Thomas Prettyman's video: But The Constant State of Instability Keeps Her Awake - Hannah Smith

An Exploration of Self Reflection in Modern Dance. By Thomas Prettyman Tampa – Hannah Smith told me her entire life story without a single word. “So a solo I did before was ‘The Things That Are Killing Her; Aren't Actually Killing Her.’ And this one is the continuation of that sentence.” Hannah said. “‘But the Constant State of Instability Keeps Her Awake.” The Constant State of Instability Keeps Her Awake. What kind of Instability was Hannah facing? “Well, you know I love doing the ballet, and the modern,” Hannah said. She stopped to laugh. “The modern, that sounds funny. But I like to say it that way, it’s what it is.” “I don’t have pretty feet or slender legs, you know, so modern dance really just fits on my body. It’s who I am.” Hannah is a Senior at the University of South Florida School of Theater and Dance. She’s pursuing a degree in dance choreography. “It’s basically an investigation of my own perception of reality and what’s right in front of me, versus what I see in my head.” Hannah said. “I imagine myself in situations, like how I see myself. All of my pieces I ever create, I want them to all form an autobiography or a really long autobiographical poem.” Her modern choreography is much different than how most people see dance. As a matter of fact she’s not wearing dance shoes. She’s dancing barefoot. In one breath she’s somehow both kicking her leg up above her head, slowly bringing it back down to the ground, and then collapsing to the floor to outline herself on the marley floor of one of USF’s oldest dance studios. “So I was playing with different images of myself and how they related to me in the moment,” Hannah said. “Like performing on stage and kinnd of dealing with the disconnect between thinking that this is what I am or thinking about what I was before who I want to be.” Who does Hannah really want to be? She just wants to be herself, present in the moment. “Instead of being focused on what's happening right now because that's what's, true that's what's right now,” Hannah said. “I’m getting caught up in, like, what may lie ahead or what or who I think I should be at this point in time. It’s irrelevant because I can only be me right now.” It’s unsurprising that at her level of talent, Hannah has turned to dance as a form of self reflection and introspection. After all, she’s been dancing for nineteen of her twenty one years. So what’s next for someone who has become so aware of themselves, that they create an autobiographical body of work? It almost seems too obvious. Hannah is going to keep dancing. “I think my next step dance wise is to keep showing my work in different places,” Hannah said. “Right now I’m applying to several different choreographic residencies. It allows me to present that to a panel of judges or other peers in the field and to get feedback and to keep Mike honing in on my queer graphic skills.” “What's most special about who we are is that the people that dance in this department aren't dancing to beat one another out or they're not dancing to be better than everyone else,” Hannah said. “We all are here to improve on our own technique and to improve together so our goal on stage is to show people different shapes or different things or just to have them look at us and see how high we can kick our leg or how many pirouettes we can do. We really love to connect with other people on a deep and intimate levels.”