ABOVE/below

Artistic Statement from Alexander Jones

ABOVE/below emerges from a deeply personal threshold—an ongoing passage from shadow into light, from fragmentation into integration. This work is not about arrival, but about becoming.

My relationship with tarot began as a choreographic tool during my graduate studies—a way to generate movement, image, and inquiry. The Wild Unknown Tarot was the first deck I claimed as my own, and it remains a daily companion. What began as a creative device evolved into a spiritual practice: one card each morning alongside my yoga practice, a quiet ritual to set intention and listen.

Last year marked a profound turning point. A year of endings and shedding—of cycles closing and identities dissolving. In its turbulence, I found myself at a spiritual low, and in that place, I made the choice to turn inward. Through therapy, through the grounding presence of family and a more intimate circle of friends, and through tarot, I began the work of facing what lived in the dark.

During this time, I encountered the Major Arcana not just as symbols, but as guides—arriving through dreams, sensations, and lived experience: Wheel of Fortune, The Devil, The Tower, The Moon, The Hermit, The Hanged Man, and Death. Each demanded something of me. Each asked me to sit, to unravel, to release, to surrender.

I believe I am now on the other side of Death—not as an ending, but as a transformation. A shedding. A reconstitution of self.

ABOVE/below lives inside that process.

This work is rooted in shadow integration—the active, often uncomfortable choice to engage with the parts of ourselves we are taught to hide. It asks what it means to witness rather than fear the dark. It considers how rupture can become revelation, and how descent can be a pathway to wholeness.

We share stories like this not as confession, but as offering. Because when one body dares to move through shadow, it creates space for others to recognize themselves within it.

This collaboration with Joey Clay is central to that offering. Our relationship began during my MFA thesis and has since evolved into a shared artistic language built on trust, sensitivity, and a deep attunement to movement as energy. Joey’s eye does not simply capture dance—it listens to it, translating ephemeral moments into lasting visual presence.

In ABOVE/below, the dancers are seekers—moving through cycles of collapse, reflection, and emergence. The audience is not asked to follow, but to witness. To hold space for the journey as it unfolds.

Because becoming whole is not about choosing light over dark—

but learning how to carry both.