Breaking it down: Confluence (pt.1)

Recently, I've been reminded what a privilege it is to be an artist. That reminder came the day after closing night, when I took a drive and unexpectedly started crying—not from sadness, but from finally letting the whole experience settle in. Being a choreographer allows me to use bodies as a vessel to process my own feelings, emotions, and stance in the world. I was able to do that with my most recent piece, "Confluence."

Our most recent endeavor was the Lehman Alumni Choreography Fellowship, where we had the honor to work with the incredible students and alumni of Lehman College on a new piece to be performed at the annual Fall "Dance in Dialogue" show in October 2025. Working with students again reawakened my curiosity about movement and collaboration.

Photo by Alexa Downing ; Dancers from left to right David Guallpa, Hazel Avila, Princess Lewis, Raya Mack, and Astride Toh

We had a beautiful cast of 10, pretty evenly split between actors and dancers, though they ALL had a mixture of both within them. As I got to know the cast, I thought about how long this idea had been living in my head. I’ve learned that by the time a project begins, months after the proposal, my ideas have often shifted. But this proposal felt timeless — its core still resonated deeply with me when rehearsals began. So I was so excited to get started.

This piece is about the interconnected nature of existence. Specifically talking about how seemingly opposite forces- that are learned to be "opposite" by society and the government- are actually much more connected to each other than we think they are. The world isn't so black and white, it never was, but we're taught that it is. And actually, it is okay to be in the grey. That's what I've been telling myself throughout this process. It actually has been helping to digest that I DO exist in that middle ground in many areas of my life. And although I don't feel accepted being there all the time, I have to accept myself there and trust that it is okay. That became the emotional core of Confluence.

Now, we won't be going into the FULL piece here, I mainly want to talk about the structure that I created and how the title came to be.

The piece opened with a light-hearted house piece with different duets and trios moving together, "Moving". The next section, "In My Body," showcased a long green ribbon which represented the [literal] visualization of connection. Then came "Two", which featured a gooey duet that showed the separation and connection between "opposite sides". Next was "In the Grey", which demonstrated a call and response between a tap dancer and monologuist. Next was "Full Circle," which audibly showed the relationship between human, nature, and technology. And finally, "Patience," ended the piece with the connection between us all, AND how unique and individual we each are as well.

Confluence is defined as a noun that means:

1. the junction of two rivers, especially rivers of approximately equal width.

2. a coming or flowing together, meeting, or gathering at one point

That meeting point — of people, ideas, and emotion — is what Confluence became.

Although this piece wasn't directly about water (as a lot of Flow's work is), water found its way into the piece by way of the title.

In a time when creating work in NYC isn’t always feasible due to funding or resources, each opportunity we get is precious. I hope it always feel like how this experience felt, from start to finish.