inflicted sister as a teacher and psychologist until she married my grandfather, a labor lawyer who worked for the auto unions. When she discovered that I wanted to be a dancer, she poured all of her love and support into making that happen with not an ounce of bitterness about her own lost opportunities.

How did you learn to type?

I wouldn’t say I really know how to type.

Finish this sentence “Good dance…..”

Leaves audiences experiencing their bodies and the space around them more fully.

Finish this sentence “Good writing…”

Doesn’t seem well executed. The writer gets out of the way and leaves space for ideas to flourish.

What are you most excited to cover through TD?

I’m interested in writing about the place where dance and politics intersect. Right now I’m working on a piece about gender inequity in dance. This fall, I hope to work on a piece that relates my work in the Palestinian solidarity movement to the field of dance. I’d like to research the relationship of Palestinian Dabke to Israeli folk dance and also write a piece that looks at the impact of the cultural boycott on Israeli dance companies.

If I never see another ____________ again, it will be too soon.

Improvised dance performed by someone without an improvisation practice.

If you were to write a dance love-letter, it would be to:The creators of Badke: