Jessica Gaynor Dance

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Photo © Christopher Duggan

One Music: Devin Maxwell Lighting Design: Andrew Dickerson Costume Design: Renee Kurz 7 Dancers 40 minutes Premiere: Triskelion Arts, November 2011 Watch a video excerpt In One, Gaynor asks how people behave in groups. Beginning with an intimate solo performed by Katie Diamond, the piece then travels between groups of six, five, four, three, two and finishes with one, each section driven by formal structures that are interwoven with human responses to crowds, grouping, connections and moments of isolation. Gaynor, a young choreographer with a sophisticated approach to pure-dance structure, offers two premières. “One,” set to a score by Devin Maxwell, is concerned with groupings: a solo is followed by all the permutations (duo, trio, etc.) that are possible with six dancers. -The New Yorker

Photo © Christopher Duggan

A Stick, A Stone Music: Antonio Carlos Jobim, Joseph Spence, Billie Holiday, Don Gibson Lighting Design: Andrew Dickerson 4 Dancers 12 minutes Premiere: Triskelion Arts, November 2011 Watch a video excerpt A Stick, A Stone is a fun and flirtatious quartet set to music by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Joseph Spence and Don Gibson. Following the form of the music, the dance is a conversation between the performers about life, lust, spontaneity and the joys of dance. ..intriguing and vibrant. -Annie Woller, Eye on the Arts

Photo © Christopher Duggan

(x,y,z) Music: Original Score by Devin Maxwell Lighting Design: Andrew Dickerson 7 Dancers 4 5 minutes Premiere: Triskelion Arts, November 2010 Watch a video excerpt Nothing is off-limits in this work and every surface is danced upon including x, y,and z. The piece is concerned with an abstract exploration of line, plane and volume, and the ways in which these defining spatial characteristics influence the unique experiences of the individual dancer. (x,y,z) examines moments of isolation, juxtaposed with group unity and beyond that, an encroachment of personal space through aggressive partnering and intense physicality. Working to an utterly original choreographic sequence possibly with inflections of Merce, an architectural set and a propulsive score, seven exceptionally gifted performers find solos, duets, and corps expressions that do not let up for an hour of pure dance. -William Avery Hudson, Arts Blogger

Photo © Yaniv Schulman

Theory of Games Music: J.S. Bach, Musical Offering Lighting Design: Andrew Dickerson Costume Design: Jennifer Lee 6 Dancers 55 minutes Premiere: Triskelion Arts, November 2009 Watch a video excerpt from the Dance Gotham 2010 APAP Showcase at The Skirball Center at NYU “A MUST SEE Fall Art Event” - The L Magazine Theory of Games, evening length piece is set to J.S. Bach's Musical Offering - a set of 16 variations on the same theme. Echoing the structure of the music, the choreography uses puzzles and game structures to explore issues of permutation and formal development as well as to serve as a metaphor for the complex truths behind human relationships.

Photo © Yaniv Schulman

Enlarged to Show Texture Music: Brian Harnetty with recordings from the Berea Appalachian Sound Archives; The Orb; Steve Reich; Billie Holiday; Evan Parker, Derek Bailey and Han Bennink; John Cage Music Collage: Devin Maxwell Lighting Design: Andrew Dickerson Costume Design: Renee Kurz 5 Dancers 40 minutes Premiere: Triskelion Arts, November 2008 Watch a video excerpt Enlarged to Show Texture, an ever-changing landscape of movement, music, objects, patterns and texture. It examines how people build perspective for themselves by creating organization in their lives through daily routines as well as the ways individuality arises from communal practices. Featuring elegantly constructed and physically demanding dancing, Enlarged to Show Texture creates a visual, visceral and aural landscape that is constantly changing, creating layers upon layers of texture.

Photo © Maribel Arce

I Dreamt of a Ship Music: Lady Lucille LIghting Design: Andrew Dickerson Costume Design: Renee Kurz 5 Dancers 13 minutes Premiere: Triskelion Arts, October 2007 Watch a video excerpt I Dreamt of a Ship, set to music by Lady Lucille, a highly energetic pop/rock band led by female vocalist Katie Porter, is about people living in their own worlds, but finding moments of connection with others. The piece begins by questioning how far a person would go for someone they love. The dancers keep pushing, asking, demanding, giving, dancing, until they can't go on anymore.

