John Jasperse Projects: Visitation

We are imperfect mortal beings, aware of that mortality even as we push it away, failed by our very complication, so wired that when we mourn our losses we also mourn, for better or for worse, ourselves. As we were. As we are no longer. As we will one day not be at all.” — Joan Didion

Choreography, Direction & Design: John Jasperse in collaboration with

Performing collaborators: Tim Bendernagel, Cynthia Koppe, and Doug LeCours

My sincere gratitude to the creative contributions of the performing collaborators who participated in earlier iterations of this project: Ley Gambucci, Eleanor Hullihan, Hsiao-jou Tang, and Benedict Nguyễn

Original Music: Hahn Rowe

Recorded Music: Richard Wagner

Lighting Design: Stan Pressner

Stage Manager: Stacey-Jo Marine

Costume Assistance and construction: Amy Page

Set Assistance and construction: Rob Gould

Technical assistance: Daniel Kersh

Rigging Consultation: Janet Clancy

Video documentation: Nel Shelby Productions

Social Media: Tim Bendernagel

Photography by Maria Baranova

BIOGRAPHIES

John Jasperse has been working as a dance artist in New York City for 37 years. He has created nineteen evening-length works with John Jasperse Projects and numerous commissions for other companies including Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project, Batsheva Dance Company, and Lyon Opera Ballet. John Jasperse Projects has been presented in 26 U.S. cities and 29 countries internationally. He is the recipient of a 2014 Doris Duke Artist Award and two Bessie awards (2014 and 2001), among many other accolades. Jasperse is co-founder of CPR—Center for Performance Research in Brooklyn, New York, and he is Director of Dance at Sarah Lawrence College. 

Tim Bendernagel (performing collaborator) grew up in Brooklyn, New York where he continues to live and dance. He currently works with the choreographers Maya Lee Parritz, Chloe London Dance, and John Jasperse Projects. Tim graduated from The Ohio State University in 2017 where he earned a BFA in Dance. In addition to his dancing, Tim works as a landscape gardener in New York City.

Born in Singapore, Cynthia Koppe (performing collaborator) is a New York City based dancer and teacher. Her longest collaborations were with Liz Santoro and Pierre Godard of Le Principe d’Incertitude, and as a dancer with Shen Wei Dance Arts from 2009-2017. She has also appeared in work with Yve Laris Cohen, Heidi Howard and Liz Philips, Nicole Mannarino, Ryan McNamara, Sam Roeck, Stephen Thompson and Andrew Tay, Adam Weinert, Christopher Williams, Ellis Wood, and Bill Young amongst others, and was a “reperformer” for Marina Abramovic’s 2010 MoMA Retrospective. Cynthia teaches Yoga, Pilates and Somatic Movement, and currently studies Craniosacral Therapy with Etienne Peirsman. She also holds a certification in Female Ejaculation and the G-Spot, has trained in Holistic Pelvic Care TM with Tami Lynn Kent, and studies and teaches sex education with Isa Coffey of WiseBodies. 

Doug LeCours (performing collaborator) has performed in the work of Julie Mayo, RoseAnne Spradlin, Tess Dworman, Catherine Galasso, Pavel Zuštiak, Keely Garfield, Ash R.T. Yergens, and in reconstructions—facilitated by Galasso—of dances by Andy de Groat. His choreographic work has been presented by venues including New York Live Arts and Danspace Project, and his writing on dance and film has appeared in the Brooklyn Rail. An alum of Middlebury College, he is an MFA candidate in prose at the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan. Doug would like to dedicate his performance tonight to the memory of friend and mentor Peter B. Schmitz, who lived with a fierce commitment to creative rigor he can only hope to match. 

Stacey-Jo Marine (stage manager) has worked in over 35 countries and in all 50 states touring with dance and theater companies including Martha Graham Dance Company, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Dance by Neil Greenberg, STOMP, New York Theatre Ballet, Dar A Luz, and Richard Move’s Martha @ series. Although best known as a refined production stage manager, she also loves teaching dance production and dance profession related courses and has done so at Purchase College, Joffrey Ballet School and Marymount Manhattan College. Ms. Marine served as the founding executive director of CorbinDances (Patrick Corbin, artistic director) from 2005 – 2011 and was the co-founder and producer of Cape Dance Festival 2013 – 2019. 

