life - breath - soul
ARIANNA SHAHIN
Dancer & Choreographer in Breath
Business Administration/Finance
Arianna Shahin is a senior at Elon University, double majoring in BFA Dance Performance & Choreography and Accounting while minoring in Finance. She is from Ambler, Pennsylvania where she trained in an array of dance genres. Arianna has studied at prestigious summer intensives including American Dance Festival, Paul Taylor American Dance, and NYU Tisch. At Elon, Arianna has performed under faculty including Renay Aumiller, Jen Guy-Metcalf, Keshia Wall and guest artist Ming-Lung Yang. During the summer of 2018, she participated in the Dancing with Florence program, performing choreography by Lauren Kearns in Florence, Italy. In 2018, she was invited to present her choreographic work at New Century Dance Project and her most recent work was selected to be presented in Elon University’s Dancing in the Landscape performance. Upon graduation, Arianna will be pursuing a Master’s in Accounting degree at Wake Forest University.
A Note from the Artist:
As an artist, I want to critique social injustices through rebellious performance and choreography. I develop my work as a response to my intellectual curiosity towards how society traps our soul in cycles. As a result, we get into a repetitive rhythm of life and often struggle to find an escape route to display individuality. I strive to investigate extremities of this rhythm through beginning my work with simple and repetitive, gestural motions as a way of cracking the boundaries of rhythm.
My creative process was initially fueled when I discovered a method of integrating my passion for complex numerical equations within dance. Delving into both hemispheres of the brain to generate movement, challenges the rhythm of life we find ourselves trapped in. I picture each movement phrase I create as a mathematical equation in my head. I want to reach equilibrium in my movement but then I start to question, what if X does not equal Y? These questions spark my creative system to ignore the expected response and provide motivation to uncover a new solution. The conflict created through this process allows for a confrontation of societal expectations and opens my senses to be inspired by my surroundings.
By challenging these societal norms, honesty within the self becomes visible. I believe honesty through movement builds relationships that are otherwise unattainable. I want all my dancers to be honest with themselves throughout my process as a way to unleash their souls. My authentic, minimalism approach elicits complexities and confusion. I am interested in the conversation we have with ourselves while obtaining this raw truth. Confusion of the brain is experienced by the audience, dancers, and myself through my numerical creative process. This could ultimately be the most powerful message one could experience, as confusion irritates the mind and causes an intellectual craving for solutions to break out of the rhythm of life.
While exploring artistry, I want the audience and dancers to rage with fuel in order to understand their own beliefs and stories. I hunger for them to touch their internal cognitive system by questioning all sane reasoning as a way of feeling alive. I avoid being pulled by society and instead, represent myself as an individual through this approach to movement. Ultimately, my work is an educational exploration for both myself and my dancers.
Through this investigatory mindset, I desire to uncover a place of honesty where individuals can break free of the societal rhythm and locked-in equations. I want to leave a growing curiosity with the audience of how they can combat the rhythm one falls into and learn how to present individuality within society.