By Madison Huizinga

Madison Huizinga has been dancing for 13 years, and her favorite styles are ballet and contemporary. Currently, she attends the University of Washington and is studying Communications, Business, and Dance. Madison is presently a company member with Seattle-based dance company Intrepidus Dance. She loves working at Dancewear Center because it allows her to help local dancers find the best shoes, apparel, and equipment possible to further their dance goals and careers. Dance has always been a positive creative outlet for her to express her emotions—so it’s always nice to meet members of the local dance community that relate!
Outside of dance and work, you will find Madison exploring new cafés and restaurants around Seattle, hiking, reading, and traveling.

Photo credit: Devin Marie Muñoz | @munozmotions (left) HMMM Productions (right)

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, dancers, choreographers, and dance viewers were all separated from one another, isolated to the confines of their homes, and stripped of the opportunity to perform and do what they love. Thus, in 2021, Karyn Tobin and Ian Howe decided to launch Apropos Motus, a dance company in the Seattle area aimed at creating work that fosters fluid, open-ended conversations among dancers and audience members. While the idea for Apropos Motus has been in the works for a couple of years, Karyn and Ian thought that the unfolding aftermath of the pandemic would be the perfect time to start a company that works to bridge gaps between individuals.

Karyn began dancing at age four with a primary focus on classical ballet training at Johansen Olympia Dance Center in Olympia, WA. She later joined the studio’s pre-professional company Ballet Northwest at around age 12, where she performed many classical and contemporary works. Following high school, she attended Cornish College of the Arts where she earned her BFA in dance. Since she’s graduated, Karyn has danced professionally with a variety of artists and companies, including 3rd Shift Dance, Hypernova Contemporary Dance Company, and The Guild Dance Company.

Photo credit: Devin Marie Muñoz | @munozmotions

Ian recalls his love for dance beginning at age five when he saw Savion Glover tap dance on Sesame Street. He began dancing at a small studio in Woodinville, WA, and later moved to Backstage Dance Studio where he was heavily involved with competition dance. While he began his training in tap, he soon began training in every style Backstage had to offer. After he graduated from high school, Ian worked as a dancer and singer on the cruise line Holland America Line for about eight years. In 2011, Ian moved back to Washington and began teaching, choreographing, and performing. In 2018, he became the owner and artistic director of Pacific West Performing Arts, a dance studio located in Snohomish and Lake Stevens.

Both dancers felt a strong pull to the art of dance as young adolescents. Karyn explains being drawn to dance due to its potential to express and “communicate deeper things that [she] wouldn’t in just a verbal conversation.”

Photo credit: Brett Love | @eruditorum.co.uk | https://www.eruditorum.co.uk/

The pair met around 2017 when they were both working with the same dance company. The two soon became familiar with the other’s movement style, got used to performing with one another, and a friendship blossomed. About two years ago, the duo met for dinner and began throwing around the idea of putting together some sort of dance project. Karyn and Ian went back and forth about what a dance company would like for them, how they would organize it, and more. Since then, their brainstormed ideas have evolved into a concrete company: Apropos Motus.

The name of the company itself holds a particular significance to Karyn and Ian. The duo didn’t want their company’s name to just function as a label, but rather carry meaning itself. “Apropos” refers to being “both relevant and opportune,” while “motus” derives from the Latin movere meaning “to move” or “set in motion.” Fittingly, Karyn and Ian saw 2021 as an “apropos” time to create a company that disseminates the art they want to see in the world, specifically in the aftermath of COVID-19.

Apropos Motus is currently working on solos, and perhaps duets and trios, as well as simply workshopping choreography on one another. With various COVID-19 restrictions lifted, the company plans to eventually shift to producing large-scale live shows. However, in the meantime, Apropos Motus will film their dance works.

Apropos Motus’ focus will be “ever-evolving”; Karyn and Ian reject the idea of fitting the company into a rigid, predefined box, as that can feel limiting. During the pandemic, Karyn points out how conversations among artists were largely limited. She identifies how we’ve all understandably “retreated into ourselves more than ever.” Through Apropos Motus, Karyn and Ian hope to bring people back together and stimulate conversations that have been limited. They wish for their company to function as a “conversation lab” to “bridge the gap between people right now.”

Ian shares that Apropos Motus wants to be “fluid with what [they] present, how [they] present it, and who [they] present it to.” The pair wants the themes people take away from their works to be varied, open-ended, and largely up to the viewers’ perceptions. Removing control of what the audience takes away from its art will allow Apropos Motus to function as an “open-ended experiment” that rejects singularity and embraces complexity.

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Entering the “Conversation Lab”: Karyn Tobin and Ian Howe Share Their Dance Company Apropos Motus