My top 12 career highlights of 2023 🎉
As I look back on the year and what I’m grateful for, I realize that this year has been THE year for my “portfolio career”, where I’ve managed to find really fulfilling and meaningful opportunities across consulting, dancing and acting.
It’s been a process for me to shift my dancing and acting disciplines from “passion” to “profession” while maintaining what the conventional world (and my parents) might call my “real” job or “day” job, but I’m getting there and it’s exciting!
I have so many learnings that cross the boundaries of these careers, but there is one thing that has stood out to me this year.
Engaging in the arts and with artists in South Africa - a place I’ve only spent 2ish years in - has helped me understand the nuances of the history and culture that inform my design work in the same country.
In some cases in the past, when I’ve been abroad doing design work, I’ve been able to uncover these nuances through deep conversation and friendships, but there is so much more revealed when I start to connect with and work with artists.
There are so many benefits of living, experiencing, and working across different worlds, so for my 2024 goal, I hope to share and write more about this!
For now, here are the highlights I’m celebrating as I close off this year! 🎉 If any of these pique your interest, please do reach out - I love making a new friend!
Consultant
〰️
Consultant 〰️
Becoming One: Preventing intimate partner violence through faith-based couples counseling
Role: Design for the national scale-up of the intervention and handover to local institution
Partners: International Rescue Committee, Innovations for Poverty Action, World Vision, Anglican Church of Uganda
Lift Up: Addressing gender-based violence in South African mining communities
Role: Human-centered design for the research and development of a curriculum-based intervention
Partners: Institute for Security Studies, Anglo American, Phaphama Initiatives, SAPPIN, Reos Partners
Human-centered design for local Ugandan youth- and women-led organizations
Role: Lead trainer of human-centered design workshop
Partners: Hope Center Uganda, Watwero Dance Company, Hashtag Gulu
Free to Grow: Equipping parents to nurture violence-free homes in South Africa
Role: Human-centered design for 1) the evaluation and iteration of the intervention and 2) the design for implementers
Partner: Institute for Security Studies, Seven Passes Initiative, SAPPIN
Human-centered design for the Ugandan Ministry of Education and other partners working in education
Role: Presenter on human-centered design and its application in education and government
Partners: Uganda MoE Basic Education Department, Education in Emergencies Working Group
Dancer
〰️
Dancer 〰️
The Catacombs: A film that reveals the underground social gatherings that unified people during apartheid
Role: Dancer
Styles: 60’s and 70’s grooves, Partner lifts
Choreographer: Alice Viskat
Director: Ky Bxshxff
Unearthed: A theatre production to bring awareness to the destruction of nature, and to call towards action and hope
Role: Mother Nature
Styles: Contemporary, Afro House
Producer: Michael Kaizire
Director: Shane Munina, Solomon Makumbi
“Jericho” at Cape Town’s Mos Wanted: A showcase all of Cape Town’s best urban dance crews
Role: Dancer
Styles: Contemporary, House, Partner lifts
Company: Elevation Dance Company
Choreographer: Courtney Smith, Nicole Benting, Leila Meyer
Camissa Heritage Tour: A site-specific performance to retrace South Africa’s history of slavery and colonization
Role: Miriam, a slave on her treacherous journey to the Cape
Style: Contemporary, Contact improvisation
Director: Luke De Kock
Choreographers: Courtney Smith, Nicole Benting
Yin vs Yang: A performance depicting the internal battle between softness (yin) and strength (yang) as a woman
Role: Solo dancer
Style: Contemporary
Choreographer: Courtney Smith
Award: DanceStar Cape Town Senior Open Choreography 2nd Place
Actress
〰️
Actress 〰️
TV commercials: For brands including AMC Theatres, Coke, Eastpak, Hennessy, Miller Beer, NBA, and Vodafone
The Great Rhino Robbery: A documentary unpacking the story into the dark heart of animal poaching and trafficking
Role: Sex worker involved in a rhino poaching scheme
Director: Jesse Vile
Producer: BBC Studios Documentary Unit x Sky Studios
