1. Costume design for Rooms Play 2010 & Screen capture of the scene "Meeting with the Goddess"

2. Performance "Shadow Play" (Photo and Video) was presented at the Black Cherry Puppet Theatre in November of 2012. A Collaboration and exploration between Frog Wang, Sophia Mak, Ciara Clements, Pilar Diaz with music by Kenny Johnston.

3. Street Performance "Enacting Poetic Rage," locations throughout Baltimore.

4. Co-Choreography with Melissa Talleda for "Turn Into - Part II (w. ZOMES)," an Effervescent Collective show taking place in the Soft House, February 2012.

5. A Dance Video tribute to Alejandro Jodorowsky

An investigation and exercise in reimagining the Tarot cards as translated by Aleister Crowley.

Rooms Play was organized by the Copycat Theatre a second time in April of 2011, during the Transmodern Festival.

Merging a narrative based on Joseph Campbell's monomyth and experiences of immigrating to the USA, over 60 artists collaborated to create this 22-room immersive play.

*more details to come*

Created in collaboration, this was the final ensemble piece created with the Copycat Theatre. "The Queen's Game" was a summary of our research and characterization of power. A captivating dance, full of ritual and play, revealed to be just that: a game played by children.

The costumes were made from wedding dressed, restructured to resemble a combination of 17th century high-court France, as well as 80's Madonna/dance party styles.

The installation and performance created for eMerge Art Fair in DC was a room created with red spandex stretched around 4 pillars, from which we attached picture frames, and cut "windows" to the interior, the viewing place of the audience. on the inside we had piles of plastic cellophane, silky fabrics, a reclining chair, a staff/rifle, a crown, a camera, and a veil. With these props we rehearsed and explored the notion of "queen-ness," each taking turns to vy for the crown, competing, playing and winning/losing, and basically creating a spectacle of ourselves.

After winning the B-grant in 2010, the copycat theatre was able to re-present this work as a performance in-the-round at the BMA Late Night Performance Ceremony on October 1, 2011. The video of the performance can be viewed to your right.

Choreographed and performed dance as part of "Solar Solipsis," an evening of dance made for Salamander Wool's album of the same name. Created and rehearsed in a period of 2 months, with daily rehearsal and preparation, this dance accompanied the track "Timarians Approach".

Unfortunately at this time no video footage of the whole dance remains. Snippits and scenes, as well as an overview of the whole event can be seen in the video attached to this project.

This dance stemmed from a longstanding fascination for partner acrobatics and the sharing of weight. This is a movement concept related to the activities of "contact improvisation," a form of postmodern dance. The radical intimacy of contact improvisation of partner acrobatics - a relationship of giving and taking, support and release - an inherently healthy relationship of balance… to me, these bodily relationships are hopeful and inspiring.

It was created with a sense of searching, exploring, dark wandering, meeting and falling away.

The music for the piece, "Timarians Approach" by Salamander Wool, can be listened to here on Ehse Records: http://www.ehserecords.com/ehse022/

Central to our vision for this performance event was using collaborative art making and conversation as the basis of what we created. Working with visual artists, sound artists, performance artists, community leaders, musicians, and even people who had never performed before, we met for 2 months of rehearsal and planning in small groups to create each of 23 performances which made up the whole installation. It was truly a collaborative event.

Starting with 4 months of conversation about community, race, empowerment, performance, the role of performance in Baltimore and within specific communities, and the potential of immersive theatre, we then held open auditions. We had specific roles in mind - most of the performances were written at that point. But we also received a number of independent proposals for rooms that were not written by the SEAP collective. Edward Knapp, B-Fly Denai, Amanda Schmidt, Sheila Gaskins, Sarah Tooley, Kariz Marcel, Person Ablach, Mary Alessi, Hoesy Corona, Alex D'Agostino, Nia Hampton and Vianney Paul all created performances within RFA originally.

Questions are often asked about the meaning of the project, or the story itself. How did it result? How could so much planning remain so open in the end result? Many people had wildly different experiences of this event, both positive and negative. But I'd like to ask in response to confusion, a few questions of my own, which question the basis of what entertainment and performance is.

What is the need for linearity? For rationality?

What control do you have over your body?

Where does your attention go, when you experience performance?

What happens to you physically, emotionally, and spiritually when you enter an immersive performance?

What is your reason for attending an event such as this one?

We succeeded in being thought-provoking, in forming new relationships, in transforming a space, and having sold-out shows. Many of us even transformed ourselves through the process of building and staging the play. At the end of the day, I think the meta-performance (all of the aspects surrounding the performance itself, such as rehearsal and the personal relationships and media surround the event) is what stands the test of time, What truly influences people. Because there were so many varied experiences, it is hard to say what "Rooms Fall Apart" truly is.

I enjoy organizing performance, and plan to continue to do so.

Please visit the SEAK tumblr for more information, including a list of all cast and crew for the immense project & other projects: http://roomsfallapart.tumblr.com

Please see VJP photo for more images here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/valjpauls/sets/72157633450636915/

"Drip" was presented at a night of performance by the Effervescent Collective members called "Tendao" at the NowChild SoundStage in Baltimore, MD, January 2013.

"Windhorse" was presented at an all-female performance night called "Weird Love" at the Body Actualized Center (BAC) in NYC, May 2013.

The concepts "drip" and "wind horse" refer to energetic states of being, as defined in the Shambhala lineage of meditation & philosophy. They mean, alternately, a clouded, heavy, ignorant mind versus a light and wise mind rooted in non-projected reality. I was greatly impacted by this teaching, as it relates to personal experience and communication-in-general. These two pieces were explorations of these states.

"Drip" was accompanied by a video projection containing: shots of the planet earth, waves crashing from below, buildings demolished into piles of smoke, empty fields, precipatory clouds rising above the ocean, explosions of buildings, 9/11, debris falling through the sky, smoke stacs from missiles just having been launched, and blinding light.

"Drip" was also in collaboration with the musical project ZOMES, performed alongside Asa Osborne. Movement was generated in response to, and alongside Asa.


"Windhorse" stemmed from a greater preoccupation with layers unveiled. Two pink dresses, a white mask, a black wig, and clownish face paint were revealed artfully. Beginning in a meditative calm, the dance reached a height of violent ecstasy, crashing and rolling and tumbling through acrobatic joy. The music for this piece was a fusion of multiple experimental sounds: a reading of Charles' Bukowski's "Dinosauria, we" alongside Ellen Fullman's various works "Woven Processional" and "Swingen".