Jane Comfort: 40th Anniversary Retrospective
Choreographed by Jane Comfort
Presented in association with Lumberyard
Jane Comfort and Company celebrates 40 years of making dance with an Anniversary Retrospective concert. Twenty-three former and current company members gather to recreate excerpts of works spanning from 1978 to 2018, including such favorites as the provocative take on the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearings from S/He, scenes from the Bessie award-winning Underground River, archival videos and much more. This performance contains brief nudity.
Performers:
Nancy Alfaro, Heather Christian, Jane Comfort, Leslie Cyjet, Mark Dendy, Sean Donovan, Paul Hamilton,
Julis Hollingsworth, Cori Marquis, Stephanie McKay, David Neumann, Stephen Nunley, Javier Perez,
Christina Redd, Gabrielle Revlock, Peter Sciscioli, Cynthia Svigals, Petra van Noort, Brandon Washington, Edisa Weeks and Darrin Wright
Jane Comfort: Artistic Director
Joe Levasseur: Lighting Design
Lianne Arnold: Video Design
Alexandra Nikolchev and Sean Donovan: Documentary Video
Liz Prince: Costume Design
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Jane Comfort is a choreographer, writer and director known for issue-oriented works integrating text and movement. Since 1978 she has created over 60 dance/theater works, most of them evening-length, that have been presented throughout the United States, Europe and Latin America. Called by the New York Times “a postmodernist pioneer in the use of verbal material in dance,” artistic director Jane Comfort addresses contemporary social and cultural issues with compassion and wit.
Her company, Jane Comfort and Company, is an extraordinary group of dancers, actors and singers whose multiple talents allow her to create deeply layered works utilizing a wide range of theatrical elements. The Village Voice said, “Few of Comfort’s peers who are into dance drama have her gift for melding singing, vocalizing, speech and movement into an inseparable whole…Words, music and movement seethe together; united, their rhythms whirl the morsels of meaning into life stories.” The company creates theater in which transformation occurs through many voices.
LUMBERYARD Contemporary Performing Arts is the only organization in the United States dedicated to providing technical residencies that culminate in out-of-town premieres. LUMBERYARD’s work ensures that artists receive sufficient technical support for their new works, theaters benefit by presenting work that is ready for the public and audiences see adventurous and technically exciting new work.
Cover Photo by Renee Graubart (1978)
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“For 40 years, Ms. Comfort has made compelling dance dramas that investigate timely issues while experimenting with ingredients like spoken text and polyrhythms. She celebrates this impressive anniversary with a retrospective that samples from her large repertory, featuring a vast cast of former and current company dancers.” – Brian Schaefer, The New York Times
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