Lila Snodgrass
Biography:
Lila Snodgrass holds a BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography and an AB in Mathematics from Elon University. As a Lumen Scholar, she recently choreographed a thesis piece performed on a knotted structure illustrating a knot invariant developed with collaborators. Lila has created both site-specific and mainstage works. She has performed in projects by Abdel R. Salaam, Jiwon Ha, and Michelle Gibson, among others, and has trained at American Dance Festival, programs in the Pittsburgh area, and with additional mentors. She plans to continue pursuing performance as a future career.
Artist Statement:
As a dance artist and choreographer, I am interested in how art can reveal the abstract structures that shape the world around us. Many of the systems we live within, social, spatial, and conceptual, often go unnoticed because they are embedded in everyday experience. Through both dance and choreography, I explore how bodies move within these systems and how performance can make these frameworks visible.
One of my recent choreographic works, cross-court, explored the structure of the theater itself: the relationship between audience and performer. Traditional theater spaces create a clear divide between those who watch and those who are watched. In this piece, dancers clapped toward each other and toward the audience, playing with exchanges of attention. The work allowed both the performers and the viewers to reflect on their roles within the performance environment. By actively engaging with the system of the theater, the piece revealed how performers and audiences work together to shape the abstract experience of live art.
My undergraduate research additionally explores these patterns through the intersection of mathematics and dance. I investigate how mathematical organization can translate into movement and spatial pathways. In particular, I study a branch of topology called knot theory, where knots are understood as three-dimensional forms that can be bent and rearranged without self-intersections. These structures can guide the paths that dancers traverse through space, allowing mathematical forms to shape the choreography and the embodied experience of the dancers themselves.
My artistic process treats problem-solving as a form of artistic expression. Both mathematics and dance rely on pattern, structure, and exploration. When mathematical ideas are investigated through the body, they become something that can be felt and experienced physically rather than only understood conceptually. Dancing is my way of exploring these systems, allowing bodies to engage with structure while still bringing individuality, interpretation, and presence to the work.
Ultimately, my work focuses on looking inward at the systems we inhabit. Art can create a space where these dynamics are driving forces. Through dance, I hope to experience and create experiences that encourage reflection while remaining accessible. I aim to open new ways of understanding the relationships between bodies, spaces, and the systems that shape them.