In Unison, 2018 - ongoing

Growing up in the hills of Clarksville, Tennessee, clogging was a part of my grandmother's white, southern identity. So, when a dance school in our hometown started offering classes, she encouraged my sisters and me to take lessons. Clogging is a percussive American folk dance – created from the blending of several newly integrated cultures. Clogging combines the Jig brought to Appalachia by English, Irish, and German immigrants, Buck-dancing introduced to the American South by enslaved Africans, and the Cherokee stomp introduced by Native Americans who escaping the Trail of Tears hid in the hills of Appalachia. 

In Unison continues my generative research and collaboration with Flat Granny, a life-size photographic costume of my deceased grandmother, this time-worn on my back. In Unison was a series of six traveling pop-up performances that conjoined my body with my late grandmother's photographic body in a topsy-turvy doll of sorts. Combining photography, costume design, storytelling, and live performance, In Unison explores questions of ownership, cultural appropriation, and the power of storytelling.