Finally, Fairies!: A Study in Hauntological Choreography

“Finally, Fairies!: A Study in Hauntological Choreography” is the written thesis that documents the creative research, development, and critical reflection of my dance production Finally, Fairies!, a requirement of the M.F.A. in Dance at the University of Maryland, College Park. Finally, Fairies! premiered March 11-13, 2022, at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center's Dance Theatre. In outlining the process from ideation to performance, I illuminate my personal history and artistic lineage in dance performance and choreography. I consider my choreographic impulses and choices in relationship to hauntology, a concept given name by Jacques Derrida and expanded upon by contemporary theorists such as Mark Fisher, Jack Halberstam, and Merlin Coverley. I explore hauntological moods, methodologies, Vaporwave music, and emergent forms of composition that involve both improvisation and choreography. Ultimately, I offer close readings of Finally, Fairies! to further expose what the performance proposed, as well as develop and trouble formulations of presence and embodiment through an insistence on spectrality and indeterminacy