Emily Johnson

2013 Choreographer Fellow

Photo by Tim Rummelhof

Emily Johnson is an artist who makes body based work. Originally from Alaska, she is currently based in Minneapolis. Since 1998 she has created work that considers the experience of sensing and seeing performance. Her dances function as installations, engaging audiences within and through a space and environment—sights, sounds, smells—interacting with a place's architecture, history, and role in community. She works to blur distinctions between performance and daily life and to create work that reveals and respects multiple perspectives. Johnson received a 2012 Bessie Award for Outstanding Production for her work, The Thank-you Bar at New York Live Arts. She is a 2012 Creative Capital and Joyce Foundation grant recipient. She is a 2011-12 Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography Returning Choreographic Fellow, a 2012 Headlands and MacDowell Colony Artist in Residence, a 2011 Native Arts and Cultures Fellow, a 2012, 2010, and 2009 MAP Fund Grant recipient, and a 2009 McKnight Fellow. Current works include The Thank-you Barand Where (we) Live with SO Percussion, directed by Ain Gordon. Niicugni premiered at MANCC/Florida State University/Seven Days of Opening Nights and tours through 2013 with support from National Dance Project to MassMoca, The Redfern Art Center at Keene College/Vermont Performance Lab, The Coil Festival/PS122 at Baryshnikov Arts Center, TigerTail, Arizona State University/Gammage Theater, Northrop/O'Shaughnessy, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, and Bunnell St. Gallery in Homer, Alaska. Johnson is of Yup'ik descent and is a shareholder in the Calista Native Corporation. Her family is from Bethel and Akiak, Alaska and she was raised on the Kenai Peninsula. 

 

• For more information: Catalyst Dance

Karen Sherman

2013 Choreographer Fellow

Photo by Aaron Rosenblum

Karen Sherman moved to Minneapolis in 2004 from NYC. Her work has been presented nationally by P.S. 122, Walker Art Center, Danspace Project, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Dance Place, Fusebox Festival, Highways Performance Space, ODC, The Red Eye Theater, and many others. She has worked and collaborated with such artists as Morgan Thorson, Sally Silvers, Dan Hurlin, Emily Johnson, Lisa D’Amour, Katie Pearl, Nami Yamamoto, Neal Medlyn, NTUSA, The Love Everybody Players, Tanya Gagné, Circus Amok, and the feminist punk pop band, Le Tigre.

She has received numerous awards for her work as a choreographer, performer, and designer, including a 2007 “Bessie” Award for her work in Morgan Thorson'sFaker, McKnight Foundation Fellowships in Choreography (2006) and Dance (2009), a Bush Foundation Artist Fellowship (2009), Sage Awards for her work as a Performer (2006) and Scenic Designer (for her 2008 work, copperhead), City Pages Best Artist Awards as a Dancer (2007) and Choreographer (2009), MacDowell Colony Fellowships (2010, 2003), a Movement Research Artist Residency (1999-2000), and a Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship and residency in Liguria, Italy (2010).

She holds a BFA in Acting from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts (with a double major in Women’s Studies) and is also a singer, fifth-generation lasso spinner, and former student of flying trapeze. Her background in these areas, as well as her work in nearly every facet of arts production as a producer, production manager, technical director, scenic and sound designer, and technician, informs each aspect of her work. As Administrator and Production Manager of New York’s legendary Judson Church from 1994-2004, she co-created, produced, and curated START, a multi-disciplinary series integrating politics and arts. Her writing, including essays and poetry, has been featured on many live, web, and print forums, including The Movement Research Performance Journal, Culture Bodega, The Performance Club, and The Triumph of Poverty: Poems Inspired by the Work of Nicole Eisenman (Off The Park Press).

One with Others, incorporated dance, writing, and carpentry and toured in 2014 to TBA Festival (Portland), Red Eye Theater (Mpls), Fsebox Festival (Austin), DiverseWorks (Houston), and The Chocolate Factory (NYC).

