ABOUT
MIGUEL GUTIERREZ
Miguel Gutierrez is a choreographer, music artist, writer, visual artist, educator, podcaster, community advocate, and Feldenkrais Method practitioner living on Lenape/Canarsie land in the area referred to as Brooklyn, NY and also on Tongva and Gabrielino land in the area referred to as Los Angeles, CA. His work creates irreverent and empathetic spaces outside traditional discourse. He has been presented internationally in venues such as REDCAT, Showbox LA, Los Angeles Performance Practice, Wexner Center for the Arts, Walker Art Center, Centre Pompidou, Festival Universitario de Colombia, Centre National du Danse, Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York Live Arts, the Kitchen, American Realness, and the 2014 Whitney Biennial. He has received support from Dance NYC/Dance Advance Fund, MAP, New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, National Performance Network, and Creative Capital. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, United States Artists, New York Foundation for the Arts, and Foundation for Contemporary Arts. He has a Franky Award from the PRELUDE Festival, and he has received four New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Awards. He was a 2016 Doris Duke Artist.
Gutierrez was the 2020-2021 Caroline Hearst Choreographer in Residence at Princeton University, where he currently teaches as a Visiting Lecturer in the dance program. He is also a Guest Lecturer in the MFA Art program at Hunter College. He has served as visiting lecturer and guest artist at Bennington College, CalArts, Hollins University, Yale University, Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design, UCLA, UCSD, and Carnegie Mellon University. He has also taught in many dance programs around the world, such as Movement Research, CAMPING at the Centre National du Danse, ici Montpellier, ImPulsTanz, and Bates Dance Festival. He created and directed LANDING, a non-academic educational initiative.
His work is discussed and featured in Performance Now: Live Art for the Twenty-First Century by Roselee Goldberg (Thames & Hudson, 2018), The Choreographic by Jenn Joy (MIT Press, 2014), I want to understand what is happening to me by Amanda Hamp (TDR, 2016), and All the Possible Variations and Positions by Ryan Davis (Theater Magazine, 2015). He has also contributed essays to A Life in Dance (ed. Rebecca Stenn and Fran Kirmser, CreateSpace, 2017) and In Terms of Performance: A Keywords Anthology (ed. Shannon Jackson and Paula Marincola, The Pew Center & UC Berkeley, 2016). His book of performance texts, When You Rise Up (2009), is available from 53rd State Press, and his essay “Does Abstraction Belong to White People” is one of the most viewed writings at BOMB magazine online.
Recent projects include This Bridge Called My Ass, a dance that queers tropes of Latinidad, and SADONNA, a music project where he takes upbeat Madonna songs and turns them into sad anthems. He also recently published an essay for InDance Magazine called “The Grant You Wish You Could Write.” Current projects I as another, a commission from Princeton University that has its New York premiere in May at Baryshnikov Art Center, a revival of the Bessie Award winning Variations on Themes from Lost and Found: Scenes from a Life and Other Works by John Bernd, co-created by Ishmael Houston-Jones (choreographer) and Nick Hallett (composer), sueño, a new project of his original songs, and Are You For Sale? a podcast that looks at the ethical entanglements between art and money.
Gutierrez received his B.A. with honors from Brown University in 2021 after a 27-year hiatus from college. He will receive an MFA in Studio Art in the Low Residency program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago this summer. He is an associate professor of choreography at UCLA in the department of World Arts and Cultures Dance. www.miguelgutierrez.org
Petter Jacobsson and Thomas Caley: A Creative Team
The choreographers and dancers Petter Jacobsson and Thomas Caley, started collaborating in the nineteen nineties, choreographing works for Martha@Mother, the Joyce Soho in New York and the opera Staden for the Royal Opera House in Stockholm, a commission for the 1998 Cultural capital of Europe. For the Royal Swedish Opera, Ballet and Orchestra they created two immense Happenings, In nooks and crannies 2000 and 2001. The two different performances, occupied non-traditional performance spaces throughout the entire theatre.In 2005 they started their own company creating works entitled Nightlife, Untitled partner, Flux, No mans land – no lands man and The nearest nearness. In 2002 they received a “Goldmask” for the musical Chess with Björn Ulveus and Benny Andersson (ABBA).
As of 2011, Petter is choreographer and the Artistic Director and Thomas choreographer and the Coordinator of Research for the Centre Chorégraphique National – Ballet de Lorraine, Nancy. For the company they have created Untitled Partner #3, Performing Performing, Relâche, Armide, Discofoot, L’Envers, Record of ancient things, Happening Birthday, For Four Walls, Air-Condition and Mesdames et Messieurs.
