Artistic Director - WENDY JEHLEN
More than a choreographer, I am a storyteller whose telling is through movement and space. I am interested in archetypal stories – stories that exist outside of time and place. Archetypal stories describe what happens in the unknown between knowns. They tell of the journey. They take place in the time and space between – the wilderness, twilight, dreams. In performance, the dancer’s body inhabits this liminal space, allowing the audience a glimpse of these eternal stories, for a moment.
My work has been evolving since 1998 in India, Italy, Japan and the US. My performances weave together music, dance and storytelling, secular and sacred, aural and visual. With each synthesis, a language is created.
I believe in learning new forms and new ideas deeply, internalizing them and then allowing them to reemerge as part of my own vocabulary. This is what makes my work what it is – unplaceable and yet familiar. It is essential to my work that it not be tied to one place, one tradition, one genre. It is the weaving of disparate traditions, different ways of understanding that creates the fabric of my dance.
Performances in:
Delhi, India
Chennai, India
Pondicherry, India
Bangalore, India
Cochin, India
Trissur, India
Hyderabad, India
Rishi Valley, India
Ranchi, India
Trivandrum, India
Florence, Italy
Fano, Italy
Awards, Commissions and Grants:
Brother Thomas Fellowship/The Boston Foundation (2012-2013)
American Institute of Indian Studies (2001, 2013)
National School of Drama, India (2006, 2011, 2013)
Massachusetts Cultural Council Choreography Fellowship (2012)
Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology (2012)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2009, 2010, 2012)
Indian Council for Cultural Relations (2011)
US Consulate General in Chennai (2011)
Boston Center for the Arts (2010)
Puffin Foundation (2001, 2009)
Boston Musica Viva (2008)
Jahan-e-Khusrau Festival (2007)
Alliance Francaise de Madras (2006)
United States Educational Foundation in India (2006)
National Endowment for the Arts (2005)
Seattle International Children’s Festival (2005)
Fulbright Program (2005)
Tokyo American Center (2002)
Massachusetts Cultural Council Choreography Finalist (2001, 2003)
Fabrica, SpA (1998-1999)
Arts International (1996)
Rome, Italy
Treviso, Italy
Modena, Italy
Catania, Italy
Tokyo, Japan
Riga, Latvia
Mastricht, The Netherlands
Locarno, Switzerland
New York City, USA
Washington, DC, USA
Providence, USA
Boston, USA
Seattle, USA
Houston, USA
Residencies and Workshops (a selection):
National Technical Institute for the Deaf
Brown University
Rishi Valley School
Kalakshetra
Pondicherry University
Trissur School of Drama
Play Practice Residency, Bangalore
Eluciole Circus, Auroville