Choreographic
Projects
Alison Dietterle Smith's creative work is rooted in the lived experience of being a woman—exploring the strength, vulnerability, resilience, and wisdom that emerges through the evolving stages of womanhood. Drawing on movement as a means of remembering, her work investigates ancestral roots, sisterhood, seeking connection with the women who came before her and moving with the stories carried within our collective bodies. Through this exploration, Alison creates spaces where personal, collective and archetypal herstories intertwine; honoring lineage, identity, and the enduring bonds between generations of women.
Unravelling, 2025 (dance film)
This dance is a prayer of energetic reckoning. Honoring the struggles of my individual European ancestors whose lives brought me to this moment in time; and also acknowledging the history of genocide and displacement of the indigenous peoples where my ancestors lived and farmed. Investigating the question: What do I owe my ancestors and the ancestors of this land? To whom do I belong?
In Tide and Time, 2020 (dance film, choreographer and performer)
In this film, photographer Roberta Glisson animates a series of images to feel reminiscent of old 16mm home movies and carousel slide show projections. This work is an intimate look into the institution of marriage during the Covid 19 pandemic. A film that tracks the ebb and flow of a long-term relationship and the loss of identity which often happens to a woman within the confines of marriage and domestic life; a contemplation of suburban dreams. In Tide and Time has been featured at the Museum of Photographic Art (MOPA) San Diego in their Open Show Series #18, and the Hundred Heroines Film Festival in the UK.
The Motherline Trio, 2020
This is a dance for three generations of women. Like Russian nesting dolls we emerge from each other. A circular cycle of daughters, mothers, and grandmothers. This piece is about female matrilineal connections through the ages. Honoring the ancient archetypes of the Maiden, Mother, and Crone in all cultures. Motherline is a dance about our cords of connection through time, our multiples stages and roles as women in our cultures, and looking both forward and back in time through each other. I created this trio of generations in collaboration with my mother Diane (71), my daughter Luna (12), and myself Alison (43). A dance that invites us to bind back to, and intimately reconnect to the value of the lost feminine in our individual family stories. This piece was commissioned and produced by Jean Isaacs’ San Diego Dance Theatre through a generous Carlsbad Foundation Grant to integrate multi-generational movers in creative projects in the City of Carlsbad, CA.
Fractals of Her, 2019 (Duet)
Fractals of Her is a duet between movement artists Alison Smith and Centehua Sage. An exploration at the intersection of ceremony, ritual, performance, and sisterhood; a magic place where voice, drum, and gesture become a portal for archetypes of the feminine. Projections and Design: Samuel Keany-Minor. This work was one of three pieces presented collaboratively in an evening titled Constellation: 3 Works in Movement with choreographers Yolande Snaith and Heather Glabe at the UCSD Wagner Dance Building Theatre.
Fractals of Her: Portal of Blood and Bone, 2018 (Solo)
Solo work presented by Live Arts Fest, San Diego in the Light Box Theater. This dance is about becoming a portal, vector, and conduit for the archetypes of the divine feminine; exploring many of the deep enduring patterns of thought and behavior collectively experienced by women throughout time. The work is a movement investigation of historical and personal mythologies, a question in gestures asking how dance can become an ancestral form of remembrance. A way of calling forth and energetically connecting to the fractals of the feminine in her many forms: Maiden, Madonna, Mother, Crone, Magician, Healer, Shape Shifter, Oracle, Medicine Woman, Witch, Enchantress, Huntress, Goddess, High Priestess, Siren, Gaia, Creatrix of the Universe Herself.
Wind, 2018 (dance for the camera 4 min.)
A duet with movement artist, bruja and curendera, Centehua Sage exploring the ephemeral and everchanging nature of the element air. A Spell and Blessing for the land and our diverse lineage lines.
