Brooklyn, NY
Born 1954, Tacoma, Washington
I like science: biology, philosophy, quantum mechanics, stuff like that. I'm not so good socially. I like sex, but people are an acquired taste. I'm aging and think of mortality, of loss. Concepts interest me. Imagery interests me. Activities of falling involve me. I like doing. I like to do all, all at once. It's unconscious and confusing. I make mistakes. I panic. There's a fair amount of pain, physical and otherwise, and bliss...
Like blackfaced Astaire tapping a tattoo to Bill "Bojangles" Robinson while Noam Chomsky questions Cartesian concepts of the body and Ginger asks, "How do you like my dress?" She doesn't mean what she says, she means something else, something about bodies and falling and loss and sex and science. She means something about simultaneity and something vaguely sinister, like what Einstein used to call "spooky action at a distance" and I call dancing.
1980-1981 Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance
1979 Dance Theater of Harlem
1977-78 The Cleveland Ballet
1996 Craft of Choreography, Pacific Regional Dance Festival
2005-present-- Board of Directors, Performance Space 122, NYC
2004-present-- Advisory Board, The Kitchen, NYC
2003-04-- Guest Professor, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music
2002-- Founder, gametophyte, an interdisciplinary performance and production company
1999-- Curator of Dance and Performance, The Kitchen, New York
1994-- Member, Artists Advisory Board, Danspace Project, New York
1994 Associate Professor of Dance, Hofstra University
1983-93 Performer, David Gordon/Pick-up Performance Company
2006 Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven, a secondary artist collaboration providing video and choreography for a play by writer/director Young Jean Lee. Premiered at Here Art Center, NYC.
2005 figures on a field, a multidisciplinary performance collaboration with the visual artist Laylah Ali, exploring the consumption of art and power through the re-imagining of Ali's provocative "Greenhead" paintings. Premiered at The Kitchen, NYC.
2003 Shuffle, a secondary artist collaboration providing video and visual environment for a dance by performer/choreographer Yasuko Yokoshi. Premiered at PS 122, NYC.
2002 supplement, multidisciplinary group performance. A meditation on dissolution and the body, the first in a series of works referencing death; The Kitchen, New York, NY.
2001 american deluxe, multidisciplinary group performance. A meditation on violence, the fourth in a quartet of works referencing identity; commissioned by and performed at Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris, New York.
1999 Spooky Action at a Distance, multidisciplinary group performance. A meditation on the film Swing Time (with Astaire & Rogers), quantum theory and identity; premiered at The Kitchen, New York.
1997 Tale Telling Telling, multidisciplinary solo performance. A coming of age tale based on Mayan metaphors and the artist's family history; premiered at Danspace Project, New York.
1997 Navel, My Navel, single channel video. A meditation on body, memory and reunion, juxtaposing the artist's first trip to Africa with the re-marriage of his parents; premiered at Brooklyn Museum of Art; notable screening, University of Paris/Sorbonne.
1992 Adventures in Assimilation, single channel video. An improvisational dance for video exploring identity and the sculptural space; premiered at The Kitchen; notable screening, Danse Visions, France.
2007 Urban Artist Initiative Grant
2006 Dance Theater Workshop: Commission
2006 Brooklyn Arts Exchange: Baxten Arts & Artists in Progress Award
2005 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship: Performance Art
2004 The Kitchen: Commission
2003 Asian Cultural Council: Fellowship
2003 Creative Capital Foundation / Multi-Arts Production Fund: Grant
2002 New York State Council on the Arts: Individual Artist Grant, Media
2001 Jerome Foundation: Two Year Production Grant, 2001-2002
1999 New York Dance and Performance Award ("Bessie") for Spooky Action at a Distance
1998 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Choreography
1992 Jury Award for Adventures in Assimilation, New York Expo of Short Film andVideo
