Role: Co-Producer, Art Director

Creative opening performance for keynote speech at annual conference.

Engineer, Designer, Co-producer: Issac Kelly

For: Kelly Creative Tech for Elastic

We built a super-suit for a classical ballet dancer so she could dance a live duet with her own movement data using our client’s software.

On top of its diverse, pioneer-spirited technical challenges, I found a lot of personal meaning through the ballerina project.

As a woman in the arts who felt alienated from STEM subjects from grade-school through most of my twenties, it felt like the other side of a mountain to work shoulder-to-shoulder with both artists and engineers to bridge our communication and technical worlds to explore new dance moves that are both technically sound and aesthetically and philosophically benevolent.

As future-ancestors, we managed to conjure up one more supportive example for a generation of girls and young women to hopefully feel more empowered to approach whichever interests they wish, whenever they wish.

All that, plus bringing together some of my favorite creators?
Swoon.

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My favorite moment — besides getting to test drive the proto-suit that one time — was when we caught a handful of little dancers from the class next-door peeking in, leaving little nose-prints on the glass studio door as they watched our rehearsal.

How wonderful to think they may’ve been inspired by — or, better yet, taken for granted — that glimpse of a traditionally femme role in the seamless (thanks again, Mx. Titus) context of engineering and technology.
STEAM FTW <3

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Watch Elastic’s mini-documentary of “the ballerina project” here,
Read about choreographer Sarah Cecelia’s innovation in her own words here.

* * *
Costumer: Crystal Titus

Composer: Uriah Findley

Choreography: Sarah Cecilia

Performance Artist: Jaimielyn Duggan

Understudy: Kelsey McFalls

Special thanks to Haley Eshagh and Michal Woroniecki, the awesome team at Elastic, and Planet Labs.