Photo © Maribel Arce

Standstill Music: Thelonious Monk, I Should Care LIghting Design: Andrew Dickerson 4 Dancers 9 minutes Premiere: Triskelion Arts, October 2007 Watch a video excerpt Standstill, set to a piano solo by Thelonious Monk, investigates quiet moments among the loud and noisy days. The dancers are caught in a moment. Frozen. Then continuing.

Photo © Maribel Arce

Plane Shift Music: Quentin Tolimieri LIghting Design: Andrew Dickerson 4 Dancers 4 Musicians 12 minutes Premiere: Triskelion Arts, June 2007 Watch a video excerpt Plane Shift, performed to live and recorded music by Quentin Tolimieri, investigates the subject of facings. Does facing forward mean moving forward? The performers begin facing the audience, with their backs to the four musicians on stage. They quickly change focus and face the musicians, closing the audience out, or simply giving them a different (forward) view, questioning what it means to advance.

Photo © Maribel Arce

Perched Music: Luciano Berio, Chemins II Costume Design: Kara Feely LIghting Design: Danielle Colburn 4 Dancers 14 minutes Premiere: Merce Cunningham Studio, May 2006 Watch a video excerpt Perched is a piece about birds both flocking together and shifting apart. Through the structure of strong and sweeping quartets, personal solos, and collaborative duets, Perched identifies that the strength of the community is contingent on the individuals within it, and can only achieve tranquility if it nurtures a balance between the two.

Photo © Maribel Arce

who we are Music: Gyorgy Ligeti, Piano Suites Costume Design: Kara Feely and Jessica Gaynor Lighting Design: Danielle Colburn 2 Dancers 10 minutes Premiere: Hudson Guild Theater, March 2006 Watch a video excerpt who we are is a duet set to music by Gyorgy Ligeti that captures a brief period of time within a relationship between two people. The couple struggles to connect, but each is unable to give the energy, compassion, and space that the other needs. Through a series of contact duets, the relationship literally breaks down, and both participants try to show themselves by removing layers of clothing attempting to rebuild their union by starting from the foundation.

Photo © Steven Schreiber

Resolve Music: Morton Feldman, Madame Press Died Last Week at Ninety Lighting Design: Danielle Colburn 3 Dancers 5 minutes Premiere: Triskelion Arts, March 2005 Resolve, a work for three dancers, examines a personal path toward healing. Using metaphors such as vulnerability, resistance, and repetition, set to Morton Feldman's, Madame Press Died Last Week at Ninety, the piece exemplifies, through gesture and physicality, a circular pattern toward repair.

Photo © Steven Schreiber

Rhythm Studies Music: Conlon Nancarrow, Studies for Player Piano Costume Design: Kara Feely Lighting Design: Danielle Colburn 4 Dancers 20 minutes, 13 minutes Premiere: The Kitchen, January 2005 Watch a video excerpt Rhythm Studies examines the gestural relationships between musical and dance physicality. In this sense, these pieces exhibit a traditional approach to the relationship between music and dance. However, what is primarily being explored in these pieces is the notion that there is a modern physical sensibility that can be used as a basic starting point for new and unique complex forms. What kind of images are conjured up by hearing music, and what type of rhythms are produced internally by viewing dance? Through various solos, duets, trios, and quartets, the dancers both follow and reject, imitate and ignore Nancarrow's investigation of rhythm, texture, and form.

Beauty of Speed, Poetry of Distance Music: Original Score by Devin Maxwell Costume Design: Kelsey Hart Lighting Design: Danielle Colburn 10 Dancers 30 minutes Premiere: California Institute of the Arts, March 2002 Beauty of Speed, Poetry of Distance is an exploration of memory and time in dance. Elements of time are re-created in the body, bringing the fundamentals of technology and time into the human form.

Photo © Maribel Arce

Unfurling Music: Charles Ives 1-3 Dancers 15 minutes Premiere: California Institute of the Arts, November 2000 Through intense physicality, Unfurling plays with the dichotomy between emotional stagnation and intellectual progression. This piece presents a different dancer in each of the three sections, demonstrating the framgmentation of a single figure.