Their programming for the CCN is organized around questions or themes and each year they invite a wide variety of artists both French and international to play and question within them.Their first programming season 2012, was entitled La saison de La. There they asked why is it Le Ballet but La dance? In response to this question of gender they presented solely female choreographers of diverse backgrounds. The season Tête à tête à têtes was a dialog focused on our modernity and its influences and connections with contemporary artists and spectators. Live! was a celebration of the ephemerality of the performing arts. Together with the continuing seasons, Folk + Danse = (R)évolution, Unknown Pleasures, 50 ans!, Fifty Plus, Useless Beauty, Fiction addiction, Ready! (Made) and tlm (Tout le monde) all have continued to challenge, celebrate and question. To insure a continued lively and non fixed use of the artform they have also worked with the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris and Centre Pompidou- Metz and Paris, and an original initiative LAB-BLA-BAL, a series of discussions and open house art experiments.
Born in Stockholm, Petter Jacobsson started his studies in dance at the age of three and was further educated at the Royal Swedish Ballet School, the School of American Ballet under Stanley Williams and he later graduated from the Vaganova Academy in St.Petersburg in 1982. As a principal dancer with the Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet in London between 1984 to 1993, he toured internationally dancing all of the renowned classical roles as well as appearing as guest artist with numerous international companies. He later moved to New York to begin a freelance career, dancing with Twyla Tharp Dance Company, Merce Cunningham Repertory group, Irene Hultman Dance and later with Deborah Hay. In 1999, Petter was appointed artistic director of the Royal Swedish Ballet in Stockholm.
Thomas Caley started his dance training at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, he continued his education earning a BFA from Purchase College in upstate New York in 1992. After graduating from university, a year was spent experimenting, performing in a multitude of independent projects in New York City. From 1993 until 2000 he was a principle dancer with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company touring throughout the world and participating in the creation of twelve new works. In 2000 he moved to Stockholm to continue his collaboration with Petter Jacobsson and to continue working as a freelance dancer in Europe, in France Thomas has worked with Boris Charmatz on the 50 ans de danse & flip book projects.
Centre Chorégraphique National – Ballet de Lorraine
The Centre Chorégraphique National – Ballet de Lorraine (which was awarded the “label” of Centre Chorégraphique National in 1999), is located at 3, rue Henri Bazin in Nancy. Its origins go all the way back to 1968, to the creation of the Ballet Théâtre Contemporain (BTC), established at the Maison de la Culture in Amiens. Located at the intersection of the historical center of the city of Nancy and the new Meurthe et Canal quartier, the Centre Chorégraphique National – Ballet de Lorraine is a vibrant venue for creation and research specific to contemporary and classical dance, with artistic standing at the national and international levels. As the first decentralized company to prioritize choreographic creation, the BTC, after a stopover at the Theatre of Angers, established itself permanently in Nancy. After the departure of Jean-Albert Cartier, its founding director, the Ballet, which had several different organizational names, was directed by Patrick Dupond, Pierre Lacotte, Françoise Adret and Didier Deschamps. And we must note the importance of the role played by André Larquié, President of the Centre Chorégraphique National – Ballet de Lorraine from 1998 to June of 2014, who also had a great deal to do with the installation of the BTC in Nancy as far back as 1978.
2011
Petter Jacobsson follows Didier Deschamps as Director of the CCN – Ballet de Lorraine, with a declared mission to make it a major cultural center, highlighting the exploration of new perspectives offered by the choreographic arts.
2000
Didier Deschamps is named the Director of the Centre chorégraphique national – Ballet de Lorraine, offering an artistic mission which explores the diversity of choreographic creation.
1999
Having been awarded the prestigious Centre chorégraphique national “label,” the Ballet National of Nancy and Lorraine becomes the Centre chorégraphique national – Ballet de Lorraine with a new orientation toward contemporary dance and choreographic creation. Françoise Adret becomes the Director and supervises the artistic transition for one year.
1991
Pierre Lacotte succeeds Patrick Dupond, choosing some of the classical and romantic masterpieces which contributed to his international reputation. The company is renamed the Ballet National of Nancy and Lorraine.
1988
Jean-Albert Cartier is named Director of the Palais Garnier and of the Festival of the City of Paris. Patrick Dupond, a danseur étoile at the Ballet of the Paris Opera, is named Artistic Director of the French Ballet of Nancy.
1987
The French Ballet Theatre of Nancy becomes the French Ballet of Nancy.
1978
Created as part of the choreographic decentralization process begun on September 1, 1978, the Ballet-Théâtre contemporain is relocated in Nancy and becomes the Ballet-Théâtre français, under the artistic direction of Jean-Albert Cartier. His role is to bring important choreographic works to Nancy and to the Lorraine region, and to present the company and its repertoire in France and abroad.
1972
Relocation of the Ballet-Théâtre contemporain in Angers.
1968
Creation of the Ballet-Théâtre contemporain at the Maison de la culture d’Amiens by Jean-Albert Cartier and Françoise Adret with the support of Ministry of Cultural affairs. The company use for the first time the label “Centre chorégraphique national”.