Stan Pressner (lighting designer) has created the lighting for dance, theatre, opera and music events on five continents. His work has been in  the repertoires of, among others: The New York City Ballet, Bayerische Staatsoper, The Lyon Opera Ballet, Geneva Opera Ballet, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane, Ralph Lemon and Company, Bayerische Staadtsballet, The Atlanta Ballet, The Boston Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Stephen Petronio and Dancers, Stockholm Staadsteatern, The Market Theatre of Johannesberg and The Netherlands Dance Theatre. He served on faculties at UCLA Dance and World Arts and Cultures, The Juilliard School and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.  He received a 1988 New York Dance and Performance Award (“Bessie”) for cumulative achievement, 1997 Cable Ace Award for Inside the Actor’s Studio and 1988, 1991 and 1994 American Theatre Wing  Design Award nominations.

Composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Hahn Rowe (composer, original music) has worked with Hugo Largo, David Byrne, Anohni, Glenn Branca, Swans, R.E.M., and Yoko Ono, among many others. A recipient of three New York Dance and Performance Awards (AKA the Bessie), Hahn Rowe has a long history scoring music for dance and theater, working with Meg Stuart, Benoît Lachambre, Louise Lecavalier, Bebe Miller, John Jasperse, Simone Aughterlony, and Antonija Livingstone.

He is active as a composer for film and television, creating scores for films such as Clean, Shaven by Lodge Kerrigan, Spring Forward and The Cold Land, by Tom Gilroy, Married in America by Michael Apted, and Sing Your Song by Susanne Rostock. Recently, he created the soundscore for Adam Pendleton’s video work, Toy Soldier (Notes of Robert E. Lee, Richmond, Virginia/Strobe), as part of his upcoming exhibition at Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich. A new performance work, commissioned by the Columbia University Lenfest Center for the Arts, will premiere at the end of January 2023.

FUNDING

The creation of Visitation, its performances at NYU Skirball, and other activities of John Jasperse Projects are supported, in part, by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Cultural Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts, the James E. Robison Foundation, the Kyle J. Mulrooney Foundation, the Lion & Hare Foundation, a Late Stage Production Grant from the Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation, and individual contributions.  In-kind residency support was provided by Sarah Lawrence College. Portions of this work were developed on Zoom and at CPR – Center for Performance Research. 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Special thanks to Beth Gill; Daniel Kersh; Rob Gould; Amy Page; Jodi Melnick; John Yannelli; Marty Goldberg; Alex Ross for the prodigious research of Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music; Andrew Farach-Colton; Annie Heath; Maria Baranova; Ian Fleming; Nel Shelby and the entire team of Nel Shelby Productions; Ben Demarest, Rebecca Gual, Alexandra Rosenberg and CPR – Center for Performance Research; Davison Scandrett; Clifton Taylor; Barbara Bryan; Amy Cassello; Jace Weyant; Sophia Cutrubus; Moss Lovejoy; Mingjun Han; Max Klarich; Cathy Weis’ Sundays on Broadway, MR @ The Judson Church, Sarah Lawrence College, and CPR – Center for Performance Research for presenting work-in-progress versions of this piece over the course of its development; Liz Streeter, Peggy Gould, Mo Gallagher, Anthony Ricci and the staff of Sarah Lawrence College; Don Short, Alberto Ruiz, Melissa Negro, Helene Davis, Stephanie Armitage, Amy Coombs, Vincent Iarapoli, Jay Wegman and the entire team at NYU Skirball; 4wall, Hudson Scenic, Rosebrand, McMaster-Carr, and Mutual Hardware; all the individuals who made financial contributions making this work possible; and Jenny Palmer, Howie Seligman, Penny Dannenberg, Jo McKendry and the board of John Jasperse Projects/Thin Man Dance, Inc. Extra special thanks to the dancers (past and present) in this project who have journeyed through what has turned out to be the longest and strangest process of my career. I cannot sufficiently express my gratitude for your contributions to the work that we have done together that arguably kept me (reasonably) sane through such a challenging period of time.

NYU SKIRBALL FUNDING 

This project was made possible with generous support from the Mertz Gilmore Foundation.

Mertz Gilmore Foundation Logo

 

 

 

NYU Skirball’s programs are made possible with support from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, Howard Gilman Foundation, FACE Foundation in partnership with Villa Albertine, General Delegation of the Government of Flanders to the USA, Collins Building Services, Marta Heflin Foundation, as well as our valued donors through memberships, commissioning, and Stage Pass Fund support.