Mariah Lopez Solonick

As a choreographer my creative process is driven by the unique movement that I elicit from dancers by provoking them to the edge of their abilities. My movement is inspired by the emotional strength and fragility that human beings are placed in or put upon themselves. My vision in dance in one sentence would be, “My choreography is derived by emotional risks leading to discovering and exposing truths.”  
 
I like to explore what people are capable of expressing with their bodies. I ask myself, “How can I connect the audience to the movement without words?” My approach to this question is to ask my dancers to continuously push their bodies to their physical limits. The human character has a multitude of emotional states and varying degrees of intensity within those states. Therefore, so, too, must the human physical form. By exploring their boundaries and energy that is being used - or unused -  I give impetus to the dancers to take these limits and expand the space they contain. This allows them to feel their existence in the present environment which makes the dancers give themselves entirely to the choreography. 
 
My mission is to make meaningful movement that is gratifying to the audience, but blurs the line between the stage and the spectators. I am always striving to provoke the viewer to experience a performance beyond what is just aesthetically pleasing. I aim for the audience to vehemently denounce any preconceived ideas on movement.