JESSICA KONDRATH | THE MOVEMENT
"The dance evokes dreams, darkness, and a world just beyond our reach."
-Mary Marsh, LA Dance Review
Jessica Kondrath, Artistic & Executive Director
2838 E. Mariquita St, #5 | Long Beach, CA 90803
805.637.6317 | [email protected]
jessicakondrathtm.com
THE COMPANY
JESSICA KONDRATH | THE M OVEM ENT was founded in 2005 in New York City, presenting
performances at Triskelion Arts, The Merce Cunningham Studios, and at Baryshnikov Arts Center, and
additionally showcasing works as part of HATCH at The Jennifer Muller Studio, and The D.U.M.B.O.
Dance Festival. Since moving to Los Angeles in 2009, JK|TM has shown work at MixMatch Dance
Festival, Dance on the EDGE in San Diego, ARC Pasadena, Nancy Evans Dance Theater’s F/F/D/F,
Dance Mission Theater (San Francisco), ADaPT Fest (Santa Barbara), Gowanus Guest Room #8
(Brooklyn, NY) and Dance Chicago, among others. Recently Jessica was a recipient of the 2013-2014
Professional Artists Fellowship Award from the Arts Council of Long Beach for her work with JKTM.
Artistic highlights from 2014-2015 include new commissions from the Dance Departments of CSU Long
Beach, Santa Monica College, Cypress College, and Beverly Hills High School for the creation of WADE,
Working Memory, Fragment (or the elements of memory that remain), and Between Stillness and Falling.
Additionally, the company has been presented as part of HIVE and HH11 Dance Festival (Santa
Barbara), ARC Pasadena, F/F/D/F presented by Nancy Evans Dance Theater, and the Faculty Showcase
at Cypress College.
In 2015, JK|TM presents SHARED SPACES, a concert of new and repertory works at MiMoDa Studio. In
addition to I Still Haven’t Learned How to Dream Wide Awake, and You Can Be Anything, Forgotten or
Lost, JK|TM will premier The Wit of Small Things. JK|TM also presents the works of Chicago artists
RE|Dance Group and choreographer Reneé Murray. At the beginning of a shared collaboration
between these companies to bring together Los Angeles and Chicago dance, RE|Dance will present their
signature work Abbot & Viv, as well as Riner’s solo work What Brings Me to This Place. Murray will
premier a work made in collaboration with Kondrath titled With Jeanette and Barbara.
This September JK|TM will be a guest artist of El Camino College. The program at the Marsee Auditorium
includes Kondrath’s signature work Fleeting, as well as WADE, and I Still Haven’t Learned How to Dream
Wide Awake. JK|TM will also perform You Can Be Anything, Forgotten or Lost as a guest artist with
Kenneth Walker Dance Project this August for his company’s production in Long Beach.
JESSICA KONDRATH | THE MOVEMENT
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Jessica Kondrath, originally from Oak Park, IL, holds a BFA in
Dance from the University of California, Santa Barbara and an
MFA in Dance from California State University, Long Beach. She
has shown work throughout Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco,
Santa Barbara, and New York City, in particular at Dance Chicago,
Dance Mission Theater, D.U.M.B.O Dance Festival, The Merce
Cunningham Studios, and Baryshnikov Arts Center. Jessica has had
works commissioned by Moorpark College, Momenta! Performing
Arts Company, Malleable Dance Theater, CSU Long Beach, Beverly
Hills High School, and Megill and Company, in addition to guest
teaching at Loyola Marymount University, Cerritos College,
Fullerton Union High School, and CSU Long Beach. As a dancer,
Jessica has performed with Earl Mosely's Diversity of Dance, in the
community cast of Underground with David Dorfman Dance, as well
as in the works of Doris Humphrey (coached by Ernestine Stodelle),
Isadora Duncan, Charles Weidman (coached by Deborah Carr),
Ruth St. Denis (coached by Karoun Tootikian), John Pennington,
Pavel Zustiak|Palissimo, Carol McDowell, and Doug Varone,
among others. Jessica is currently on faculty at Cypress College
and Santa Monica College, as well as working as a lighting
designer and Pilates Instructor.
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
I am interested in making dances that are derived primarily from the musical score.
Through these works, I am interested in using the movement to craft a visual re-presentation of
the music for the viewer so that the work may be experienced both visually and aurally. I am
interested in creating movement that is both beautiful and awkward at once, continuously
seeking out how the choreography connects to and interacts with the environments created for
each piece. By crafting spaces which house each particular dance, it is my interest to allow new
sets of rules to exist for each environment inside of which each dance is created. Using the
score as an integral aspect of each environment, it is by following the movement of the music
that I create choreography. It is also my intent to generate a visual re-presentation of the score
through the movement of the body and the crafting of the bodies as they move through the
space. Additionally, I seek to bring awareness to the relationship between the audience and the
performer with the desire to bring the viewers awareness to their participation in the dance as
an entity by being present in the space.
JESSICA KONDRATH | THE MOVEMENT
REPERTORY
THE WIT OF SMALL THINGS
The Wit of Small Things is based on the idea of discovery
of small, secret things that are hidden in plain sight. Such
as a Joseph Cornell box where there are secrets hidden
everywhere, waiting to be found.
2015
10 Minutes
Six Dancers
WADE
Inspired by the visual atmosphere created, and themes of
forgotten memories and past lives, we view an environment in
which the dancers exist on and in water, moving through the
space created by surface tension.
2014
8 Minutes
Seven Dancers
I STILL HAVEN’T LEARNED HOW TO DREAM WIDE AWAKE
I Still Haven’t Learned How to Dream Wide Awake explores
existing in daydreams or dreamlike states.
