Marika Blossfeldt in Rhinoceros by Susan Osberg, Video still by Jaanaka Peerna.
 

Dance Across Borders

The seeds for DAB were planted in 1993, when I went to Sweden with my husband who was painting at Ars Nova Gallery in Göteborg. I was introduced to Gun Lund and Lars Persson who offered their cooperative theater – Unga Atalante, for me to rehearse. When Winston and I returned a second time with a concert, we made a journey to the sea. It was windy and Gun and I sat behind a wall to talk about how we could create an independent dance exchange between countries for choreographers to share our work and ideas.

Dance As Ritual/Dance As Performance

DRDP was a ten year workshop that came out of Dance Across Borders, hosted by Mireille Feyzeau in Nerigean (Bordeaux), France on her family vineyard where she has two studios and hosts arts and healing events. DRDP was taught by Catlin Cobb, Mireille Feyzeau, and Susan Osberg as our 10 year DAB research in embodied thinking.

 

SOME PERFORMANCE WORKS

Wetlands

Wetlands was a solo I performed in a chair factory in Hudson, NY, collaborating with my good friends, a sculptor Peter Barton and composer David Arner.

Dancing On Water

Dancing on Water was a community environmental piece I made for the gym in Beacon Studios soon after leaving New York City. I asked dancers, musicians, visual artists and poets in the Hudson Valley to participate and a few choreographers from NYC. We all made pieces inspired by water to be performed in the gym. We had one afternoon to pull it all together with the help of Arthur Aviles, who performed the last water dance in a pool.

Petroleum Wing

Petroleum Wing was a performance that came out of the unnatural disaster of the BP oil spill. I collaborated with composer David Rothenberg, With visual and make artist Cassandra Saulter, video artist Jaanika Peerna. I performed with Marika Blossfeldt, Elizabeth Castagna.

Tree – A Dance

Tree – A Dance, was a dance theater performance collaboration I did with Steve Blamires, dancers: Marika Blossfeldt, Elizabeth Castagna, Shannon Murphy and the Renegade Knitters. It was one of my environmental pieces in the Hudson Valley. It was first performed at Beacon Yoga and North Gate, an outdoor site where a video was made, with music by Pauline Oliveros. Tree was included as a performance in Linda Weintraub’s Dear Mother Nature at the Dorsky Museum of Art SUNY New Paltz, NY.

Rabbits Don’t Lay Eggs

Rabbits Don’t Lay Eggs, was a children’s performance at Beacon Yoga, Beacon, NY. I collaborated with video/ artist Jean Brennan. It was performed in the Spring — a solo for me with video projections on the back wall, following the myth of Innana and her journey to the underworld and back.

Rhinoceros

Rhinoceros was a solo I choreographed for Marika Blossfeldt, in collaboration with visual artist Susan Magnus and composer Dean Sharp. It was a big piece for a small space, performed for 10 people at a time, in my studio at Beacon Studios and in Einstein’s Cabaret in Gøteborg, Sweden, during a time choreographers were working with intimate viewings.

Workwith Dancers Company

Workwith Dancers Company (WDC), presents performance and workshops in interdisciplinary dance/theater and film. Projects are initiated by its artistic director Susan Osberg. WDC is a not-for-profit organization based in New York, founded in 1986. From 1979 to 2004, I created dance pieces with WDC in New York City, working with dancers on a project basis, collaborating with visual artists and composers in NYC and touring solos internationally.