began during a residency at the Djerassi Foundation in California. The trees there are so different from those in New England. Taller, more massive and pungent, redder, stranger - the madrones and wierdly twisting live oaks especially - like limbs of a body. I found myself bringing branches back into the studio from my walks. One day, I tied the branches to the ends of my hands, and that became the beginning of the dance.BRANCH is a video dance collaboration with Ellen Sebring based on the Greek myth of Daphne - a young woman pursued by Apollo, who is turned into a tree by Hera to save her. It is a story of initiation and loss of innocence. Daphne wears a red chiffon gown from the 1940's, deconstructed to create the tree costume by Christine Joly de Lotbinneire.