Emily Johnson

Emily Johnson

press photo by Cameron Wittig for The Thank-you Bar 2009
Born (1976-03-19)March 19, 1976
Soldotna, Alaska
Occupation dancer, writer, choreographer, artistic director
Years active 1998-present
Website Official Site catalystdance.com
Current group Emily Johnson/ Catalyst
Dances SHORE, Niicugni, The Thank-you Bar, Heat & Life, Something More Useful Then, One For Resolve, Plain Old Andrea, With a Gun, Pamela, Fierce:Whole

Emily Johnson (born 1976, Soldotna, Alaska)[1] is an American dancer,[2] writer, and choreographer of Yup'ik descent.[3][4] She is based in Minneapolis, where she is artistic director of her performance company, Emily Johnson/Catalyst. Johnson also works part-time at Birchbark Books, an independent bookstore owned by author Louise Erdrich.[3][4]

Performative, administrative and choreographic work

Johnson has danced for Minneapolis-based choreographers Morgan Thorson, Hijack, and BodyCartography Project,[2] and collaborated with New York-based playwright/ director Lisa D'Amour and music ensemble So Percussion, as well as Korean visual artist Minouk Lim.

Johnson founded her own dance company, Catalyst, in 1998, after graduating from the University of Minnesota with a degree in dance. Since then, she has created 22 original performance pieces, as well as several collaborative projects with other artists, the most recent being SHORE, the third part of a trilogy of works that began with The Thank-you Bar (2009) and Niicugni (2012), and which will premiere in June 2014 at Northrop Dance in Minneapolis.

Choreographic style

Johnson's dances "...often function as installations", and her choreography "...considers the experience of sensing and seeing performance." [5] In a presentation at the University of Minnesota in 2014, she talked about her choreographic practice as dance responding to the world.[6]

Dance and Community

One distinguishing characteristic of Johnson's work is community involvement in particular located places.[7] Among the motivating concerns for The thank you bar (trilogy part 1) were community and tribal responses to displacement.[8] In Vermont,[9] Minnesota,[10] Alaska, California, and Arizona,[11] she invited members of the community to sew fish skin together to form lanterns. These lantern were subsequently hung, with lights and speakers inside, to illuminate halls where Niicugni (trilogy part 2) was performed.[11] Shore (trilogy part 3) included community feasting.[12] Johnson organized a recent work, Then a cunning voice and a night we spend gazing at stars, with community quiltmaking workshops. The quilts became part of the set for the dance performance.[13]

This community involvement in dance echoes other dance forms, which are often less formal and outside of the usual definition of "contemporary" dance, such as participatory dance Participation Dance and ceremonial dance Ceremonial Dance. Johnson's oeuvre may be seen as a bridge between community and cultural contexts, on the one hand, and the world of contemporary artistry, on the other hand. As Vermont Performance Lab director Sara Coffey observes, there may be a tension between artistic vision and openness to community: "I think it’s very brave in the contemporary dance world to let all these others into your work... You don’t always have control of what that's going to be. I think Emily, as an artist, wants a place to rub off on her work as much as she wants to rub off on the place where she’s performing".[7] Johnson attempts to resolve this tension through dynamism, described in the Anchorage Museum's Polar Lab blog as using "dance as a framework for constant transformation that refuses to stabilize, intervention immediately opens up for exchange, conversation and partnership" (anonymous account,[14]).

Awards

Emily Johnson / Catalyst was awarded a 2012 Outstanding Production ("new art, dance and performance") Bessie Award [15] for The Thank-you Bar, created and performed by Johnson with collaborators James Everest and Joel Pickard.

References

  1. ↑ Mike Dunham, Of bars and blackfish, Anchorage Daily News, October 3, 2009
  2. 1 2 Tillotson, Kristin (22 October 2012). "Dance company not afraid to go there". Star Tribune. Minneapolis, United States. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
  3. 1 2 Kourlas, Gia (4 January 2013). "Shedding Light on the Last Frontier". New York Times. New York, United States. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
  4. 1 2 ""COIL" / Emily Johnson". New Yorker. New York, United States. 14 January 2013. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
  5. ↑ "Emily Johnson Dancer/Choreographer". Twin Cities Public Television. Minneapolis, United States. 3 February 2011. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
  6. ↑ http://ias.umn.edu/2014/02/20/ias-thursdays-feb-20/
  7. 1 2 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/06/arts/dance/emily-johnsons-alaska-inspired-niicugni.html?_r=0
  8. ↑ http://artsfuse.org/77265/fuse-dance-review-the-joy-of-swimming-upstream-emily-johnsons-niicugni/, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/06/arts/dance/emily-johnsons-alaska-inspired-niicugni.html?_r=0
  9. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jcrm-qG5e50
  10. ↑ http://www.nativeartsandcultures.org/emily-johnson
  11. 1 2 https://vimeo.com/71909205
  12. ↑ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-edwards/emily-johnson-shares-shor_b_7083398.html
  13. ↑ http://static1.squarespace.com/static/52963393e4b0d8d45128a890/t/5692daf41115e0dc633ad997/1452464884711/Emily_JohnsonFINAL.pdf
  14. ↑ https://polarlab.anchoragemuseum.org/projects/curated-conversations
  15. ↑ "The Bessies" (Press release). Dance NYC. 16 October 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2013.

External links

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