Today we’d like to introduce you to Haley Morgan Miller.
Hi Haley, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is Haley Morgan Miller, and I am an interdisciplinary artist, dancer, choreographer, technologist, and teacher. Like many little kids, I was put in ballet at 3 years old. I used to take it so seriously – no smiles and no pink outfits. According to my family, I had a very focused face and personality from the start. As I got older, I studied at Marin Ballet, training with Artistic Director Cynthia Lucas and outstanding faculty and choreographers such as Sandra Jennings, Amy London, Robert Dekkers, and Casey Lee Thorne. I supplemented this with my education at Marin School of the Arts at Novato High School, where I began learning all styles of dance, composition, anatomy, and dance history. I danced in works by RAW Dance, Christine Cali, and Dexandro Montavalo. This program, MSA for short, has 14 different classes and was a wonderful environment for interdisciplinary collaborations. As I discovered a passion for creativity through choreography, I worked with musicians, technologists, and visual artists. It was here that I created my first dance and technology piece that was presented at the Marinnovators Science and Technology Festival.
I pursued my dreams of being an artist at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee where under the directorship of Tommy Neblett, I performed work by Mark Morris, Juel D. Lane, Michael Figueroa, and Jun Kuribayashi and studied with outstanding faculty such as Joy Davis and Kurt Douglas. My favorite part of the conservatory was the immersion in your art form. The rigorous and rewarding dance training, rehearsal processes, introduction to ideas in classes such as Dance and Technology, Dance on Film, Dance Theater, Dramaturgy … it was truly a gift. My mind was bubbling with big creative ideas, and in my senior year, I began to teach myself node-based programming to create live interactive art. With these skills, I produced Ephemeral Pleasures, my debut dance film shown at the Anyplace Anytime Online Dance Film Festival by Cross Move Lab and FRAMES Virtual Festival hosted by Collective Exchange. I graduated summa cum laude in 2020 with a BFA in Contemporary Dance. Throughout my time, I studied at numerous workshops and summer programs that expanded my vocabulary physically and mentally.
I returned to MSA as a Guest Artist, Choreographer, and Lecturer during the 2020-21 academic year. It was an insanely beautiful full-circle moment to be able to work with the dance students and pass on the wisdom I learned. On the other side of that coin, I begun working at the Tutu School, teaching ballet to 1.5-8-year-olds. I absolutely love the joy of movement I get to share with them.
Now I live in Brooklyn, NY and am working as an artist under many lenses. I have continued to teach at the Tutu school here, as well as freelance teach master classes. I’m a company dancer with sarAika movement collective and Chloe Kastner Dance Company. I am an Arts Administrator and Marketer for Yana Schnitzler HUMAN KINETICS and sarAika movement collective. As a creator, I currently working on a project titled Receipt Paper Dialogues, an improvisational performance and installation featuring dancers and musicians. This new work will premiere March 19th and 20th at Fabled Narcissism, a multidisciplinary art shows I’m co-producing and creative directing with Ragin Smith that features over 20 outstanding emerging artists. I’m working more as media artist as well, collaborating with Lauren Altman on her work Every Morning a New Arrival a healing performance installation that explores the relationship between the self and shadow selves featuring live painting that premiered at Art She Says. Similarly, I am enjoying the playfulness of creating Instagram and Facebook filters for artists and organizations.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No road is smooth, but that’s the beauty of it all. Choosing to be freelance artist is takes risk. Deciding what gigs will bring you joy gets intermingled with financial need and can sometimes dampen the passion. This is just as common as burnout. Ever since high school I have been working or at school seven days a week, which of course is incredibly exhausting long term. One of the perks to covid was the realization that rest and setting boundaries are just as valuable as practicing your craft. My flow of art is better when my needs are in harmony. Another major thought process for me has been deciding how to define who I am as an artist and what mediums I’m drawn to. Making the transition from my defining voice simply as choreographer to one with programming, film and photo/editing, writing, and media art skills has been a journey. It takes lots of patience with yourself and practice to develop your identity as an artist. Beyond that, adaptability has been a key to these moments. My film, Ephemeral Pleasures, was originally a performative solo set on a friend for my senior project at The Boston Conservatory. When Covid struck, I decided to pivot my years’ worth of learning and work and turn it into a film.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My focus as a dancer and choreographer is in contemporary dance that draws on floor work and improvisation. Dichotomous emotional energy spawns the dynamics of my movement quality – pain and love, anxiety and bliss. To me, this comes from the sensation of gripping and releasing my heart. That feeling of muscular tension surrounding your beating chest versus the gooey softness that comes with love or openness. Our muscles and fascia hold our memories, and I inquire into how my history transforms my present. I use these pieces that present themselves to me to guide the puzzle into a work of art. Does my puzzle relate to yours?
As a technologist, I am intrigued by the digital landscape as a means to communicate, sense, and understand movement as it relates to the physical body of the mover and/or viewer. I am obsessed with interactive work because it creates a layered approach into experiencing art. It can deeply change the way that the audience or participant views the work and what it speaks to.
I am proud of my ability to blend these artistic languages I speak. For Lauren Altman’s Every Morning a New Arrival I rendered her paper mâché mask characters into digital 3D objects. As she painted live, wearing these masks, my projections of each one danced around the splattered paper walls, the renderings live-reacting to the audio soundscape by Nathan Dies. In my new work, Receipt Paper Dialogues, the artist assumes the role of the worker and the audience, the consumer. The greed, desire, and duty of consumer demand is materialized by audience member’s control over the narrative. They dictate how long the seven artists must respond to community-created scores written on receipt paper. The work synthesizes the tension between this transactional relationship.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
There’s so many it’s hard to name the all. First and foremost, my parents who were always collecting art supplies and giving us projects throughout my childhood. My mom was an editor and a beautiful, humble visual artist. My dad is a lighting designer and technical director and grew up in theater. No matter the challenge they always have a solution and sage advice. Needless to say, I am still always asking for their advice. My siblings: Adam who is a musician, and Mackenzie who is a dance a computer programmer, both who have helped guide me as we grew up. Every teacher that I’ve had from all my schools, studios, and programs has touched my life in specific and meaningful ways that I carry with me every day. Yana Schnitzler, who as a movement and visual artist creates deeply emotional work, has been an incredible mentor for me over the past year. To all of my friends that can share their experience, expertise, laughs, perspectives, support, and honesty. The list goes on and on, but I am truly thankful for everyone in my life.
Pricing:
- Fabled Narcissism March 19th and 20th at 8pm $20 online/$25 at the door
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.haleymorganmiller.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haleymorganmiller/
Image Credits
Alba Garcia
Noel V. Photography
Timothy Avery Photography
