choreography
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shadowlands (2019)
The Loft Stage, Woodbury Minnesota Dance Festival "The earth has music for those who listen" -George Santayana. From the wreckage of our Earth emerges a song, a prayer, an outcry. I created this work as an embodied response to the ravaging impacts of human activity on the Earth and our climate. This work blends voice, improvisation, and dynamic physicality. |
Human: A Dance Film from Nadia Honary on Vimeo. |
Human (2018)
Video Variant “Human” is positioned within and against nature to explore concepts of decay, renewal, growth, and implosion. I developed the base choreography in a studio setting, and gave direction to dancer Elly Hollenhurst for how to adapt it once we were on site to film. After filming, videographer Nadia Honary and I worked together to edit the material. I am particularly interested in framing nuanced movement, positioning dance in non-traditional spaces, and giving immediate, repeatable access of the work to viewers. Choreography & Direction: Jenn Pray Film & Editing: Nadia Honary Performer: Elly Hollenhurst Music: Sevdaliza |
Les Jeunes Rêveurs (2018)
Ballet Arts Youth Ensemble Ted Mann Concert Hall, Minneapolis Cathedral Dance Festival, Eden Prairie A spirited group of young girls escape their mundane classroom, embarking on mischief and adventure. |
In//Out//Through (2018)
The Phipps Dance Company Phipps Center for the Arts, Hudson, WI Connection, disconnection, and wavering: The dancers shift and rebound as relationships form, break, and drift. |
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Here We Are Again (2016)
Bel Campo Dance, Amsterdam Tanzwerkstatt Europa, Munich This Machine, Minneapolis Here We Are Again is a commentary on the American dream and pervasive cycles of systemic oppression. The work was created in response to the 2016 police killing of Philando Castile. |
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The Beginning of Things (2016)
Dance & Other Behaviors Tek Box Theater & The Southern Theater, Minneapolis The Beginning of Things is an immersive dance-theater work that includes audience participation. The work is an adaptation of Kate Chopin's "The Awakening," an 1899 novel that tells the story of a young woman's struggle to exert her freedom and sexuality in a repressive society. The scenes are crafted with emotional overtones rather than dialogue and multiple characters. The audience is invited to move around the stage and to drink, dance with, and talk with the performers. At times the onstage audience forms a backdrop for the audience who choose to remain seated, as in the party scene where an ambiance of conviviality is juxtaposed against the unraveling retreat of the protagonist. Vocals, piano and sound design by Jessica Pray Patel. Piano music composed by Chopin. |
Contact (2016)
Threads Dance Project The TekBox Theater, Minneapolis Contact explores the effect of touch on human connection and livelihood. How does our relationship to physical nourishment change throughout life, and within different contexts? From the first breath to the last, Contact is an up-close and personal look at the power of touch in the context of an increasingly physically isolated world. |
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Seek (2016)
STRONGmovement The Tek Box Theater, Minneapolis "Remembrance is a form of meeting" -Khalil Gibran Created in collaboration with Darrius Strong, of STRONGmovement. |
An improvisational structure investigating fashion coercion and movement coercion.
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(In)humanity: A Study through Movement (2014)
Dance & Other Behaviors The Southern Theater, Minneapolis What separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom? Join our documentary crew on the site of a contemporary dance performance at the borders of humanity to see where, visually and kinetically, human and animal converge. Original score by Seth Tracy. |
Lorelei (2014)
Choreographer's Showcase The Ritz Theater, Minneapolis TekBox Theater, Minneapolis "O River, I see drifting Deep in your flux of silver Those great goddesses of peace. Stone, stone, ferry me down there" -Excerpt from "Lorelei" by Sylvia Plath Music: original vocalizations by Jessica Pray Patel |
Eta Carinae from Jennifer P. on Vimeo. |
Eta Carinae (2014)
Iowa Dance Theatre & Ballet Arts Youth Ensemble Hoyt Sherman Place, Des Moines Dances at the Lakes, Minneapolis The TekBox Theater, Minneapolis A stellar system spirals, brightens and explodes. |
Memoryscape (2013)
Dance & Other Behaviors The Minnesota Fringe Festival Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis A movement-based drama unfolds as the twin goddesses of Memory and Forgetting weave through the mind of a man who seeks to forget. Original score by Seth Tracy. Cello by Olivia Quintanilla, vocals by Jessica Pray Patel and animation by Jordan L Thompson. |
Passages (2013)
The Pointe Academy Dance Ensemble The Scottish Masonic Temple, Des Moines The passing of time presents transitions, change, and reflection for a group of young dancers. |
Migrations (2013)
The Minnesota Dance Festival The O'Shaughnessey Auditorium Migrations explores the meaning of home for three generations in an American family- from the rural homestead, through life as a military family, and ultimately to an urban existence. Dedicated to my grandmother, Patricia Socolofsky. Original Score by cellist Olivia Quintanilla. |
Reflections: Private Moments in Public Spaces (2012)
Dance & Other Behaviors The University of Iowa Museum of Art , Iowa City An exploration of the limits of physical privacy, the performance space as a public environment, and interpersonal behavior in the social sphere. Created in collaboration with media artist Jordan L Thompson. |
Should the Shadows Come (2012)
The University of Iowa Space Place Theater, Iowa City A woman's journey navigating the depths of doubt, hope and hopelessness. "The one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind" -James 1:6 |
On the Town (2010)
Iowa Dance Theatre Central Academy, Des Moines A lighthearted celebration of the street characters in Times Square, circa 1930. |
Kismet (2008)
Pointe Academy Dance Ensemble Scottish Masonic Temple, Des Moines Commissioned by the Scarlet Hair Show. |
Photos by Dan Norman, Alex Roob, Bill Cameron, Jim Smith, Billy Franklin, and Joe and Jen Photography