Eclectic Edge Ensemble

What do you want to be when you grow up?

~ A choreographer and a director of a company!

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This may not be your typical answer from a 5 year old, but it sure was my answer! Since I can remember, I have always wanted to create dances, and did. My family was invited to many living room shows, when I was young, to watch the dances I had created. In high school, I was teaching and choreographing at the studio I was attending and also choreographed my high school musicals. South High, at that time, had never used a student choreographer before, but the director saw my work at a dance recital and offered me the choreography position for “West Side Story,” when I was 16. I then went on to choreograph South High’s musicals for the next 8 years.

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In 2002 I formed the theatrical jazz company, Eclectic Edge Ensemble, and for the past 9 years we have been producing work around the city. We have performed at The Ritz Theatre for the past 5 years, Intermedia Arts, Illusion Theatre, Kinetic Kitchen at Patrick’s Cabaret, Rhythmically Speaking at the Bedlum Theater, Hopkins Center for the Arts and 5 MN Fringe Festivals. I am so blessed and honored to be able to work with the highly talented dancers, artists, composers and musicians that I have been able to work with in EEE.

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My style breathes and lives in the form of jazz. How I define jazz dance is musically inspired and rhythmically based movement. My choreography takes on many different forms and genres in which I had studied. But, at the heart, it always comes down to musicality and rhythm. Whether the dance becomes another instrument, or brings movement to the score, purposefully goes against it, or fills in the lines between, my choreography is somehow always referencing the music.

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My goal is to bring a high level of artistic experience to patrons, and to make dance accessible to a wider audience. I hear from so many people who are not a part of the “dance community,” that admit they are often scared away of attending dance shows. They feel that dance is over their heads and don’t know how to relate to it. Often they feel lost or bored when they see dance work. I believe that there are aspects of dance that are approachable and relatable to everyone. Everyone has a heart beat and rhythms that are very much alive in their bodies. When they hear a piece of music their body wants to react to it in some form. This music may also bring them to a memory, thought or a given reaction.

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Using the music to draw people in on a gut level, I then try to pique their attention by dancing on universal themes such as love, competition, life lessons and choices, individuality versus conformity, human spirit and gender. When I am approaching a new theatrical work I spend a lot of time listening to people’s conversations around me, on the radio and television. What are people talking about? What are their concerns? Where do they find humor in life?

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What I can recommend for everyone is keep dreaming! Keep your goals and ambitions clear in the forefront of your mind. Anything is possible with passion and fever; don’t ever give up. I am amazed at the blessings I have received and to think it all started with performances for my stuffed animals.

~Karis

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