jenn pray
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choreography

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. 
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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.  

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.

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Fictions (2016)
Dance & Other Behaviors
The Southern Theater, Minneapolis

Original Score: Seth Tracy
Storytelling & Conceptual Development: Jordan Lee Thompson

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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.


Seek (2016)
STRONGmovement
The Tek Box Theater, Minneapolis
 
"Remembrance is a form of meeting" -Khalil Gibran
Created in collaboration with Darrius Strong, of STRONGmovement.


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The Time Machine (2016)
The Italian Film Festival
Commissioned by Roberto Francesco Cicero, Systems4Living

Movement direction for a short film with original music, live vocalist and an actor.

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Eyes on Me(2015)
Dance & Other Behaviors
Public Functionary, Minneapolis
An improvisational structure investigating fashion coercion and movement coercion.

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​The Deep (2014)
The Minnesota Dance Festival
The O'Shaughnessey Auditorium, St. Paul

​A physical contemplation of submersion. Original score by Seth Tracy.

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Epidermis I & II (2014)
​
Dance & Other Behaviors
​Public Functionary, Minneapolis

​Shiny. Loud. Two short works created for the HOTROCITY launch party. Original score by Seth Tracy.

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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.

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Project Space (2014)
The ​Minnesota Museum of American Art Project Space

​A 20-minute site-specific response to selections of the 2014 Minnesota Biennial. 
Original, adaptive score by Ryan Horton.

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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.
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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

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You...but Better! A Girl's Guide to Getting Gorgeous (2011)
The University of Iowa
Space Place Theater, Iowa City

​A commentary on the effects of an image-saturated culture. Obsession-perfection-beauty... How do I look?

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
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  • About
  • Performance
    • Upcoming Work
    • Past Work
  • Choreography
  • Yoga
  • Teaching
  • Resume
  • Contact