As a choreographer, I frequently make subject-matter dances. I have specialized in making dances for groups that include old and young dancers, and groups that integrate community members with professionals. Very special to me are the community arts projects I have done, relating the arts to everyday life and focusing on cross-cultural connections. In this regard my work has been influenced by Liz Lerman and the Dance Exchange.

I am currently the director of Back Pocket Dancers, an intergenerational ensemble performing for elders and community groups. In 2010, Back Pocket Dancers was awarded local cultural council grants from the Medford and Somerville Arts Councils to perform our new show "Dance Me A Story", which presents a group of multicultural tales, narrated and danced.

My most recent commission came from Across the Ages Dance, a concert (Green St. Studios, Cambridge, June 2011) designed to offer five choreographers the opportunity to create inter-generational dances. My dance, "Consider This", was a collaboration with poet Molly Watt and experimental cellist Glynis Lomon, and dealt with the difficult subject of incest.

In Spring 2010, I was one of six choreographers commissioned to create site-specific pieces to be performed in the Middlesex Fells for Dance in the Fells (October 9, 2010), a project which was awarded Gold Star status by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. "Molly's Sprung" was performed in the woods by by Molly's Spring, accompanied by a 5-piece bluegrass band, led by my son, guitarist Tony Watt. Find a full description of this amazing opportunity and my experience with it on my blog, Oct. 2, 2010.

From 1990 through 2001, I co-directed Back Porch Dance Company with Victoria Solomon. The company, in which Vicki and I also performed, was an interracial, cross-generational ensemble of 15 women who performed throughout New England. Members of the Massachusetts and New England Touring Rosters, the Company specialized in evening-length works that focused on themes relevant to women's lives and frequently included oral history as text, spoken or sung. The Company included professionals and community dancers. Strong relationships developed among the members; this had a powerful impact on our performances.As co-choreographers for Back Porch Dance Company, Vicki and I received multiple grants from the Cambridge Arts Council, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the LEF Foundation, the Boston Foundation, First Night, and others.

"Senior Revue:STILL MOVING" (1997) was a song and dance show I created with two other members of Back Porch Dance Company and eight community elders from Cambridge, Somerville, Medford and Arlington. The subject was elder health empowerment and the show, commissioned by Somerbridge Community Health Partnership, was performed in seven elder venues in Cambridge and Somerville. Outreach work – bringing dance into the community, and particularly the elder community -- was an important part of the company's work and something I continue to do. I have taught hundreds of dance workshops to elder and intergenerational groups. I continue to teach dance with elders in Elderly Housing Projects through the Tenant Assistance Program of Mass Housing. I also teach Dancing Outside the Lines, a continually evolving workshop in Improvisation and Choreography, which I began in 1992.

From 2005 to 2009, I performed with the Elder Ensemble of Prometheus Dance Company, under the direction of Diane Noya and Tommy Neblett, a company of post-professional dancers. My choreography has been commissioned by the Dance Complex, Somerbridge, the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School Dance Company, First Night, Dance in the Fells and Across the Ages Dance. I have performed the choreography of Arawana Hyashi, Diane Noya and Tommy Neblett, Liz Lerman, Danny McCusker, Rozann Kraus, Victoria Solomon, Lise Brody, Paula Josa-Jones, Bonita Weisman, Joanne Callum and others.

My career in dance has included teaching and choreographing for many populations. I co-founded the Cambridge Performance Project (www.cambridgeperformanceproject.org) and taught and choreographed primarily for 9-14 year olds in two yearly concerts from 1985 through 1996. I have been a Residency Artist in many different schools -- elementary, middle and high schools -- and was on the registry of residency artists of the Massachusetts Cultural Council.