Dance and technology have been a part of my life since I can remember. At the age of three, I started taking dance classes, playing games on the family Apple II and Atari 2600, and watching MTV. It wasn’t until I was an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin – Madison that I started to combine dance and the wonderful world of geek-dom.

My first real test of putting a lot of elements and people together was my senior honor thesis performance, My Name is Alice (2001). It was a post-modern cabaret at Club Inferno in Madison, WI. The live performance included original recorded music, projected video in various places throughout the club, a moving photo gallery, and a sound instillation.

My second, even larger test, talking string (2006), was my thesis performance for my Master of Fine Arts degree from Arizona State University. This twenty -minute performance incorporated camera-based sensing as well as bend sensor and push button sensing technology, Cycling `74s Max/MSP and David Rokeby’s softVNS visual programming systems, MakingThings’ Teleo, all which controlled the mixing of the sound score in real time.

During these two projects and the smaller ones that surrounded them, I never thought of project management in the sense that I know it today. The closest I got to managing any of these performances was setting up rehearsals, telling people when and where they had to be for tech and dress rehearsal, as well as the performances. Other than that there was probably some sort of timeline hidden somewhere. I know that my MFA committee made me put timelines together for the performance and dissertation document.

When I first met with Chris Cortilet for an informational interview he started talking about how they were looking for a project manager and with my background, I would fit into that role well. I had never thought of myself as a project manager in a traditional sense, but now looking back at how I kept a day planner at my hip throughout college, I realized that this was what I was doing, even if I was not creating Gantt charts in Microsoft Project 2007.

The best part of being a Project Manager at Azul 7 is that I can be around all of these creative people that inspire me every day. I also get to use some of my expertise when it comes to the video work we create for ourselves and our clients.