How grateful I am to have had such a warm, inviting studio to begin work on "The Phoenix." Joan Hanna gifted me with studio time where Abby and I could begin working with the hoop skirt. It was January 2021.
I didn't realize at the time just how profound her movement would be. There was no plan to create choreography. This was a time to get to know what was possible. All I could hear was the click of the hoop and my camera's shutter.
Being a still photographer, I started experimenting with video and the dancer in what I call "play stills," in which her improvised movements seem to blossom from stillness.