Dancer visits national park

HOT SPRINGS — Each year, national parks around the country invite an artist-in-residence to take in the sights of the park for a few weeks and create a work of art in their medium of choice.

This year, Hot Springs National Park has invited Sofie van Doorn, a contemporary dancer and choreographer who has studied and performed throughout the United States and Europe. Of the park’s 65 artists-in-residence since the program began in 2004, she is the park’s first in the field of dance.

“So, I’m making a dual kind of thing,” said van Doorn. “I’m making a video of dance that I’m filming around the park, also inside, in the historic buildings and on the trails and outdoors. At the same time, I’m also creating choreography that will go into a live performance, and I will show both on the last day that I am here.”

Arriving on Aug. 5, she is set to perform and then leave on the 25th.

Van Doorn says her video and her performance will be mostly contemporary dance, which is a “kind of free descriptor of what dance is as opposed to ballet or hip-hop that you have a very specific idea of what you’re going to get.”

Originally from Austin, Texas, van Doorn began dancing at the age of 12 when she asked her parents if she could go to dance class with her friend. In her last year of high school, a teacher influenced her to continue her study of dance in Europe, sharing their overseas connections with her. She took that advice and went to the Zurich University of the Arts in Switzerland where she recently graduated, making a video project during her studies.