Movers & Shapers: Jody Oberfelder

Jody Oberfelder is a director, choreographer, and filmmaker. Her most recent work, Zaubernacht, is a fairy tale, a commission by the Kurt Weill Foundation.  Upcoming are two ‘conversation’ pieces: On the Move Shortly,to be performed at St. Pancras Staion July 29, 2018 in London. Together with dramaturg Katalin Trencsényi, this devised piece gathers material from conversations that feed directly to the dance.  Things,(August 2018)is acollaboration with the Brisbane, Australian quintet Topology, who specialize in creating music from speech patterns and melody. Other immersive work: 4Chambers, (2013-14) a piece about the heart, was performed in an historic home on Governors Island and in a former hospital and The Brain Piece(2015-18)achoreographed experience: a union of movement, film, neuroscience and sound, giving audiences an interactive opportunity to engage with their minds in motion. The third of this trilogy: Madame Ovary, tackles the body as a site of intuition, agency, and birth?  Castle Walk, a danced-through tour of a Baroque Palace in Portugal (Fall 2017) was created in collaboration with Arte Total in Braga, Portual.

Oberfelder has been a guest teacher at Bryn Mawr University, Temple University, University of Hawaii, New York University, Middlebury College, Wayne State University, Moravian College, and Alfred University.  She has been awarded a Joyce Theater Residency, a New York Foundation for the Arts BUILD Grant, and funding from NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her company, Jody Oberfelder Projects (JOP), has performed internationallyMuseu dos Biskeínhos (Braga, Portugal), NoD (Prague), Gallus Theater Guelph Dance Festival, Centre National de la Danse in Paris, Die Werkstatt in Dusseldorf, The Pusan National Theater in Korea, The 20th Annual International Festival of Modern Dance in Seoul, and The Belgrade Dance Festival (with performances at The Belgrade State Theater in Serbia and the State Theater of Montenegro in Podorica) to Jacob’s Pillow, The Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, Dance New Amsterdam, MASS MoCA, Washington College, and The Yard in Martha’s Vineyard. As dance filmmaker, Oberfelder has created nine films: Dance of the Neurons, Come Sit Stay, Head First, Duet, Chance Encounters, LineAge, Rapt, Dizzy Memoir and Snew.These films have been shown at Short to the Point Festival, San Francisco Dance Film Festival, Dance Camera West, Cannes Short Film Festival, The Fargo Film Festival,The Dance on Camera Festival, Cinedans (Amsterdam and the London Dance Film Festival FRAME  Oberfelder also has choreographed/ movement directed with photographer Steven Meisel for Versace, Chloé, Prada, in addition to commercials for Guerlian Perfume (with Hillary Swank), and Danskin.

Oberfelder’s honors include two The Starry Night Foundation (spanning 1999-2018), Two New Music USA grants (2015, 2011), funding from Lower Manhattan Cultural Center (spanning 2008-2018), CEC Artslink (2007, 2016), a Joyce SoHo Residency (2008), a NYFA BUILD Grant (2009), NYC Department of Cultural Affairs (2007-2013), and being voted “Outstanding Choreographer” in the FringeNYC Festival (2009.)

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