Often working in a serial format and based on a prescient sensitivity to the multiple languages of movement, Carlson has made group dances/performance works, solo works incorporating live animals as well as dances for fifty children, six religious sisters, and five ballet dancers and a bride auctioneer. Inspired by the profound simplicity of everyday movement, her work draws on the familiar with humor, sadness and irony. Under consideration are pieces for former Presidents, for people considered marginal, as well as a dance for individuals considered "mythic" in the public imagination.
"I am questioning the very definition of dance; who does it? What is it? What is the impact of the dance making process on people who would not ordinarily find themselves in that experience? What are emergent movement qualities that arise from people gathered together by a common profession, situation or shared relationship? Can a metaphorical construct be developed that enables a person to be completely themselves and, simultaneously, experience the "biggerness," the larger metaphor of life in performance? I feel an artist's responsibility is to be a revolutionary; to create a life out of what speaks to the heart, what inspires, enlivens and provokes change."
