JEN ROSENBLIT
a Natural dance
The Kitchen, New York, NY
May 29-31, 2014 [World Premiere]
Zil Cultural Center, Moscow, Russia
July 10-11, 2014
New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award,
2014
a Natural dance is research concerned with ways of
structuring bodies as they fall out of relation aesthetically and spiritually while still locating ways of being together. This
work is concerned with locating logic outside of a normative lens, looking to surrealism as an improvisatory system for
disrupting narrative while still ushering in the glory of absurdity, timing, meaning, sequence, divinity and the political.
Performed by Addys Gonzalez, Justin Cabrillos, Effie Bowen, Hilary Clark and Jen Rosenblit, with Lighting Design by
Elliott Jenetopulos and set construction by Sam Roeck. This work continues a process of tangential thinking that leads to
choreographic thought that is both energetic and designed, where a contemplative theatricality begins to encourage a
disruptive kinship.
“The way she invests herself in a task is as captivating as how she just lets it go: dangling, incomplete.”
- Siobhan Burke, The New York Times
“My expectations were twisted and refashioned around me. All of this added up to a fascinating new vocabulary where the
spectacle is off to the center of where we expect it to be.”
- Jaime Shearn Coan, The Brooklyn Rail
Clap Hands [in development]
The Invisible Dog, Brooklyn, NY
Spring 2016 [US Premiere]
Chinati Foundation, Marfa, TX
Winter 2016 [residency]
Tanzhaus, Zurich, Switzerland
November 9-22, 2015 [residency]
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, NY, NY
October-June 2014-2015 [residency]
Clap Hands is a mating call, a solo for the body that needs bodies. This new work is an articulation of the problematic and
the flamboyant, the singular narration of the many ways we hover around intimacy within ourselves and others.
Structurally a solo, the work will navigate its form through the performative help of two other bodies. The solo experience
will be interrupted, re-organized, filtered, assisted and at times dominated by 2 external performers or “assistants” to the
work. We wonder how we can synthesize the singular body. Through literal narrations of conversations between the 3
performers sound begins to translate us away from its original source, creating multiple avenues for the unraveling of what
it could mean for these bodies to navigate togetherness. Resting on a large scape of pink felted material, the floor can at
any point become a sculpted image, shifting in and out of self fertilization that doesnʼt result in patterns, rituals or
husbandry. Can these sculptural puppets transfer a sense of reality to shift the solo figure out of demand? Can we still
enact intimacy on these non-human forms?
JEN ROSENBLIT has been making dances and teaching workshops on improvisation, choreography and
performance in New York City since 2005. Rosenblit is a recipient of the 2014 New York Dance and
Performance “Bessie” Award for Emerging Choreographer, an inaugural recipient of THE AWARD, a
2014-2015 workspace artist through LMCC, a 2013 Fellow at Insel Hombroich (Germany), a recipient of the
2012 Grant to Artists from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and a 2009 Fresh Tracks artist (Dance
Theater Workshop). Rosenblit has received commissions from The Kitchen (a Natural dance, 2014, Bessie
Award), New York Live Arts (In Mouth, 2012), and Danspace Project (When Them, 2010, curated by Juliette
Mapp), and a new work Clap Hands is supported by residencies at Tanzhaus (Zurich) and The Chinati
Foundation (Marfa, TX), and will premiere in spring 2016. Rosenblit has worked as a performer and
collaborator with artists including Young Jean Lee, Ryan McNamara, Yvonne Meier, Sasa Asentic, and Simone
Aughterlony, and has been a teaching artist at Bowdoin College, Hollins University, Bard College, NYU Tisch,
Roger Williams, and Bennington College, and given lecture demonstrations surrounding the queer body and
performance at Yale and Harvard. Recent works focus on an improvisational approach to choreographic
thought and ways of structuring bodies as they fall out of relation aesthetically and spiritually while still locating
ways of being together. TOURING DETAILS
a Natural dance
Available for worldwide touring in 2015-16
Personnel: 6
Space: Blackbox or proscenium with sprung dance floor
Full-length video: https://vimeo.com/97391499 (password: natural)
Clap Hands
Seeking additional co-producers and residencies toward spring 2016 premiere
Personnel: 2-4
Space: TBD / flexible
CONTACT
Website: www.jenrosenblit.net
Email: [email protected]
Management and booking: Alexandra Rosenberg / Rosie Management
[email protected]
+1 (917) 692-8218