Related

• Karen Sherman 2014 Solo Choreographer

• Karen Sherman Performance

Megan Mayer

2010 Choreography Fellow

Photo Credit: Sean Smuda

Megan Mayer is a choreographer, performing artist and photographer based in Minneapolis. Her dances resonate with audiences by fusing nuanced imagery gleaned from vulnerable situations with a strong sense of musicality and comic timing. By unearthing and luxuriating in anti-performance moments, traditionally undisclosed aspects of performance in turn become the focus. She excels at revealing and showcasing performers' distinctive personalities and characteristics in her dances. She credits/blames her parents for her irreverent humor and affection for diverse musical styles. 

Mayer was awarded a 2010 Jerome Foundation Travel Study Grant, and had a choreographic mentorship and workshop with New York dance artist Douglas Dunn in Fall 2010. Her production We tried to throw the light (2010) was commissioned by The Southern Theater. I Could Not Stand Close Enough To You (2009), co-commissioned by The Walker Art Center and Southern Theater for Momentum: New Dance Works, was named 2009's top dance event by the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune. Her suite of Pulp Dances (2007) was commissioned by the Minnesota History Center.

She has premiered original dances at Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater, The Southern Theater, The Walker Art Center, The Soap Factory, Bedlam Theater, in the CATCH series (NYC) and in public bathrooms. She has a growing body of work of short dance films, several of which are in collaboration with film artist Kevin Obsatz. Her dance film Over Time (2009) was created for Skewed Visions' online Cubicle series. An engaging performer, she has worked with many artists including Charles Campbell, Laurie Van Wieren, Karen Sherman and The Ethnic Dance Theatre. She holds a B.A. in Dance from the University of Minnesota.

RELATED

• Megan Mayer's Website

Vanessa Voskuil

Photo by Tim Rummelhoff

2015 Choreographer Fellow

Choreographer and director Vanessa Voskuil has created more than twenty contemporary performance works ranging from large community-inclusive performance projects to ensemble and solo works for site-specific locations and theater settings. Her work has been described as “visually arresting,” “boldly and uncompromisingly moving within its own time and its own logic,” and “interlaced with surrealist sensibility and bracing intelligence.” Voskuil has received two Minnesota Sage Dance Awards for Outstanding Design and nominated twice for Outstanding Performance. She has been named one of the “7 Artists to Watch” by Minnesota Monthly Magazine and recognized by the Star Tribune as one of “9 Minnesota Artists to Expect Great Things.” 

Related

• Vanessa's Website

Penelope Freeh

2014 Choreographer Fellow

Photo by Tim Rummelhoff

Penelope Freeh won a Minnesota SAGE Award for Outstanding Performer in 2010. With composer Jocelyn Hagen she received a Metropolitan Regional Arts Council Arts Activities Grant (2013) and two American Composers Forum New Music for Dance Grants (2010, 2014). Additional awards include: McKnight Artist Fellowship for Dancers (1998), MN State Arts Board Fellowship (1998), two Career Opportunity Grants (1999, 2001) and Artist Initiative Grant (2012), and a Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant (2001). In May 2008 she was featured in and wrote "Why I Dance" for Dance Magazine.

Commissions include: James Sewell Ballet, MN Ballet, Gem City Ballet, the Walker Art Center/Southern Theater’s Momentum, MN Orchestra, 3-Legged Race, Skylark Opera, Nautilus Music Theater, Theater Mu, the University of MN, MN State University, and Russia’s Link Vostok Dance Festival among others. She has twice been presented by New York City’s Ballet Builders. Residencies include: the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, MN Dance Lab (Regional Dance Development Initiative) at the College of St. Benedict, St. Catherine University, Carleton College, the Reif Center, St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, and Perpich Center for Arts Education.

Freeh danced for James Sewell Ballet for seventeen years, serving as Artistic Associate from 2007-11. She is affiliate faculty at the University of MN and Zenon and summer faculty at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp.

For more information, visit her site.