Dance and body language are grounded in biology, history, culture, and personality. Many anthropomorphic characters in storytelling media are not fully human: vampires, fairies, witches, angels. And many human characters are not from our reality: ancient civilizations, imagined future civilizations, people living in alternate versions of the present. With shifts of biology come different tools for physical expression: Might a fairy flitter their feet across the floor, might a religious ceremony be danced instead of spoken? With shifts of fantasy, time period, or culture come different rules for body language: Is it an honoring gesture or totally bizarre to wash a guest's feet for them? Does one grow up learning social dances or viewing dance as a sport? The believability of a story's character comes so much from how the character behaves. In order to bring truth to a story that takes audiences out of our reality (or deeper into it), I craft the physical expression of characters to match their nature and setting.

Samhain Parlor is an invite-only annual production taking attendees through deep and playful experiences to reflect on the past year and dream about the next. The characters I have crafted for this production include a spirit, a medium, and a celebrant. Tome Wilson of Seance Media wrote a robust lore for Samhain Parlor, including a history, customs, and spiritual beliefs of fictional society that "hosts the event". My characters bring that society to life.

Leaning into important symbolism for the society, I created a celebrant character who embodies a crow as they facilitate rituals. The rituals themselves featured a mixture of stylized movement and dances. I created the backstory and movement quality of the society's founder, who visits them as a spirit. I wrote scenes for when society members channel spirits and developed the physicalization of channeling for those scenes.

The creative team's ambition has been to make attendees feel connected to themselves and each other. Making the world believable, tangible, and inviting, my characters have guided attendees to unlock insights and ambitions in themselves.

Creator: Tome Wilson
Project: Samhain Parlor private immersive production
Choreographer + Co-Writer: Lara Marcin