Jeanine Durning – has had an active presence in the NY contemporary dance community since the early 1990’s, performing, teaching and creating dances. Her choreography is known for its focus on human endeavor and exchange, rooted in the physical body and the multiplicity of its expression. Most recently, her choreography has been supported by The Alpert Award and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Within the past two years, she has been in residence at several universities in the States, creating work and developing material for her next project: Ex-Memory: waywewere, which will premiere in NY at Danspace Project January 2009. She is often commissioned by individuals and companies to create original work. In the past few years, she has created work in Minneapolis, Austin, Pittsburgh, LA and New York. Jeanine is known for her work and performing with other choreographers, most notably in the early years, with David Dorfman Dance with whom she collaborated from 1993-2002. She has since worked on a project basis with many choreographers, including most recently Deborah Hay (2006, 2008), Susan Rethorst (2005, 2007, 2008) and Chris Yon (2006, 2007). For the past year, she has been touring Deborah Hay’s If I Sing To You throughout Europe. Jeanine’s work as a teacher has been an important and integral part of her ongoing inquiry of dance. She teaches regularly throughout NYC and is invited often as a guest artist at universities and festivals. She is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Choreography, Amsterdam Master of Choreography (AMCh). www.jeaninedurning.com
Contemporary Dance Practice:
I’ve come to regard “technique” as an ongoing malleable practice of the accumulation of awarenesses, both physical and perceptual, and “technique class” as a laboratory in practicing and heightening these awarenesses.
This class engages in a physical and philosophical dialogue with what it means to be a contemporary dancer. The methodology and “aesthetic” of this class draws from a wide range of influences and a hybridization of ideas from various modalities, from the classical to the contemporary, the experimental to the formal. My goal in teaching is to offer perspective to the student, a way of regarding him/herself in the moments of movement which are not fixed, to cultivate recognition and awareness of the multiplicity of the body, to help locate and embrace an understanding and knowledge of conventional dance practices then quietly challenge those systems, to relinquish perceived limitations so as to invite possibility and potential, to nurture individuality. Oftentimes, we will work on physical paradoxes: the philosophical meeting the technical, the practical meeting the poetical, the behavioral meeting the architectural, the perceptual meeting the functional… The individuated, personal translation, interpretation and integration of these awarenesses are what I attempt to guide and cultivate in my classes.