2014
8 Minutes
Three Dancers
JESSICA KONDRATH | THE MOVEMENT
REPERTORY
FLEETING
Fleeting is a blending of contemporary ballet and modern
dance movement. For this dance, I drew inspiration from
blurred photograph and video images, in particular the
paintings of Gerhard Richter, where an image is captured
in stillness yet looks as if it remains in motion.
2013
25 Minutes
Six Dancers
YOU CAN BE ANYTHING, FORGOTTEN OR LOST
In this excerpt from Fleeting, the dancer explores the space
surrounding her with melancholy yet continues to push forward.
For her, there is an understanding that things are not ideal in
this situation, however she is resolved to continue on her
journey regardless of the outcome.
2013
7 Minutes
One Dancer
SOLO, from THE ART OF BREATHING
This solo stems from the work The Art of Breathing,
which is a choreographic representation of the music
score from J.S. Bach.
2012
3 minutes
One Dancer
JESSICA KONDRATH | THE MOVEMENT
THE ARTISTS
Q UETTA BO YD
Quetta Boyd, from Los Angeles, holds a BFA in Dance from CSU Long Beach.
Boyd has performed the works of Bill T. Jones in preperation of the B -Word
Project; CSULB faculty works by Gerald Casel, College Dunagan, Keith
Johnson; as well as works by Heather Glabe, Kathleen Helm, Jobel Medina
and Megan Guise. Her enjoyment in dance derives from the mirroring of life
through humanistic and non-humanistic qualities of movement. This is her first
season with JKTM.
FRAN CESCA BUTLER
Francesca Butler is currently a BFA student at CSU Long Beach where she has
been awarded multiple dance scholarships. Born in Washington D.C., she
discovered her passion for dance at age four when she took her first tap
class. Moving to Sonoma County, she continued her dance training with an
eclectic array of styles including Ballet, Modern, Irish, Bollywood, Flamenco,
African and Ballroom dance. She has since performed in multiple University
dance concerts. Her training has also included dance residencies with LINES
Ballet, Alex Ketley and Sidra Bell. Holding interest in both performing and
teaching dance, she also currently works as The Arts in Motion Dance Program
director and teacher at the Los Altos Family YMCA in Long Beach.
SHELBY LARO SA
Shelby LaRosa originally from the Bay Area, graduated Magna Cum Laude
with a BFA in Dance Performance from Chapman University. She has trained
at the LINES Ballet summer program, and has done workshops with Hubbard
Street Dance Chicago, Robert Moses' Kin, Ate9 Dance Company, and
Backhaus Dance. Shelby also studied Graphic Design at Chapman and works
as a designer and dance instructor/choreographer.
KAYLA M O N TG O M ERY
Kayla Montgomery is from San Francisco. Kayla graduated with high honors in
2010 with a BA in Dance from CSULB. She danced with Backhausdance, Body
Current Dance & is a company dancer and rehearsal assistant for JESSICA
KONDRATH | THE MOVEMENT. Kayla is Ballet Mistress for Strong Dance
Studios and a contemporary modern dance instructor/choreographer.
JESSICA KONDRATH | THE MOVEMENT
THE ARTISTS
M ICHAELA M ARIE PICKETT
Michaela Marie Pickett trained at Los Angeles Ballet Academy for 12 years
before going on to attend Chapman University, where she received a BA in
Dance
and
Minor
in
Nutrition.
She
is
currently
a
member
of
JESSICA KONDRATH | THE MOVEMENT, a contemporary ballet/modern
dance company based in Long Beach, CA, and Sean Greene’s Shield Wall, a
modern dance company based in Los Angeles, CA. Michaela also teaches
dance and Pure Barre.
TAYLO R W O RDEN
Taylor Worden is from Temecula, CA and has danced since the age of three.
Currently, she is awarded the Martin Figoten Scholarship at California State
University, Long Beach where she is completing her Bachelor of Fine Arts
degree. Taylor is a member of Team Rave L.A. Dance Co., Creation Tour
Group, and On Cue. She has modeled for Ubisoft Entertainment Games and
has performed work by Will Loftis at the Ace Awards in New York.
JESSICA KONDRATH | THE MOVEMENT
PRESS
"Kondrath’s movement across all three works uses a contemporary ballet
aesthetic merging ballet lines and shapes blended with clear patterns of
body connectivity and plastic floor work, and always with and a cool
direct gaze. Clarity of purpose with the body and layered shapes and
designs creating a vocabulary that massages the kinesphere is central to
her work. Limbs are stretched long, precise, and breath and emotions are
often subtle. Kondrath uses space in unexpected ways, dividing planes in
the use of the body. A traditional attitude position is twisted and what
was once cross-lateral suddenly becomes planar."
-Teresa Heiland, LA Dance Review
"The dance performance opens with immense force. From the raw
physicality of gymnastic and contortionist movements to infusions of
traditional ballet, Kondrath’s “Fleeting” blends dance genres with grace
and fluid lyricism."
-Mary Marsh, LA Dance Review
You Can Be Anything, Forgotten or Lost
“The balance between music and movement fulfilled the metaphor of perfect
reflection. [The dancer] was the exception who did not overstay her welcome on
stage.”
- Carl Blumenthal, Brooklyn Daily Eagle,
Solo, from The Art of Breathing
“This piece was elegantly designed with awareness to both time and space that
captivated the audience. Kondrath has a special ability to draw the audience’s
focus where she wants us to the look so that we really notice the beauty in
Kondrath’s choreographic detail. The performer did justice to these moments with
a patience and clarity that was mesmerizing. [T]his solo is one I could watch over
and over. It is crafted like a well-designed puzzle, with the body and the motifs
scattered in front of you and then coming together into a well balanced visual
account of line, shape, and color.”
-Beth M egill, M usings by a Dancing Poetess Blog