Laura Ward- Artist's Statement.
My work aims to extract and distill potentiality from the collective unconscious and reshape it into the language of image and physicality, moving toward better dreams and manifestations. I like to work in collaboration with other diverse artists to create multi-layered spectacles rich with imagery, feelings, and ideas, drawing from the wellspring of pooled creative intelligence, descending into secret soul spaces that thrum beneath the surface of everyday life, and seeking access to the muses who yearn for expression. I want to challenge both the dancers and the audience to delve deeper into this incarnation of reality and question our role in its creation with a sense of humor and absurdity. My work is both humanistic and fantastic. I trust in dance to communicate the ineffable, seeing movement as a vehicle for pure consciousness and vitality.
I categorize my work under Maximalism because I draw from a diverse array of elements; dance techniques bump up against ancient ideologies and artistic movements; text, video, and spoken word are likely conspirators in the quest for creative formulation. The triangulation of sacred geometry, ballet, and somatic practices inspires me. I received my CMA in 1996 and have remained entranced by Rudolf von Laban’s theory of Space Harmony ever since. Laban’s use of crystalline forms as tools for shaping architectural movement aligns with my love for the ordered line of ballet, equally compelling are the somatic practices and internal investigations of Emilie Conrad and Irmgard Bartenieff. My choreography is usually on pointe, but the movement expands well beyond the conventional forms of ballet as so clearly stated by Jack Anderson from the New York Times, "instead of having dancers skim with balletic grace, she often had them stagger.”
I believe incarnate, animate aliveness springs from our presence in the NOW
My work aims to extract and distill potentiality from the collective unconscious and reshape it into the language of image and physicality, moving toward better dreams and manifestations. I like to work in collaboration with other diverse artists to create multi-layered spectacles rich with imagery, feelings, and ideas, drawing from the wellspring of pooled creative intelligence, descending into secret soul spaces that thrum beneath the surface of everyday life, and seeking access to the muses who yearn for expression. I want to challenge both the dancers and the audience to delve deeper into this incarnation of reality and question our role in its creation with a sense of humor and absurdity. My work is both humanistic and fantastic. I trust in dance to communicate the ineffable, seeing movement as a vehicle for pure consciousness and vitality.
I categorize my work under Maximalism because I draw from a diverse array of elements; dance techniques bump up against ancient ideologies and artistic movements; text, video, and spoken word are likely conspirators in the quest for creative formulation. The triangulation of sacred geometry, ballet, and somatic practices inspires me. I received my CMA in 1996 and have remained entranced by Rudolf von Laban’s theory of Space Harmony ever since. Laban’s use of crystalline forms as tools for shaping architectural movement aligns with my love for the ordered line of ballet, equally compelling are the somatic practices and internal investigations of Emilie Conrad and Irmgard Bartenieff. My choreography is usually on pointe, but the movement expands well beyond the conventional forms of ballet as so clearly stated by Jack Anderson from the New York Times, "instead of having dancers skim with balletic grace, she often had them stagger.”
I believe incarnate, animate aliveness springs from our presence in the NOW
