Sophia McLaughlin is the Assistant Director of the UI Dance Company this season and is pursuing an MFA in Dance on the choreography track at the University of Iowa. Her creative research centers on the intersection of botany and dance, where she utilizes the knowledge of plants and the framework of botany to influence her choreography. She holds a BA in Dance and Botany from Connecticut College, where she worked with choreographers David Dorfman, Heidi Henderson, Lisa Race, Shawn Hove, Ellie Goudie-Averille, and botanist Chad Jones on the spread of invasive plant species. Her work has been shown at attended colleges, the 2019 ACDA New England conference, and the Sable Project’s Water in the Wood 2021 performance.