Personal Statement

Let me set the scene:

I’m a 22 year old dance major who can barely stand to move her own body without detailed instruction. I tell myself this is due to the stress of a BFA program, that I’ll feel motivated by my own artistic voice once I’m out in the “real world.” Then, a major relationship in my life ends, and I go from feeling no sensation besides out of breath, to feeling every feeling I had pushed down in the name of being “good,” all at once.

Overwhelmed with emotion, I show up to my dance improv class to find props draped throughout the room. Before I know it, I'm grasping an amplified microphone in the center of the room, using a cartoonish smile to mask my inability to come up with a single word to speak into it. Sporting high heels, a red tulle skirt and acting as what I can only describe as a washed out Hollywood starlet, I left that class sharing with a friend “I don't know who that was, but that wasn’t me,” before hearing myself say, “That was Suzette.”

That was the day I had unknowingly begun processing Complex-Post Traumatic Stress through a third party character. Suzette has since sourced a world of creative inspiration, which has manifested into The Frettes. Developing the character of Suzette and expanding her dark comedic universe into The Frettes has allowed me to find humor, perspective, and compassion for an otherwise painful situation.