Marie Garlock comes alive in listening, movement and collaboration; and in art moving for new possibility, for health and for dignity. This has taken shape in modern and African dance, cultural and spiritual storytelling, composition of motion and spoken word, health justice/arts organizing, and the discovery of critical ethnography performance. She enjoys being able to question, envision and journey along with an audience, as part of an experience that breathes, coming alive in the vitality of bodies present with one another. Previously envisioning a career in law and politics, she is learning that performance is perhaps most practical in its humanity - effective and living because of the inextricable body, ever-questioning spirit and mind that yearns for expansion through the company of others. She is drawn to work that is magnetizing as it recognizes the capability of restlessness, goodwill and transferable knowledge in all of us. This is where art makes your heart leap; where the notion of justice compels art. In pursuit, solidarity, as witness, spark, as not just end, but beginning.

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Kindled by the ongoing kindness of many, Garlock journeys forward with "{it is in you}: Health Justice Performance in Tanzania," exploring the politics of development, HIV and the body, and seeking to honor the insights of East African friends and educators, through storytelling and movement.

pictures by Andrew Synowiez.

Garlock's recent work includes performing in a quartet of African, Balinese and Ballet/Modern Dance fused with Tai Chi, set by powerful South African choreographer Vincent Mantsoe; a staged reading of "Trojan Barbie," a feminist car crash encounter with Euripedes' "Trojan Women"; work with an interactive forum theatre group at UNC surrounding issues of sexuality, sexual assault, body image and race; and curation of a regional celebration of dance and best practices in direct-service HIV initiatives co-founded with Dr. Chuck Davis in 2006, the Triangle Dance Festival for AIDS.

A UNC-Chapel Hill graduate living and working in Durham, NC, Marie is searching for graduate programs fusing and illuminating the above, and is ever-thankful to her partner Andrew, her kick-butt family, and her dearest friends and mentors for the sustenance n' fuel of their collaboration and love.