BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance presents the World Premiere of rose walk green ice at Danspace Project December 7-9, 2017 at 8pm

The World Premiere of rose walk green ice is the culmination of work begun with Home and Agawam that explores self-awareness within communal bonds. By varying spatial orientation to the audience, utilizing various groupings, and highlighting key moments from previous pieces in the trilogy, audiences are offered multiple perspectives of each character, from a variety of angles. Through these perspectives, the audience is offered notions of familial bonding and identity formation, in the hopes that each audience member becomes more aware and appreciative of the complete self and of those around them.

“With HOME, we explored the rituals people undertake to discover their identity. The constant shifts in dynamics model the inconsistencies and uncertainties we go through in growth. The dancers experienced boundaries, and learned how to navigate through them in their journey towards self-actualization. After premiering this piece, we were told that certain sections recreated personal memories for audience members. It was a success in that people were able to access something that reminded them of their home and their personal journey through the movement,” explained Ms. Fellion. “This investigation went even further with Agawam. We explored how places of origin shape familial bonds and identity formation. We contemplated how we may choose to accept, oppose, or become indifferent to our familial bonds, ultimately hoping to find personal identity within our families, and how our families shape our personal identities. Audience members were moved to share that through our piece they connected to their honoring and rebellion from their own heritage and women’s roles in their family history,” She continued, “In building rose walk green ice, I plan to strengthen these points of access and add to the elements of both familial bonds and personal identity, with further development of material from HOME and Agawam. The movement vocabulary and desired aesthetic is established, so now I want to look at how spatial orientation, movement manipulation, various partnering and staging elements add to and/or take away from the desired goal. I aim to further define intentions and improve the impact of several moments. I hope audience members see themselves in these characters and become more aware of how their previous experiences have shaped the way they interact with others. In realizing this, maybe they can extend more compassion to others.”

This evening also includes special guest artists the Chicago-based Winifred Haun & Dancers, performing Trashed, a collaboration between Winifred Haun and Australian Circus Artist Emma Serjeant.

Artistic Director/Choreographer: Teresa Fellion in collaboration with the performers

Performers: Amanda Krische, Maria Gardner, Kimberly Murry, Jessica Stroh, Ashley Zimmerman, Elizabeth Shew; Original Music composed and performed by John Yannelli and Trilogy: featuring Dominick Boyle and Emily Cardwell; Costume Design: Nina Katan; Lighting Design: Timothy Cryan; Projection Design: Charly Wenzel; Set Design: Robert Gould and Teresa Fellion

“The “W” in the title stands for “world,” and Ms. Fellion and her colleagues do succeed in creating one….John Yannelli and members of the SLC Experimental Music Ensemble contribute a richly textured, partly live score of drones, strings plucked and strummed, swelling distortion, and high hums. The choreography is action-packed with a strong flow, a current that is sometimes tidal, washing the dancers back and forth across St. Mark’s Church, turning the terrarium into an aquarium.”

– Brian Seibert, The New York Times

Teresa Fellion founded BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance in late 2011, after working as an independent choreographer since 2004. Fellion’s work has been positively reviewed by The New York Times, NPR, The Huffington Post, The Scotsman, Oberon’s Grove, NYTheatre.com, The Skinny Magazine, World Dance Reviews, Edinburgh Festivals Magazine, Edinburgh Spotlight, Southampton Press, Stage Buddy, East Hampton Press, The Sun Journal, Broadway Baby, and Earth Press, among others. She has received the Choreographic Fellowship from SummerStages Dance Festival and ICA Boston and the American Dance Guild Fellowship for Jacob’s Pillow’s Choreographers’ Lab. Teresa has received grants for her work from The National Endowment for the Arts Window Award, O’Donnell Green Foundation for Music and Dance, Brooklyn Arts Council Community Arts Fund Grant, The New York Community Trust, and space grants from ITE-Inception to Exhibition, MANA Arts/Armitage Gone! Dance, Mount Tremper Arts, Field FAR Space, and at Triskelion Arts and Mark Morris Dance Center through the Mellon Foundation. Teresa’s choreography has been commissioned by NYC Department of Transportation’s Summer Streets, chashama, Marigny Opera Contemporary Ballet, Island Moving Company, and The Hudson River Museum via the Jordan Matter Dancers Among Us exhibit. She has led workshops and master classes, and been commissioned to set work at University of Florida, Gainesville, NYU, Pace University, Castleton State College, University of Maine, Farmington, Jacob’s Pillow, Wilson College, and at several NYC and national performing arts schools. She has taught regularly at The Ailey School, Sarah Lawrence College, DreamYard Project, and Marquis Studios, and she is a faculty member and director of the Summer Dance Program at The Ross School.

Teresa was named Artistic Liaison between Cameroon & U.S. by president Paul Biya, while performing with National Ballet du Cameroun and at the National Soccer Cup Finals. She has performed for Lucinda Childs, Sarah Skaggs, Kimberly Young, M’Bewe Escobar, Skip Costa, and Martha Bowers, and she has performed works by Twyla Tharp, Deganit Shemy, Liz Lerman, and Megan Boyd, among others. Teresa completed a Dance MFA from Sarah Lawrence under Bessie Schonberg Scholarship, Certificate from the Ailey School under scholarship, and BA in French & English Literature, with a minor in dance from NYU as a merit scholar.