MOVERS & SHAPERS:
Podcast No.3 – ALEXANDRA BELLER
Release Date: June 16, 2015
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ABOUT ALEXANDRA BELLER
Alexandra Beller is Artistic Director of Alexandra Beller/Dances, which is currently celebrating its thirteenth anniversary. As a member of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company from 1995-2001, she performed in over 50 countries and throughout the U.S. In 2004-05 she helped to create “The Belle Epoch,” (Martha Clarke and Charles Mee). She was a 2-year Artist in Residence at HERE Art Space, and has also been an AIR at Dance New Amsterdam and DMAC.
Alexandra’s choreography has been presented at and commissioned by Dance Theater Workshop, 92nd St. Y, Aaron Davis Hall, Danspace Project at St. Mark’s, Abron’s Art Center, Joyce SoHo, P.S. 122, WAX, HERE, The Connelly Theater, SUNY Purchase College, Dance New Amsterdam, Symphony Space, and Jacob’s Pillow and has been commissioned by companies in Arizona, Michigan, Texas, Korea, Hong Kong, Oslo, Cyprus, Maine, New York City, Florida, Boston, Rhode Island, New Jersey and elsewhere. Her company has toured to the Open Look Festival in St. Petersburg, Bytom Festival in Poland and throughout Michigan, Massachusetts and New York and received The Company Residency at The Yard in 2004 .
Alexandra co-created the Choreographic Investigation Course at DNA, and curated the Modern Guest Artist Series at DNA and the Contemporary Forms Series at Gibney Dance Center. She is on faculty at Gibney Dance Center and Long Island University and frequently teaches Technique, Composition, Improvisation and other classes at the Atlantic Theater School, The New School, , 92nd St Y, and at Universities throughout the United States. She was a visiting artist at APA, CCDC, and DanceArt in Hong Kong, D-Dance Festival in Korea, Den Nordsk Balletthoskole in Oslo, Henny Jurriens Stichting in Amsterdam, and Cyprus Summer Festival in Nicosia. She was a guest choreographer at numerous Universities throughout the US including University of Michigan, Rhode Island College, Princeton, The University of South Florida, MIT, Texas Woman’s University, Connecticut College, Texas Christian University, and Bates College, among others, and received an NCCI commission from Montclair State University in 2003/2004.
Film work includes “Romance and Cigarettes” by John Turturro. In 2000, she was the subject of a series of photographs by Irving Penn, “Dancer.” Recent projects include the premiere of her evening length work, “other stories” at ICA in Boston (co-commissioned by Summer Stages), a tour to Jacob’s Pillow, and a residencies at The University of Iowa, University of Nebraska (Lincoln) and Oakland University. Upcoming projects include a two week season at La Mama (NYC) to premiere two programs of new work, including “milkdreams,” which has been the subject of two international documentaries. The company will also be touring throughout upstate NY in Winter 2015 to Geneva, Syracuse, Rochester, Brockport, and elsewhere.
ABOUT ALEXANDRA BELLER/DANCES:
Created in 2002, Alexandra Beller/Dances has been extremely active in the New York scene as well as throughout the United States, and has toured to Cyprus, Hong Kong, Oslo, Amsterdam, Poland, Russia, and Korea. The work has been commissioned by and performed at the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston (ICA), Dance Theater Workshop, P.S. 122, Joyce SoHo, Danspace Project at St. Mark’s, University Settlement, Aaron Davis Hall, and other major NYC venues as well as Jacob’s Pillow, SUNY Purchase, and in Michigan, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and Arizona. The company consists of 4-6 performers and creates hybrid performances, which are collaborations with dramaturges, composers, set and light designers, costume designers and visual artists. Funding has been received from HERE Art Space, Dance New Amsterdam, The Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, LMCC, Puffin Foundation, The Trust for Mutual Understanding, Brooklyn Arts Council, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, American Music Center, and private funders. The Company has toured to Oslo, Amsterdam, Poland, Korea, and St. Petersburg, Russia.
COMPANY MISSION:
Alexandra Beller/Dances is an ensemble of highly skilled dancer/actors working on the edge between dance and theater. Rich with personal revelations, performances attempt to move, stimulate, impassion and incite the audience. Ripe with metaphor, abstracted narrative and controversial ideas, the dances often traffic through the uncomfortable territory of homophobia, sexism, and emotional isolationism. The company seeks to intersect distinctions between races, nationalities, sexual orientations and political affiliations through a series of artistic collisions. The creations are a truly hybrid form, where speaking and moving are essential forces in the creation of meaning. Dances often pay homage to great writers and landscapes of words are used to create a sense of place, time and relationship. Movement is a key to the startling, idiosyncratic and mysterious information that resides in the body. The process is highly collaborative and focuses on bringing as many artistic models to the table as possible in an attempt to create original imagery, sound and structure. Humor, irony, satire and pathos are interchangeable in the drive towards meaning. Education, performance, discussion and community involvement are all pathways taken towards audience and community partnerships. Alexandra Beller/Dances became a 501©3 non profit company in 2006.
MORE ON ALEXANDRA:
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Website
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Viral Video, Milkdreams (Baby Modern Dance)
PODCAST INTERVIEW LINKS
CMA (Certified Movement Analyst)
Gyrotonics
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Martha Graham School
Joffrey Ballet School
Steps on Broadway
University of Michigan
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company
Isadora Duncan
David Story
“Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin”
Andrea Woods
“Still/Here”
Arlene Croce Review “Discussing the Undiscussable”
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
“milkdreams”
NY Times review of “milkdreams”
Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton
Intro Music: “Singing Distance” by Elijah Aaron