Talia DeLeo

don’t come looking for me (2023) evokes feelings of nostalgia in the reflection of childhood memories and provides an escape into simpler times.

Dancers: Elisabeth Bullock, Kathryn Chen, Talia DeLeo, Vanessa Guan, Julia Solecki, Allison Wan

Music: “Moonbeam” by Waterhouse & “Rygar” by Julian Lage & Chris Eldridge

Videography by Arwen Zhang

Message from Talia:

don’t come looking was a different piece for me than what I had done in the past – my pieces were usually more drawn-out, had less footwork and were overall less of an energetic pace. it was a fun shift for me at the time and I look back on it with appreciation for pushing myself outside of my box. as joyful and playful as this piece is aesthetically, it really came from a place of anger, stubbornness, and a refusal to grow up. I was a sophomore in college and felt overwhelmed with all the newfound responsibilities, pressures and expectations of college, so many people asking what felt like too much of me. I wanted to be “off the grid”, back to the days when I would spend summer weekends at my grandparents’ cabin playing in the woods, a wide-eyed child with grass-stained clothes who had no idea what stressful things felt like. this piece is really about the bittersweet feeling of revisiting your childhood memories, embracing who you were back then and bringing her with you to your adult life, but never being able to reverse time and truly be a kid again. at the time, I was dealing with a lot of growing pains as I treaded the line between girlhood and adulthood, and this piece felt like a good way to process those feelings. I think it connected the dancers and I as we were in a fairly transitional time being that all of us were entering our early adulthood, so it was really nice to be able to relate to each other and know that we were not alone in wanting to turn to escapism and nostalgic memories and find past versions of ourselves there.