Alex Eto Van Duyne Choreographing Across Disciplines

Medici Circle Scholar Alex Eto Van Duyne and their trip to Jasmin Vardimon Summer Intensive

By Gamy Cortes

When Department of Dance B.F.A. student Alex Eto Van Duyne ’26 talks about choreography, she rarely speaks about movement alone. Since dancing at their community college, she realized their multifaceted approach to guiding their interest in dance theatre.

“It has really inspired me to dive into different mediums that I’m not as experienced with,” said Van Duyne. “I enjoy the visual art aspect since I also enjoy drawing, painting and collages, which has inspired my practice.”

Funding Movement

Founded in 2004, the Medici Circle Scholarship supports academic growth and broadens the creative development of its recipients by awarding funding to each Medici Scholar for their specific projects. This unique scholarship program takes education beyond the classroom, allowing scholars to reach their creative and professional goals. Through this scholarship, sponsored by Cheryll and Richard Ruszat, alongside the guidance of assistant professor Lindsay Gilmour, Eto Van Duyne was able to attend the Jasmin Vardimon Summer Intensive (JVSI) in Ashford, Kent, in the U.K. 

The program immersed dancers from around the world in Vardimon’s creative methodologies through contemporary technique, conditioning, theater, voice and breathwork, and improvisation. What stood out most to Eto Van Duyne was the emphasis on character and improvisation. Vardimon’s work, known for its striking visual design and theatrical storytelling, expresses nuance — how hand movement relates to the character, how a face reacts, how timing can shift meaning.

Before the intensive, Eto Van Duyne saw herself as a big-picture thinker, less attentive to facial expressions and micro-details. Rather than settling for generalized ideas, she learned to push for specificity. How would an “old man” character fall, Eto Van Duyn was asked to ponder? How would the older characters' movements be impacted by clothing or by the environment? These sorts of questions changed how Eto Van Duyne approaches character building.

“A lot of the exercises were teaching us to get to the nitty-gritty of how this character would behave,” said Eto Van Duyne. “If something changed, how would that affect the character and your portrayal of them?”

Eto Van Duyne also described an impulse to react to the subtlety of another dancer’s movement, creating a relationship live that is situated outside of rehearsal or a script. 

“Characters are imaginary, but their reactions to circumstances, their humanness, come from a real place,” said Eto Van Duyne. “That can make people feel more connected to what they’re seeing on stage, being able to relate it to themselves despite knowing it’s imagined or choreographed.”

Image: Julia Barris, Cloris Tan and Emma Brumm in Alex Eto Van Duyne's work "CONSTITUTED" featured in Physical Graffiti 2025. Photo by Samantha Zauscher.

Create In and From Collaboration

Dance theatre involves different skill sets to come together — set and sound design, blocking, acting, choreography and more. It has also illuminated what performance can be for Eto Van Duyne. 

“Multidisciplinary really grows when you’re collaborating,” said Eto Van Duyne. “Being around people who are more specialized than me in other forms has transformed how I think about art.”

Multidisciplinary study is important to Eto Van Duyne’s choreography not only because she believes it helps with cultural relevancy, but also because it can promote change in the world. Eto Van Duyne’s background in sociology further informs this approach. Holding an associate degree in the field, she aims to foster a sense of commonality on or off stage.

“It’s impossible for art not to be affected by politics,” said Eto Van Duyne.

Eto Van Duyne recalls her experience at Jasmin Vardimon Summer Intensive in the U.K. Romanticized ideas about artistic life abroad were challenged by getting to know the dancers, underscoring shared struggles globally.

“No matter how a group is romanticized or otherwise, I learned that I’m not so different,” said Eto Van Duyne. “It was eye-opening for me to speak to a lot of different people who have vastly different experiences.”

Similarly, her time teaching ballet to children reinforced this awareness. Teaching, she explains, has taught her as much about herself as about dance. She has developed a sensitivity to reading her students, often drawing from her own experience as an adolescent.

“When you teach kids, it teaches you about yourself,” said Eto Van Duyne.

Image: Alex Eto Van Duyne and professor of dance S. Ama Wray at the Medici Circle Scholarship Luncheon. Photo by Jeanine Hill.

With adult dancers, Eto Van Duyne navigates diverse personalities with the same attentiveness, seeking to create a responsive environment. In that way, dance is never just dance. It is a space where bodies, ideas, images and relationships converge.

“The ability to read the room has helped my professional life,” said Eto Van Duyne. “We have a lot of different personalities, especially since artists have strong inputs, so I think being able to have a sense for who needs what to be the best they can be not only improves the experience but also elevates the art.”

What’s Next?

Eto Van Duyne’s calendar for 2026 is full. She performed in Dance Visions 2026 this past February. From April 30 to May 2, 2026, she will be choreographing “People Things” for Physical Graffiti 2026, which Eto Van Duyne describes as “an embodied collage of the human experience.” It will feature original music created by a close collaborator and fellow UC Irvine undergraduate student, April Lucile Wong. Eto Van Duyne plans on trying new methods of choreographing, influenced by their Medici Circle-sponsored research. 

She then has her senior thesis, “The Choreography of a Headbang,” premiering May 15 and 16 — an interdisciplinary performance grounded in social dance and music experiences and somatic research. Influenced by their enjoyment of punk, noise and electronic dance music, their thesis will explore the unique combination of movement, music and togetherness that uplifts people in these subcultures. 

“I want the dancers in my piece to feel a euphoric sense of being with each other and beyond,” said Eto Van Duyne. 

Last spring, Eto Van Duyne also played a significant role in Interdisciplinary Innovations: A Happening in 4D, an experimental event organized with the UC I Arts Climate Council that brought together artists and scientists across departments, and hopes to bring more multimedia experiences to UC Irvine through MOVE Lab, founded by Dr. S. Ama Wray. This research hub brings together her passion for music and movement as a tool for community healing.

Image: Alex Eto Van Duyne outside of Jasmin Vardimon's studio: JVHome. Photo taken by Jasmin Vardimon's Learning and Participation Coordinator, Elly Rutherford. 

To learn more about the Medici Circle and ways to support or apply, visit here.