Urge, 2010/11 (solo and duet versions)
Presented at Sushi Performance and Visual Art, San Diego, Colorado College Dance Festival, and performed at World AIDS Day at UCSD. This is a work created in collaboration with dance artist Eric Geiger. Each artist simultaneously performed their own version of a collaboratively written score. Score for Two/One at a Time. Two Versions of the Same. I'm Just a Volunteer here. I am more nervous than you think. Language is Only an Approximation. Learn to Find Your Own Comfort. Become Unhinged. What are the Sounds of Spontaneity. Sing a Song Out-loud. Hunt and Gather. Surround the Movement with Stillness and Let It Support You. Become the Salt of Earth. Birth Yourself Anew. Start Again.
Liquid, 2009 (solo and group versions)
Presented at the Electric Lodge in Venice Beach, CA. and also as a group work for the students of the San Diego Dance Theatre Summer Workshop at SDSU. A meditative work to the sounds of moving water and whale songs inspired by the quote "water connects the whole" -Andrea Olsen.
Aqueous, 2008 (videodance 7min.)
Presented at the 10th Ave. Theater, San Diego, CA. Aqueous explores life’s primordial liquid beginnings. A pregnant woman contemplates the aqueous environment of the growing baby inside her, triggering vivid images of undersea life, and a realization that an ocean exists within. We are all born of the collective primordial sea.
Churning the Sea of Milk, 2006
A search for the spiritual in movement; this duet created with Sadie Wienberg is an investigation that combines breath and movement to create a choreography that is both an offering and a prayer. Presented by the Voices of San Diego Dance Theatre at San Diego State University, and presented by Palomar Faculty Dance Concert and San Diego Dance Theatre Summer Workshop Concert as large group works for students.
Urban Muses, 2004 (videodance 11 min.)
Video installation commissioned for San Diego Dance Theatre's Trolley Dances 2004 screened in the Omni Hotel, downtown San Diego. Urban Muses is a dance for the camera by Alison Dietterle Smith. Three Muses are inserted into the streets of down town San Diego. The dancers represent mythological muses, the daughters of Zeus, goddesses of the arts; they infuse the city with a sense of unison, calmness, and beauty that contrasts the haphazard, improvisational movement of urban life. Their simple repetitive and controlled movements are inspired by the paintings of two-dimensional dancers on classical Greek vases. The focus and serenity of the performers is juxtaposed against the chaotic negotiations of down-town traffic, pedestrians, and construction.
Dress-Up, 2004 (videodance 5 min.)
This short film was selected for screening at the Dance Camera West Festival 2004 in Los Angeles, UCI Dance Film Festival, and presented at Sushi Performance and Visual Arts in San Diego. This videodance catalogues a moment in time through the changing of clothes. A young woman reflects on the history/genealogy of her past by wearing the clothes of her mother and grandmother. This video uses a fixed camera angle to capture a woman re-living her childhood pastime of playing “dress up.’’
Circling: Message in the Roots, 2004
This quartet is a ritual in movement that reaches back to acknowledge the primordial feminine, while contemplating if/when young women will become mothers and add to the next generation. Message in Roots was inspired by traveling/performing and teaching in Romaina with Mentor Lisa Naugle and is choreographed to the Eastern European sounds of traditional Romanian folk music and female singers. Premiere at the Don Powell Theater, San Diego State University, for Voices of San Diego Dance Theater, and also presented at Sushi Performance and Visual Arts at the first Artistic Advisory Board Concert
The Environment Project: Improvisations in Remote Places, 2003 (videodance 30 min.)
UCI MFA Thesis Project: This screen dance project documents site-specific, improvisational movement responses to three varied geographical locations. The unique landscapes and ecosystems of the Anza Borrego desert, Central Oregon Coast and Sierra Nevada alpine settings create a solo autobiographical work that captures the vulnerability of an isolated human body against the backdrop of wild remote places through varied seasons, locations and time.
Traverse, 2003
MFA Concert/ UCI Arts, Dance Escape: a trio for three women with video projections. A movement reflection on the process of travel and companionship. How we carry each other through life's unfolding experiences. Music: David Darling, Journal October
