Hex & Defense is a composition performed inside the body of a piano that floats on its back, enclosed in a temporary, make-shift temple.  It is a task-based performance that allows for happenstance and moments of acceptance for myself, the musician-performer. It is performed for a single audience member. The only written scores are hand-drawn shapes. There are two rules for the performance:

1. Once I enter the body-instrument, I cannot leave it until the performance is completed.

2. I accept and collaborate with the body-instrument in whatever form it is.

Through this work, I free my mind from a traditional Western music training, push my personal boundaries around the definitions of dance, and accept the limitations of my own body as the singular and unique player of the body-instrument.  This composition and performance centers around the relationship between gesture and objects to create holy spaces that foster personal, communal and public grief expression. The title of this work is inspired by the shapes in the composition and performance.